Oklahoma Republican Party

Current structure and composition

The Oklahoma Republican Party headquarters is located on North Lincoln Boulevard in Oklahoma City. Additionally, the state party has a Tulsa office on East 51st Street. They host the biennial state conventions in odd-numbered years, in which they elect executive officers and delegates to the Republican National Committee.

The state party coordinates campaign activities with Republican candidates and county parties and receives some funding from the national GOP organizations.

Territorial period through 1930s

The Oklahoma Republican Party takes its roots from the territorial period, gaining a larger portion of its support from the Northwestern part of the state, where migrants from the state of Kansas brought with them Republican political leanings of the time. For most of Oklahoma history, the Oklahoma Republican Party has the fewest members in the old Indian Territory or the area located in the Southeast.

Republicans held the American presidency during most of the territorial period, resulting in the appointments of Republican territorial governors. Despite the dominance of Republicans as governor and delegate, the two main parties had almost reached parity in the territorial legislature by statehood.

The Republican at the time of statehood in 1907 was not the party of most Oklahomans, but was the party of most African-Americans. Republican A. C. Hamlin was Oklahoma's first black legislator, serving in the first legislature of the new state.

Republicans experienced a short-lived resurgence in the early 1920s, with the election of John W. Harreld in 1920 as the first Republican United States senator for the state of Oklahoma. During this time the Republican Party had gained a majority of the state's seats in United States Congress, attaining five of the nine seats available. The Oklahoma House of Representatives saw their first Republican majority and first Republican Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1921 to 1923. The first female member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives was a Republican.

In the 1928 election, Republicans gained 26 new seats in the Oklahoma House of Representatives due in part to the low popularity of the time of presidential candidate Al Smith and the incumbent governor's stumping on his behalf. With a total of forty-seven seats, they were only five seats from having a majority. With thirteen Democratic members, they elected a coalition Democratic Speaker over the incumbent speaker.

But it was the 1930s or The Great Depression that would prove to be the most troublesome for Republicans in Oklahoma. It was during this time that Republican voters had shifted their support to the revitalized Democratic Party.

Late 20th century

Beginning in the 1960s, the Oklahoma Republican party made gains in voter registration and state legislative seats. Henry Bellmon won election as Oklahoma's first Republican governor in 1962, by appealing to Democratic voters and as an anti-corruption candidate. Only 18 percent of Oklahomans were registered as Republicans at the time.

Bellmon's term helped increase the image of Republicans in Oklahoma. Under his administration, total highway projects increased 46 percent over the previous administration and the first retirement system for state employees was created. Bellmon also oversaw the racial integration of Oklahoma schools and the court-ordered reapportionment of the state electoral districts.

Bellmon won election to the United States Senate in 1968. Republican Don Nickles succeeded Bellmon in 1980.

In 1990, black Republican J.C. Watts was elected as Oklahoma's first black statewide officeholder, serving on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, serving as a member of the commission from 1990 to 1995 and as chairman from 1993 to 1995.

21st century

After the 2004 Presidential Election, Republicans gained control of the Oklahoma House of Representatives for the first time since 1921.

In 2010, Republicans increased their gains in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and took majority control of the Oklahoma Senate. Furthermore, Republicans captured every statewide office and came within six percentage points of capturing the 2nd District (the only Congressional seat that it did not already hold); in 2012 it would capture that seat as well and gain supermajority control of both chambers of the Oklahoma Legislature.

In 2015, the number of registered Republican voters overtook the number of registered Democratic voters for the first time in the state's history (as of January 15, 2015, there are 886,153 registered Republicans, 882,686 registered Democrats, and 261,429 independent voters).

Notable Oklahoma Republicans

Current elected officials

As of 2015 the Oklahoma Republican Party controls all 12 statewide offices and holds supermajorities in both the Oklahoma Senate and the Oklahoma House of Representatives; Republicans also hold both of the state's U.S. Senate seats and all five of the state's U.S. House seats.

U.S. Senate

U.S. House of Representatives

Statewide offices

Legislative leadership

City officials