Oklahoma Democrats Elect Youngest Chairperson In State’s History

<p>The Oklahoma Democratic Party made history by electing the youngest chairperson in state history.</p>

Sunday, June 11th 2017, 7:14 pm

By: News 9


The Oklahoma Democratic Party made history by electing the youngest chairperson in state history. Anna Langthorn, 24, assumed her role as the Democratic Party chair last month.

Langthorn said she's ready for the challenge and thinks her youth and experiences are on her side to help flip party seats at the Capitol and across the state.

“Seeing it actually happen on the floor was very exciting and rewarding,” Langthorn said on being elected as the Democratic Party Chair. “I felt that I absolutely could do it that i have both the experience and the skills and the intelligence to do it successfully, the job but whether people would trust me to do it because I am so young, that was really the question.”

She credits the party's desire to get a fresh young face in the position but also her work during her campaign.

“I mostly won rural Oklahoma,” she said. “Those are the places where hospitals are closing and bridges are falling down and schools are shutting down and going to four days a week, we need to be doing as much work there as we are in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.”

Langthorn said she first got the political bug in high school and eventually interned with the Oklahoma Democratic Party. She also served as the president of the Young Democrats of Oklahoma for two years.

She then worked as the campaign manager to elect Kay Floyd, the first openly gay woman to be elected to the state legislature.

“I'm like many young millennials in that I envision this great world of equality and fairness and everybody has a living wage and we're not destroying the planet,” she said.

Her goals are to unite the party at the legislature and across the state. She also wants to connect with voters while recruiting candidates in every seat.

“We're going to be working on rebuilding making sure we are recruiting candidates and ideally in every seat. We may not accomplish that goal but in ideally every seat in the legislature, every seat in Congress, every statewide seat and that those candidates are highly skilled competent qualified candidates who are running really smart campaigns,” Langthorn said. “We’re going to be giving Republicans a run for their money.”

Langthorn will hit the ground running with six special elections coming up, the first in July. She will serve as chair for the next two years.

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