By Mindy Ragan Wood
Staff Writer
Republicans dominated election night in Canadian County as voters made their voices heard at the polls Tuesday
House District 47 Republican candidate Brian Hill handily won with 66.7 percent of the vote against Sarah Carnes with 33.3 percent. The final tally is not the end of the race for Hill and Carnes.
“I spent time with her and her husband and their two lovely daughters this morning,” Hill said. “We are looking forward to working together for Oklahoma. She has a great heart, she’s one of our local Mustang teachers and she’s a wonderful person. I feel like we’re going to have a solid future working together.”
Hill said the race was a clean one for the two and he looked forward to working with Carnes.
“If two people are passionate about making a difference, if they will be kind and amicable, isn’t that what it should be? Yes, we did have different views but at the end of the day we want a bright future for our kids. We want the same things and if we can work together, we can get it accomplished,” he said.
Carnes did not return a call at press time.
Meanwhile, in House District 41 Denise Crosswhite Hader was in a tight race at the start with early voting against Democrat Jennie Scott. Hader finished strong with 66.6 percent of the vote against Scott’s 33.3 percent.
Hader, whose husband Marc Hader also will retain his seat as Canadian County commissioner, said it was a long road to victory.
“It is very fulfilling, but it’s taken awhile to get here. We started almost a year and half ago,” Hader said.
She commended Scott on a tough campaign.
“There were some stark differences between us and I think the voters could see that,” Hader said.
The new state representative said there’s not much time to rest.
“Next week is swearing in and then legislation ideas have to be submitted by Dec. 7,” she said. “A lot of people don’t realize how quickly this all happens.”
Hader doesn’t have any legislation ideas to pitch yet, but said she is requesting to be placed on committees consistent with her priorities.
“Infrastructure, transportation and administrative rules,” she said. “When you say that (administrative rules) people’s eyes just glaze over until I mention medical marijuana. That (medial marijuana) already has a committee working on that, but the idea that every agency has that authority…it’s important and it’s not fun but it’s needed.”
Scott did not return a call at press time.
