Hern wins Oklahoma GOP congressional primary after lopsided funding battle

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Rep. Kevin Hern won the Republican primary for Oklahoma's First Congressional District, ending a lopsided fundraising battle, according to the Associated Press. Hern will face Dennis Baker who was ahead of his closest primary opponent by about 8% when the Associated Press called the race.

The battle for the seat pitted Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., who has held the seat for six years, and Paul Royse, who ran on a platform his campaign boasted was "against Trump," including plans to make "drastic cuts" to both Social Security and Medicare.

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Republican Study Committee Chairman Kevin Hern, R-Okla. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Hern has been a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump and was nominated for Speaker of the House last January as a protest of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. The incumbent expressed interest in seeking the nomination for Speaker in October before withdrawing himself from consideration. He then announced his desire to seek the nomination again after Reps. Steve Scalise, R-La., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, dropped out of the race.

The race featured one of the more lopsided funding battles of any primary across the country, with Hern raising nearly $1.6 million, according to Federal Election Commission data. Royse, meanwhile, did not file any campaign finance disclosures with the FEC.

Members of the House of Representatives voting to elect a speaker in Oct. 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Hern will now advance to November's general election, where he will face off with either Evelyn Rogers, who has sought the seat in previous elections as an independent but is running as a Democrat in 2024 and former FBI agent Dennis Baker.

U.S. Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) speaks to reporters as he leaves a House Republican candidates forum where congressmen who are running for Speaker of the House presented their platforms in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill on October 23, 2023, in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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Oklahoma's First Congressional District has been solidly Republican for decades, with former Rep. James R. Jones being the last Democrat to win the seat in 1984.