Oklahoma
Election results: Voters pick new OKC, Tulsa-area representatives in three House races
Oklahoma Legislature: How to contact your representative
Have you ever wondered how to contact your representative? Here’s what to know.
The polls have closed on three legislative races to fill vacant seats in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, including one in Oklahoma City that will now be held by a former district judge.
House lawmakers finished this year’s session with empty seats after three members resigned to take other jobs. The seats were filled in special elections held in Oklahoma County and the Tulsa area. The state Senate filled its own vacancy in May with the election of Republican Bryan Logan, who is the new state senator for a district in eastern Oklahoma.
The political balance of the Oklahoma House of Representatives won’t change much, if at all. Each of the winners during the Tuesday, June 10 election are the same party as their predecessor, meaning neither party lost a seat. The special election leaves the House with 81 Republicans and 20 Democrats.
Former district judge elected representative in Oklahoma City
Former District Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons was victorious in the special election to fill a seat vacated in April by recently elected Oklahoma County Commissioner Jason Lowe.
Timmons defeated JeKia Harrison in the Democratic primary with 59% of the vote, according to results posted by the Oklahoma State Election Board.
This primary was a winner-take-all election. No Republicans or independents filed for the open House of Representatives seat. District 97 includes portions of far northeast Oklahoma City, plus the metro-area communities of Spencer, Lake Aluma and Forest Park. The district also includes voters in parts of Jones and Midwest City.
Timmons, 64, was an elected Oklahoma County district judge for about a decade before she retired from the position in March. Before joining the bench in 2014, she was an attorney working on civil rights and employment law, and also worked for a time in the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office.
Timmons is a graduate of OKC’s John Marshall High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Oklahoma State University. She obtained her law degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Law.
Harrison, 35, has worked at the Oklahoma State Capitol as a legislative assistant for Tulsa state Rep. Meloyde Blancett. Harrison previously worked as child welfare specialist for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services and also owns a political campaign consulting business called Pen 2 Paper Consulting.
Urban Tulsa seat decided during June 10 special election
House District 71 is a sliver of land along the Arkansas River in south Tulsa. The seat became vacant after the resignation of Democratic state Rep. Amanda Swope, who left state government to work for the city of Tulsa.
In the district’s special election, Democrat Amanda Clinton won by a wide margin over Republican attorney Beverly Atteberry. Clinton secured 85% of the votes.
Clinton, 46, runs a public relations firm and is an adjunct professor at Oklahoma State University. She also sits on boards for Planned Parenthood and the OSU Foundation Board of Governors. Clinton previously said she’s an advocate for reproductive health freedom, access to medical care, clean water and minimizing “state Superintendent Ryan Walters’ impact on public schools.” She is also active in tribal policy.
“District 71 deserves leadership that shows up, speaks truth, and fights like hell for working people, and that’s exactly what I plan to do,” Clinton said in a news release celebrating her victory.
Although once a Republican stronghold, District 71 has been held by a Democrat since 2018.
Longtime Republican seat in Owasso up for grabs
Owasso pastor and Republican nominee Kevin Wayne Norwood was victorious in House District 74.
Norwood defeated Democrat Amy Hossain with about 65% of the vote.
The district straddles Tulsa and Rogers counties in northeastern Oklahoma. Voters have elected a Republican in that district for 25 years. The seat became vacant in December when Mark Vancuren took a job in Tulsa County government.
Norwood, 58, is a pastor and works with community initiatives like Keep Owasso Beautiful and Owasso Cares. Norwood has said he wants to build a vibrant economy, safer communities and strong infrastructure and to give Oklahomans tax relief. His priorities also include revitalizing community main streets, and he criticized the “green energy grift” on his website.
Hossain, 50, is the chief human resources officer Tulsa’s Domestic Violence Intervention Services. She is also the president of the nonprofit Khan Ohana, which works to “break the cycle of poverty among college students.”
Oklahoma
Capture of Nicolas Maduro: What it could mean for Oklahoma
Elite Delta Force captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife about 2 a.m. Saturday morning.
It happened in the Caracas, the capitol of Venezuela.
Social media posts how strikes ordered by President Trump into Venezuela and its military bases.
News 9 political analyst Scott Mitchell said the relationship between the U.S. and Latin America has not always been smooth and adds so many dominos will fall as a result.
“Venezuela is the beachhead for our adversaries that’s Cuba and Russia and China and Iran and it looks as if this latest situation where that they were assembling Iran swift attack boats that was sort of the last straw,” said Mitchell.
Retired war correspondent Mike Boettcher said the planning on capturing Maduro began in mid-December.
He adds Venezuela is a massive oil supplier whose oil has been taken off the market for years because of sanctions.
He has concerns about what comes next.
“That disrupts a lot of things.It even has an effect on the war in Ukraine, as Russia, you know, has used higher oil revenue because Venezuela’s oil was off the market.Oil prices went up.It helps fund the war in Ukraine,” said Boettcher.
The ramifications could even reach Oklahoma.
“China gets a 30 percent discount on the oil.If Venezuela goes for a more legitimate government and the sanctions are lifting, then they’re flooding the oil markets and that means bad news for the Oklahoma economy,” added Mitchell.
Following the capture of Maduro, President Trump said the U.S. will take control of the oil reserves in Venezuela.
Sources also say there are plans from the current administration to recruit American companies to invest billions of dollars in their oil industry.
A verified video shows the current state of Venezuela after the military operation.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State expected to lose talented EDGE to transfer portal
Oklahoma State EDGE Kyran Duhon plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, On3 has learned. Duhon was a member of the 2024 recruiting class.
Duhon spent one year at Oklahoma State, logged 16 total tackles (eight solo) across nine games. He began his career at UTEP, where he had a productive true freshman season, Duhon finished 2024 with 43 total tackles, including seven sacks and two PBUs.
At UTEP, his one season there resulted in second team All-Conference USA honors. He was also named to the On3 True Freshman All-America Team as well as the the Conference USA All-Freshman team.
However, Duhon’s stay in Stillwater didn’t go as expected. Oklahoma State finished the season with a 1-11 record, which included the Cowboys firing longtime head coach Mike Gundy after a 1-2 start. Doug Meacham was named interim head coach but ended the year 0-9.
Eric Morris has since been named as the program’s next head coach. He comes from North Texas, which finished with an 11-2 record and a trip to the American Conference championship game this past season. However, it doesn’t appear that Duhon will be sticking around during the changing of the guard at Oklahoma State this offseason.
Before college, Duhon was the No. 1,706 overall player in the class, and was recruited as the the No. 165 linebacker during the cycle, per the Rivals Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was ranked as the No. 242 overall player out of Texas.
Once the NCAA transfer portal opens on Jan. 2, players can officially enter their names in the NCAA transfer portal and go on to initiate contact with their preferred schools. The portal will be open for 15 days and close on Jan. 16.
Notably, players who are on teams competing in the national championship game are allowed five extra days to make their portal decision. The College Football Playoff championship game will be played on Jan. 19, so the players on those teams will be allowed until Jan. 24 to enter the portal and choose their next school.
To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma man doing target practice in back yard charged in fatal shooting of neighbor
A man in Oklahoma is facing a manslaughter charge after he allegedly shot a woman several blocks from his home while firing a gun he got himself for Christmas at an energy drink can in his back yard.
As told in court documents reviewed by NBC News, the death of Sandra Phelps at the hands of Cody Wayne Adams illustrates how deadly the consequences can be when those engaging in the US’s prevalent gun culture do so unsafely. Adams’s back yard was not equipped to stop bullets from leaving the property and striking unsuspecting people in the surrounding area, according to authorities.
Phelps was sitting under a covered porch with family on Christmas and holding a child in her arms when they heard gunshots north of the house, said an affidavit laying out the circumstances of Adams’s arrest.
“Sandra commented that someone got a new gun for Christmas and then shortly after Sandra said ‘ouch’ and collapsed,” the affidavit said. It said there were no more gunshots after that.
Emergency personnel were dispatched to Phelps’s address at about 3.15pm Thursday, the Stephens county sheriff’s office said in a statement.
“We later received a call stating an individual had just received a gun for Christmas and was target practicing in his backyard and that they believed it would be pointing in the direction of the scene,” the sheriff’s office statement added.
“Investigators went to the reported address and spoke with an individual [who] confirmed he was shooting a target in his back yard and that he had heard that someone has died from a gunshot wound a couple of roads over.”
That individual was Adams, 33, who showed deputies a Red Bull can in his back yard that he had been shooting with his handgun, according to the affidavit justifying his arrest.
Authorities allegedly concluded that the vantage point from where Adams was shooting aligned with the angle of the bullet that killed Phelps. They also determined the home lacked a suitable shooting backstop meant to protect those in the surrounding area from being struck by stray bullets.
“Adams became visibly upset and began to cry” when he learned of Phelps, the affidavit added. He was arrested on a count of first-degree manslaughter and later released on a $100,000 bond.
In the US, unintentional deaths from firearms are a small percentage of gun deaths in the country. But they occur four times more often in the US than in comparable countries – and most involve a handgun.
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