Oklahoma Congressional Candidate Delivers Response To President

An Oklahoma political hopeful got a rare opportunity on Saturday.

District 2 Republican Congressional candidate Markwayne Mullin gave the response to President Obama's weekly radio address.

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said he picked Mullin because he understands the struggles of being a small businessman.

Mullin owns a plumbing business in Oklahoma and said he knows first-hand the dramatic affect government regulations can have on small businesses.

"Right now, I spend more than 40 cents of every dollar the company takes in on complying with regulations," Mullin said.

Listen to Obama's weekly radio address 

Listen to Markwayne Mullin's Republican response 

The main message Mullin said he wanted to get across is that Washington needs more representatives and less regulators.

"The Obama administration has 4,000 regulations in the pipeline," Mullin said. "With all that red tape, is it any wonder that jobs are overseas and so many job seekers have stopped looking for work?"

In Obama's weekly address, he said he saved more than a million jobs by recovering the car industry.

"We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt," Obama said. "I bet on American workers and American ingenuity, and three years later, that bet is paying off in a big way."

Mullin said the national exposure was a humbling experience.

"We've been sharing this all across Oklahoma, but it's all across the nation," Mullin said. "All of us feel the same way. We want to go to work. We just can't."

Mullin's opponent, Rob Wallace, believes this is a sign of which team Mullin really supports.

"You don't get to do that without having cut a deal with folks in Washington and those people up there don't have our interest in mind," Wallace said. "Sounds like to me he's made a deal with the forces in Washington and that's what I'm trying to fight."

District 2 serves one-fourth of the state, on the far eastern side from Miami to Durant. It is currently held by Dan Boren, and is the only congressional spot held by a Democrat in Oklahoma.