For conservatives, we need real results more than ever. Rhetoric sounds good, but Washington is in desperate need of folks who can get things done rather than just talking the talk in an election year.
Walking the walk is the Oklahoma way.
I was first elected to the statehouse in 2012. A political outsider and underdog, I swore off lobbyist and PAC dollars from day one and instead did things the old fashioned way – handshakes and shoe leather. I’m proud to say that I visited over 13,000 homes in my district, listening and learning, en route to becoming the only challenger to defeat an Oklahoma legislative incumbent that cycle.
That was despite my moderate opponent who’d been in office for eight years starting the campaign with a six-figure war chest. We won because the citizens of our district wanted principled leadership.
Since that time, I’ve kept on fighting as a bold, next-generation conservative.
I said ‘No’ to the state House budget in 2013 because we just couldn’t afford it. We need to be stopping big government in its tracks, cutting taxes, and unleashing the economic engine instead of expanding all the things that have slowed us down in the first place.
I authored a law stopping ratepayer subsidies for solar power generation, better known as “net metering,’ because it’s not government’s job to use our money for corporate welfare – the market can take care of itself. It was hailed as one of the first major accomplishments in this arena nationally.
And I took the fight to gun-grabbers who would strip away our Constitutional rights through bureaucracy and regulation, and made history doing so. I co-authored legislation to safeguard the rights of law-abiding gun owners in our state from backdoor ATF regulators. It met the governor’s veto pen, but that didn’t stop us.
For the first time, Governor Fallin was overridden. For the first time in over 50 years, a Republican governor’s veto was shot down, and for the first time in over 30 a non-abortion issue was overridden. It was also the first override of a governor of the same party as the legislative majority in over 30 years.
We went to bat for our rights and we delivered. Because of it, the Oklahomans’ right to keep and bear arms is more secure than ever.
Political arm-twisting had no sway on me any time then and it won’t in Congress now.
If given the chance, I’ll go up there with the same can-do conservative attitude. The time for weak pastels and lukewarm representation is over and done with. Washington needs aggressive leadership, fresh ideas backed by the timeless principles our nation was founded on, and a shot of Oklahoma common-sense, not more of the same.
I’ll say no to more gun regulations, regardless of what party they are coming from. The Constitution will never be up for compromise on my watch. I’ll fight for life and the conservative values that have made Oklahoma, and America, great. And I won’t support another blank check for the bureaucrats who’ve shown that spending our money is about all they’re good for.
I’ve got the track record to back those words up. At 27, I’ve seen what Washington’s regulatory hammer is doing to our economy in the private sector and to my generation’s future. It can’t be allowed to stand any longer.
Delivering conservative results is what I’ve done and will continue to do. We made history in Oklahoma; we can do it again in Washington.
Mike Turner is an Oklahoma state representative and a Republican candidate for the fifth congressional district.