Former state Senator Brian Bingman walked away Tuesday with the Republican nomination for Corporation Commission, receiving more than 53% of the more than 236,000 votes cast in Oklahoma’s only state-wide election in the primary.
As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, two hours after the polls closed, Bingman, who resigned last fall as Secretary of State to run for the office received 53.42% or a total of 126,280 votes in the three-man race. It was the second time Bingman ran for the Corporation Commission, having lost in 2018 to current commissioner Bob Anthony.
Union representative Justin Hornback received the second highest number of votes with 28.68% or 67,952 votes.
The third candidate, former longtime energy journalist Russell Ray, received 17.89% or 42,295 votes.
A total of 236,272 votes were cast in the race. Election day tallies included 111,164 votes for Bingman, 37,119 for Ray and 59,952 for Hornback. At least 8,723 absentee votes were cast in the election and another 19,414 were early votes.
Bingman now must face Democrat Harold Spradling and Libertarian Chad Williams in the general election. Spradling and Williams were the only candidates representing their parties.
The winner will replace Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony who is term limited for the first time since he was elected in 1988. He has served six consecutive six-year terms on the commission. His election in 1988 made him the first Republican elected to the commission in 60 years and in 1994, he became the first GOP incumbent in Oklahoma history to win statewide re-election to a state office.
In 2000 he was re-elected, receiving more votes at that time than any candidate for state office in Oklahoma history.
