Nathan Dahm in striking distance of runoff

State Sen. Nathan Dahm is within striking distance of making it into the runoff for U. S. Senator Jim Inhofe's unexpired term, according to a new Sooner Poll of the Oklahoma Republican primary. Oklahoma conservatives are beginning to coalesce behind the Broken Arrow legislator.

The poll shows U. S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin with 38.7%, Chickasaw Nation bank CEO T. W. Shannon with 13%, Nathan Dahm with 8.1%, Inhofe chief of staff Luke Holland at 5%, Scott Pruitt at 2.4, Alex Gray at 1.8%, and Dr. Randy Grellner at 1%.

Mullin has protected his lead with the Joe Biden strategy of hiding and avoiding questions. He has skipped two televised debates, claiming congressional business and refusing even to participate remotely from Washington.

Dahm, Pruitt, and Gray have all expressed support for a clear and effective remedy for the legal chaos created by the U. S. Supreme Court's McGirt decision, namely disestablishment of the "reservations" that Justice Neil Gorsuch claims were never abolished. Gray has suspended his campaign, and Pruitt came into the race at the last minute and has struggled to build a following or campaign funds. If supporters of Pruitt, Gray, and Grellner were to back Dahm instead, a supporter of disestablishment would make the runoff. Mullin and Shannon are both publicly committed to endless legal ambiguity to the detriment of ordinary Oklahomans (both tribal members and not) and to the benefit of casino-fueled petty fiefdoms.

(Under disestablishment, tribal governments would return to their role prior to McGirt -- managing revenue generated by casinos and other businesses for the benefit of tribal citizens and overseeing land held in trust. Disestablishment would eliminate the ambiguous sovereignty status created by McGirt, in which the territorial sovereign of a place depends on the ancestry of the people present and the activities in which they are engaged.)