Obama wins Oklahoma Democrat primary but doesn't take all delegates
BY WAYNE GREENE World Senior Writer
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
3/06/12 at 9:55 PM
President Barack Obama won Tuesday’s Oklahoma Democrat primary but didn’t appear to sweep all 45 national convention delegates that were in play.
With 1,804 of the state’s 1,961 precincts reporting, Obama had 56.43 percent of the vote. Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry had 18.16 percent, getting over the 15 percent threshold for delegations to the convention. Perennial candidate Jim Rogers had 14.17 percent, just short of qualifying for the 16 delegates decided on the statewide vote.
Preliminary unofficial results showed Terry and Rogers over the 15 percent threshold in three of the state’s five congressional districts, potentially qualifying both for the 29 national delegates decided on a district level.
Tulsa County Democrat Chairwoman Judy Eason McIntyre said Obama won Oklahoma’s vote Tuesday and will win the national election in November.
“President Obama is going to win. He may not win Oklahoma, but he’s going to win,” she said.
Terry was ebullient with the results.
“There are still Democrats who love innocent babies more than they love the party,” he said from his Tulsa campaign office. “(Obama’s) policies of murdering babies is going to deny him the White House.”
Terry promised to torment Obama in the upcoming New Jersey primary, take delegates to the national convention to voice a pro-life agenda, and run on the general election ballot in six swing states.
In Tulsa County, Obama’s victory was more decisive. He got 81.35 percent of the vote with 138 of the county’s 263 precincts counted.
Democrat turnout in Tuesday’s election was light. With only 157 precincts unreported, only 104,700 votes had been counted, putting this on pace to be the lowest Democrat turnout since the state started having presidential primaries in 1988. The 2008 Democrat primary brought 417,207 people to the polls.
Oklahoma will have 50 delegates to the national Democratic convention, but five of those delegates — those reserved for U.S. Rep. Dan Boren, the national committeeman, the national committeewoman, the state party chairman and the state party chairwoman — were not decided by Tuesday’s votes. Those delegates go to the convention as uncommitted.
Associated Images:
President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference at the White House on Tuesday. The incumbent won the Democrat primary for president in Oklahoma and other states that voted on Super Tuesday. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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