By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
Oklahoma Congresswoman Stephanie Bice visited Yukon this week as she campaigns for re-election.
Bice, a Republican from Oklahoma City, represents Oklahoma’s 5th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.
She spent time at BancFirst Yukon, Yukon Sharing, Compassionate Hands, the Yukon Veterans Museum, the Together We Center, the Dale Robertson Center, and Yukon Mobile Meals on Tuesday morning, Oct. 18 during her Yukon visit.
Oklahoma’s 5th congressional district will include Yukon starting in January 2023 when redrawn legislative boundaries take effect.
“This is a weird time for campaigns,” Rep. Bice explained to her Yukon audience. “Because with redistricting, I actually don’t represent the Yukon area until January.
“You all get the opportunity to vote for me, but I can’t technically take on any casework or any issue sets until January. … I’m happy to chat about issues. I love that.”
Bice has represented Oklahoma’s 5th congressional district since January 2021 after defeating incumbent Democrat Kendra Horn in the November 2020 election.
Rep. Bice defeated Subrina Banks, 24,820-11,830, in the June 28th Republican primary for U.S. House Oklahoma District 5.
She faces Democrat challenger Joshua Harris-Till and Independent David Frosch in the Nov. 8th general election.
The former state senator said looks forward to serving Yukon again starting in January 2023 when the next two-year congressional term begins.
Bice spent six years as Oklahoma District 22 senator before joining Congress.
ECONOMY, JOBS, INFLATION
Rep. Bice said the issues she is hearing about most from constituents are the economy, the workforce and cost of goods.
She touched on a myriad of these and other topics during her Tuesday morning Yukon stop, notably:
Rising inflation, veterans’ and senior issues, criminal justice/sentencing reform, housing prices, rising interest rates, prescription drug costs, a depleted U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), high fuel prices, school enrollment, charitable giving, marijuana legalization, and municipal water and infrastructure challenges.
Bice shared an eye-opening fact about a federal Transportation bill that includes $66 million for electric vehicle charging stations in the State of Oklahoma.
Yet there are fewer than 7,000 electric vehicles in the state.
She believes the Biden Administration – in pushing for electrification – is “putting the cart before the horse” while negatively impacting the oil and gas industry.
“It’s death by a thousand cuts,” Bice said. “It is canceling pipelines. It is pulling permitting. It is delaying pipeline permitting.”
Rep. Bice is confident the Republicans will win back the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, but she’s not sure the GOP will be able to wrestle control of the Senate from the Democrats.
“Regardless of what the outcome is – Senate or House – it will not be a veto-proof majority,” she said. “So, we’re still going to have to try to figure out how we mitigate some of the damage that we’ve seen in the last two years.”
