One week after the 2024 election cycle concluded, members of the 2025 Oklahoma State Senate Republican Caucus gathered at the State Capitol for a private vote to nominate a new leader of the Legislature’s upper chamber. Within 30 minutes, the proverbial white smoke of frantic text messages to lobbyists and media revealed the victor of the split GOP election: Sen. Lonnie Paxton was selected as the next president pro tempore of the State Senate.
According to two senators speaking on the condition of anonymity, Paxton defeated Sen. David Bullard (R-Durant) by one vote — 20 to 19 — although internal GOP Caucus leadership election results are typically said to be kept private.
“I am grateful to my fellow members who chose me to lead the Senate moving forward,” Paxton said in a press release. “The Oklahoma Legislature has never been in a better position overall to make changes and pass legislation that benefit Oklahomans. I am excited for this new chapter, and I will work every day to ensure we continue to build on our success. I have learned many lessons during my time in the Senate.”
Bullard provided a statement to NonDoc on the day’s vote.
“While I did not win the pro tem vote, I’m confident that the Senate will tackle big issues for our state and our people,” Bullard said.
The Senate will formally vote on its next president pro tempore on organizational day for the 60th Oklahoma Legislature. Under the Oklahoma Constitution, organizational day is held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January in odd-numbered years, which will be Jan. 7 in 2025. All senators — Republicans and Democrats — vote on the floor for their chamber’s president pro tempore.
Hours after his caucus victory Tuesday, Paxton announced his intended appointment of Sen. Julie Daniels (R-Bartlesville) as Senate floor leader. Paxton said Senate Appropriations and Budget Committee Chairman Chuck Hall (R-Perry) will continue in that position, and he namedSen. John Haste (R-Broken Arrow) as vice chairman of that committee.
“Each of these individuals are experienced lawmakers and will serve in critical roles as the Senate prepares for the upcoming legislative session,” Paxton said in a press release.
Numerous new faces in Oklahoma Senate
For the Senate and Capitol insiders, Tuesday’s news culminated a year’s worth of political jockeying and electoral effects, with new members awaiting their formal swearing in casting ballots in the caucus election. In February, Senate Republicans met behind the same closed doors and designated then-Senate Floor Leader Greg McCortney (R-Ada) as the anticipated president pro tempore for 2025 and 2026.
But as one political dynamic led to another in a tense 2024 session, McCortney lost his June reelection bid to a relatively unknown challenger: Jonathan Wingard, a military veteran who reported raising only $26,100 and who benefited from conservative furor over the Senate’s decision not to vote on an income tax cut and other topics.
In July, the Senate Republican Caucus returned for another leader-designee vote, but this time some of the hardline conservatives who opposed McCortney declined to attend, citing the lame-duck nature of a quarter of the caucus and the pending August runoff and November general elections. With that vote, however, the caucus designated Paxton — an insurance agent who previously served as mayor of Tuttle — as its president pro tempore-to-be.
With elections concluded, that created the matchup between Paxton and Bullard, a fitting pitting of the caucus’ two ideological factions. Bullard has pushed for the Senate to be more conservative on social issues and proposed income tax cuts, while Paxton has urged greater fiscal caution on revenue conversations and has clashed with hardline conservative activists like Don Spencer of the Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association, whose leader once said his members might need to turn to the “ammo box” if they don’t win at the “ballot box.”
Paxton’s one-vote victory comes with one vacancy in an eastern-Oklahoma Senate seat held for years by a Republican. After he was suddenly removed as the Senate’s budget committee chairman, Sen. Roger Thompson (R-Okemah) announced his resignation in June. With Thompson making his resignation effective Nov. 1, Gov. Kevin Stitt chose to delay a special election for Senate District 8 until 2025. Per Stitt’s proclamation, candidate filing is slated for Jan. 6-8, with primary elections March 4, runoff elections (if necessary) April 1, and the general election May 13, about two weeks before the constitutionally required adjournment date for regular session.
The Oklahoma State Senate will include 14 new faces in 2025:
- In District 3, Dr. Julie McIntosh is replacing Sen. Blake “Cowboy” Stephens (R-Tahlequah) after defeating him in an August runoff;
- In District 9, former state Rep. Avery Frix won by default in April as the only person to file for the seat left open by Sen. Dewayne Pemberton (R-Musokgee);
- In District 11, Rep. Regina Goodwin (D-Tulsa) is replacing Sen. Kevin Matthews (D-Tulsa), who was term-limited;
- In District 13, Wingard is replacing McCortney after defeating him in the June primary;
- In District 15, Lisa Standridge is replacing her husband, Sen. Rob Standridge (R-Norman), who was term-limited;
- In District 21, Dr. Randy Grellner is replacing Sen. Tom Dugger (R-Stillwater), who did not seek reelection;
- In District 25, Brian Guthrie, the mayor of Bixby, is replacing Sen. Joe Newhouse (R-Tulsa), who did not seek reelection;
- In District 31, Spencer Kern is replacing Sen. Chris Kidd (R-Waurika), who did not seek reelection;
- In District 33, Broken Arrow Vice Mayor Christi Gillespie is replacing term-limited Sen. Nathan Dahm (R-Broken Arrow);
- In District 37, Aaron Reinhardt of Jenks is replacing Sen. Cody Rogers (R-Tulsa) after defeating him in the June primary;
- In District 43, Kendal Sacchieri of Blanchard is replacing Sen. Jessica Garvin (R-Duncan) after defeating her in the June primary;
- In District 46, Mark Mann of Oklahoma City is replacing term-limited Senate Minority Leader Kay Floyd (D-OKC), who was term-limited;
- In District 47, Kelly Hines of Edmond is replacing Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat (R-OKC), who was term-limited; and
- In District 48, Nikki Nice of Oklahoma City is replacing Sen. George Young (D-OKC), who chose not to run again.
Hilbert set to lead House
While the Senate’s electoral shakeup left its leadership uncertain for months, Oklahoma’s House of Representatives has had plenty of time to plan for the tenure of Speaker-elect Kyle Hilbert (R-Bristow). Hilbert handily won the House GOP Caucus designee election in February, underscoring the body’s massive stability advantage over a Senate that has been defined by internal — albeit mostly hidden — strife in recent years.
Still, House leadership fell shy of throwing a perfect game in the 2024 electoral cycle. Longtime House Appropriations and Budget Committee Chairman Kevin Wallace (R-Wellston) lost his final reelection bid to challenger Jim Shaw, whose criticisms of Wallace, wind energy and human waste application on farmland landed among voters in Lincoln County.
The 60th Oklahoma Legislature is set to convene for the 2025 regular session on Monday, Feb. 3.
(Update: This article was updated at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12, to include additional information about Senate leadership decisions.)
