With all precincts reporting Tuesday night, Dillon Travis won the HD 35 Republican runoff election and will advance to a Feb. 10 general election against Democrat Luke Kruse.
Travis is a rancher from Maramec who defeated Mike Waters, a former Pawnee County sheriff, in Tuesday’s runoff. Both Travis and Waters focused their campaigns on rural issues, and they had known one another for years prior to seeking the same office.
Travis handily won Tuesday’s runoff with 1,517 votes (78.3 percent) to Waters’ 421 votes (21.7 percent). Travis carried every precinct in the district, including all 10 precincts in Pawnee County where Waters held office for a decade as a Democrat.
House District 35 is centered on Pawnee County, but it also includes parts of Osage, Creek, Payne and Noble counties. HD 35 represents communities like Cleveland, Hominy, Prue, Oilton, Lawrence Creek, Drumright, Glencoe, Morrison and Red Rock, as well as a square mile around Lakeside Golf Course on the north edge of Stillwater. HD 35 also covers parts of three federally recognized tribal nations: the Osage Nation, the Pawnee Nation and the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians.
Travis faces Kruse as session approaches
The Oklahoma Republican Party has held HD 35 since 1985, making Travis the frontrunner going into the special general election. Some Democratic candidates have found success in special legislative elections, however, and Kruse has been knocking doors throughout the prolonged Republican primary.
“Six volunteers, two days and hundreds of doors in Drumright this weekend,” Kruse, an educator, posted Jan. 11. “Definitely got my cardio in walking the beautiful hills of this town. We’re less than a month out! We’ll be in Pawnee next weekend. If you’ve got time to volunteer, let me know!”
On Election Day, Travis posted on Facebook that he “believes deeply in the values that make rural Oklahoma strong.”
“I’m running to fix our county roads, protect our rural schools, tackle the drug crisis, and stand up for agriculture and our way of life,” Travis said.
The general election between Travis and Kruse is set for Feb. 10. The special election was called by Gov. Kevin Stitt after former Rep. Ty Burns announced his resignation in August following an accelerated plea agreement on domestic violence charges.
If the winner of the February election wants to keep his seat past November, he will have to refile in April for a new two-year term and potentially face a second election within 2026.
Election results are unofficial until approved by the State Election Board.
