Voters Speak: Lankford Gets GOP Nomination, Democrats Go To Runoff

Eleven candidates from three parties stepped up as hopefuls after U.S. Senator Tom Coburn announced his resignation in January, 2014. That is two years before the end of his term.

James Lankford and T.W. Shannon were the top Republican candidates, but in the end voters decided Lankford was the man they wanted.

The front runner at the beginning of the day, according to our exclusive polls, spent part of Election Day in Tulsa for Governor Mary Fallin's State of the State Speech.

He campaigned to repeal Obamacare, get rid of Common Core, free businesses from government regulations to add jobs to the economy and cut down on government spending. He also focused on EPA regulations on the energy industry as chairman of the subcommittee on energy policy.

6/22/2014 Related Story: EXCLUSIVE POLL: Lankford Gains Lead Over Shannon Before Primary

Throughout his campaign, Congressman Lankford continued to serve central Oklahomans from his D.C. office.

T.W. Shannon's campaign watch party was at the Tower Hotel. Shannon trailed Lankford by about 9 points, according to our exclusive News On 6 poll from June 19-21. That was with 13 percent of likely Republicans still undecided.

Shannon was also in Tulsa Tuesday afternoon for the governor's speech. The former Oklahoma house speaker from Lawton is a self-proclaimed champion of limited government. He was first elected to the State House of Representatives in 2006.

Randy Brogdon, Andy Craig, Kevin Crow, Eric McCray and Jason Weger are also in the Republican primary for Coburn's seat.

Democrats Connie Johnson, Patrick Hayes and Jim Rogers hoped their party would send them on to the general election. No candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, so Johnson and Rogers will advance to a runoff election.

Lankford and the winner of the runoff election between Johnson and Rogers will also see Independent candidate, Mark Beard, on the ballot in November.