The battle for Oklahoma's 5th District Congressional seat has started early. Here's what to know

The November general election may seem far away, but the battle has already started in Oklahoma's 5th Congressional district — the only one Democrats are given a chance of winning. The district comprises much of the Oklahoma City metro area, although not southern communities like Moore and Norman. It's a district that is more urban and ethnically/racially diverse.

The two candidates in the race — incumbent Republican Rep. Stephanie Bice, 50, and Democrat challenger Madison Horn, 34 ― have no opponents in the state's June primary, so they've started their general election race immediately.

Bice took a break from intense congressional activity in Washington, D.C., last week to meet with supporters in Edmond, while Horn was campaigning door to door in OKC's Paseo District.

By all measures, Oklahoma is a state dominated by the Republican party. Former President Donald Trump carried every one of the state's 77 counties in 2020. Both U.S. Senate seats, all five Congressional seats, the governor's office, the attorney general's office and all other statewide positions are held by Republicans. Additionally, the party has an overwhelming majority in the state Legislature.

But Democrats hold out hope that the 5th district could flip back to their party in 2024, as it did in 2018, when Kendra Horn (no relation to Madison) astounded the political establishment with an upset victory over a two-term Republican incumbent, Steve Russell.

Kendra Horn's victory put the district back in the Democratic column for the first time in 44 years, but the cheering didn't last long. Two years later, Stephanie Bice brought the seat back to the GOP.

Kenneth Kickham, professor of political science at the University of Central Oklahoma, suggests that Kendra Horn's triumph may have been less about her position on issues and more about lack of Republican enthusiasm for their incumbent candidate, Steve Russell, and low party turnout.

Madison Horn, a cybersecurity executive from Oklahoma City, challenged Sen. James Lankford in the 2022 election and was clobbered, losing by a 64-32 percent margin, but that was a statewide race. Trump carried the state by an equally lopsided margin in 2020, but in the 5th district Trump's share of the vote was a thinner 51 percent.

In an interview Horn acknowledged her underdog position. Registered Republicans in the 5th district outnumber Democrats 243,000 to 149,000. However, the number of registered independents has been growing, now nearly 100,000 statewide and they could swing the election either way.

"We are a very independent state," Horn said. "What Oklahoman has ever said to you, 'I would like the government to make decisions for me?'"

In particular, Horn is hopeful her positions on general lack of access to health care and on women's health care and reproductive rights will win support for her in a district she believes is more moderate than the state as a whole.

On reproductive rights, she said, "The extremes are dictating the narrative here in Oklahoma."

The key to her campaign, she said, is becoming better known, which means knocking on doors. "My commitment is to outwork my opponent every single day," she said.

Bice, then a state senator considered a moderate, defeated Kendra Horn in 2020 to win back the seat for her party, but not by a wide margin — a little over 4 percent.

Figures from the Federal Election Commission show that through March 31, Bice has raised nearly $1.2 million for her campaign, much more than the $204,000 reported by Horn.

Neither candidate said she expected significant financial support from their respective national parties.

"My hope is that I do a good enough job managing this campaign myself that I don't need the national Republican Congressional Committee to come in," Bice said in an interview.

Bice said working on a bipartisan initiative to pass a nationwide paid family leave law has been a priority for her in Congress. She said she thinks border security and support for the oil and gas industry are the issues most important to voters in the 5th district.

"I hear from my constituents continually," she said. "They are frustrated with the lack of any movement on the border, very frustrated with the (Biden) administration. "We're seeing a huge in increase in the amount of fentanyl coming across the border — enough to kill every American seven times over — and that is a direct result of the lack of the lack of border enforcement."

And, she said, "This administration wants to turn off the fossil fuel industry without having a robust process in place to be able to power the thousands of millions of (electric) vehicles they want to put on the road."

Here is what's happening in the other congressional districts

District 1

One of two "metropolitan" districts in the state, the first congressional district covers mostly Tulsa and its surrounding suburbs, including Broken Arrow, Owasso, Bixby and Jenks. District 1 is currently represented by Kevin Hern, 62, a wealthy Tulsa businessman who owned several McDonald's franchises and other companies. He ran for the seat in 2018 after incumbent Jim Bridenstine was named by former President Donald Trump to be administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

After Hern won the general election in November, then-Gov. Mary Fallin appointed him to fill the remainder of Bridenstine's term. He was reelected in 2020 and 2022. In 2020, Hearn was among 126 Republican members of the House who joined in an unsuccessful lawsuit to contest voting results in Trump's defeat by President Joe Biden. Hern threw his name into the hat in 2023 to become House speaker but later withdrew from the competition.

Hern will be opposed in June's Republican primary election by Paul Royse, 53, a former police officer and security company manager from Tulsa. Royse finished last in the special primary election held in 2023 to fill the seat of Sen. Jim Inhofe, who resigned to spend more time with his family. After a runoff primary election, Markwayne Mullin was elected in the November general election. Royse was also Republican candidate for a state House seat on the east side of Tulsa in 2018. He lost to Democratic Party incumbent Meloyde Blancett by a 59-41 percent margin.

On the Democratic side, Evelyn Rogers, 71, a Tulsa County Community College librarian, is up against Dennis Baker, 69, for the party nomination. Rogers has run for the First Congressional District twice before and also ran for U.S. Senate and Oklahoma House of Representatives in 2012 and 2014. Baker is a former Tulsa Police Department officer and FBI special agent.

Tulsa attorney Mark David Garcia Sanders, 64, is running as an independent.

District 2

Oklahoma's 2nd Congressional District covers roughly one-quarter of the state along the eastern border with Arkansas and Missouri and extending from Kansas to Texas. The district includes Muscogee, Bartlesville and McAlester. Formerly a Democratic stronghold, since 2000 it has been the most strongly Republican district in the state.

The 2nd District gave Trump more support than any other Republican district in Oklahoma in both 2016 and 2020. Incumbent Congressman Josh Brecheen, 44, is only the third Republican to represent the district in the House since 1923. He was first elected in 2022 after five-term Rep. Markwayne Mullin chose to run for the U.S. Senate, a race he won. Brecheen has no opponent in the June primary.

In November, Brecheen will run against Brandon Wade, 47, of Bartlesville, the only Democratic candidate who entered the primary, and Ronnie Hopkins, 67, of Rose, who is running as an independent.

District 3

The 3rd Congressional District is Oklahoma's largest in area. It stretches from the western tip of the Panhandle as far east as Tulsa and as far south as Altus, covering almost half the state's land mass and all or part of 32 counties. Guymon, Enid, Yukon, Guthrie, Stillwater and Ponca City are all in the district, along with slivers of Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

Since 2003, the 3rd District has been represented by Republican Frank Lucas, 64, of Cheyenne. Lucas was first elected to Congress in 1994 to represent the Oklahoma's 6th District, which was eliminated after redistricting to reflect 2000 census numbers. Lucas is the state's longest-serving member of Congress.

The 3rd District is so strongly Republican that no Democrats, Libertarians or independents filed to run against Lucas this year. However, he has two opponents in the June Republican primary: Robyn Lynn Carder, 57, of Stillwater, and Darren Hamilton, 62, of Fort Supply. According to her website, Carder has worked in the managed care industry for 30 years. Hamilton has spent most of his career working with communications satellites, according to his website.

District 4

Oklahoma's 4th Congressional District includes all or part of 15 counties in south-central Oklahoma. It is bordered on Texas in the south and stretches north to include Norman, Moore and much of southern Oklahoma City. Lawton, Ada and Ardmore are also in the district.

Republican incumbent Tom Cole, 74, has represented the district since 2003 and is seeking his 12th term in Congress. Cole was recently named chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. He faces a crowded Republican primary on June 18 with four opponents: Paul Bonday, 44, of Stonewall; Nick Hankins, 38, of Moore; Andrew Hayes, 40, of Lawton, and Rick Whitebear Harris, 73, of Norman

Two Democrats are running in their party's primary to oppose the Republican winner in the general election. Mary Brannon, 72, of Norman, is a retired teacher, and Kody Macaulay, 35, of Moore works in IT at Tinker Air Force Base and is a U.S. Air Force veteran.

James Stacy, 60, of Burneyville is running as an independent. Stacy identifies himself as a capitalist in favor of removing federal restrictions that prevent Oklahoma farmers from exporting marijuana to other states.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Congressional campaigns are starting up in Oklahoma