With a hat tip to the Guru, you should check out this piece on Oklahoma candidate for U.S. Senate, Andrew Rice. I don’t know if Oklahoma is ready to hire someone that hails from their capital city, or someone so young, or someone so liberal, but I sure hope so.
Rice is inoculated against some of the standard charges that Republicans make against Democrats in these red state contests. You can’t argue that Rice is soft on terrorism too effectively because his brother died in the World Trade Center collapse. You can’t argue that he isn’t Christian enough because he is a Harvard Divinity graduate who has dedicated his life to fighting religious extremism.
He’s only 34 years old. Inhofe can use his tender age against him, but Rice can turn that around. It won’t be easy for Rice in a presidential election year. It’s quite likely that Oklahomans will heavily support the GOP nominee. But, even that is not a guarantee.
I’m optimistic that Rice can use his superior energy and enthusiasm, not to mention intellect, to run laps around Inhofe on the campaign trail. I think his candidacy will benefit greatly if Obama is the nominee, as youthful change will be kind of a Democrat brand.
Although we live in TX, my family has roots in the Chickasaw Nation in OK, so I sent this great candidate 25 bucks. After my husband’s campaign last year for TX House, I know how encouraging early money is, so maybe y’all could join me and toss some money over to Andrew Rice’s campaign. This Texan and the people of Oklahoma (which means Red Man in Chickasaw, BTW) will thank you.
thanks for doing that. It would be weird but kinda cool for there to be a Senator that is younger than I am.
For those of you who don’t think a Democrat can win statewide in Oklahoma, note that Democrats won eight of nine statewide offices in Oklahoma’s 2006 election. For those of you who don’t think Oklahomans will elect a 30-something to statewide office, note that Democrat David Boren was elected Governor of Oklahoma and Republican Don Nickles was elected to the U.S. Senate from Oklahoma both before their 35th birthday.