Voters To Decide Democrat, Republican Candidates To Fill Bridenstine’s Seat

An exclusive News On 6 poll shows the race to fill former Congressman Jim Bridenstine's open seat is wide-open.

The poll shows former Tulsa County district attorney Tim Harris with 37 percent; 26-percent of those polled support businessman Kevin Hern.

Bridenstine’s seat in the House of Representatives opened after he took over as the head of NASA.

Voters will decide the nominees in both the Democrat and Republican runoffs.

Democrats are choosing between Tulsa attorney Tim Gilpin and Broken Arrow oil and gas consultant Amanda Douglas.

On the Republican side, former long-time Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris is one of the candidates. He spent Tuesday trying to pick up some final by waving signs on the corner at 71st and Yale, where he's campaigned on Election Day in every race he's run.

Harris is used to running for office but said he’s never had an opponent with so much more money to spend.

"It's the old grassroots way of winning campaigns – knocking doors, shoe leather. Meet more people, telling them what you’re gonna do for them. That’s what people wanna hear. Running a positive campaign," he said.

The other candidate on the Republican side of the race is Tulsa businessman Kevin Hern, who also spent Tuesday waving signs working to get voters to the polls. Hern said he started around 6:45 a.m. in south Tulsa and, in between the sign waving, he managed to make about 500 phone calls and send 1,000 texts and emails encouraging people to go vote.

This is the first time Hern has run for office and he’s pushing his business experience to show that he’s the best candidate. He said he’s felt a lot of support from Tulsans.

“It's been kind of scary. People have been stopping in the middle of the street saying, ‘Hey, we voted for you.’ But it's pretty awesome. Pretty special,” Hern said.