Former Rep. Tom Coburn (R.-Okla.), a conservative hero when he served three self-limited terms in the U.S. House, took 61% of the vote in Oklahoma's July 27 Republican Senate primary. Coburn rolled to victory despite entering the race late against the handpicked candidate of the GOP establishment, former Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys.
After the primary, Coburn (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 97%) criticized the Democrat nominee, liberal Rep. Brad Carson (lifetime ACU rating: 42%), who styles himself a conservative Democrat. "I'm someone who has voted conservative, acted conservative, and is conservative," said Coburn. "I'm running against somebody that wants to act that way, but doesn't vote that way and isn't that way." Carson easily won the Democratic primary-boasting of his ability to bring pork home to the Eastern Oklahoma district he inherited when Coburn retired in 2000.
