Candidates for Tulsa’s 79th District reach out to independents

The contested Tulsa congressional district is up for re-election again.

Residential District 79 is primarily located between Yale Avenue, Mingo Road, and 41st and 71st Streets. He is represented in the House by Democrat Melissa Provenzano, who has won the district by four percentage points or less since 2018.

Provenzano, a former Tulsa Public Schools administrator, will face engineer Paul Hassink, a Republican, as he will in 2022.

Hassink says winning independent voters is key to winning the mandate.

“The most important message is: ‘Overall, we’re not happy with the situation, okay?’ There is a lot of concern about how the country is developing,” Hassink said.

Hassink said independent voters he spoke with were particularly concerned about the security of the United States’ southern border. He said it “translates to crime and there is a high degree of concern about crime.”

Oklahoma lawmakers used similar arguments when they passed a bill this year making unauthorized immigration a misdemeanor. It is currently unenforceable because the Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the state, arguing that the law is unconstitutional.

“The country is moving in a direction that Oklahoma cannot stop, at least without significant level of intervention from other states to communicate this at the federal level,” Hassink said, adding that he is using this moment to encourage voters to make a choice first . their voices were heard on statewide issues.

Provenzano said she also talks to her district’s independents, but said she hears a different message when she talks to them.

“They were so tired of the extremes on both ends of the mainstream, and I explained it as, ‘You know, 95 percent of what comes into the House of Representatives, we all agree on, whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican,'” she said. said.

Provenzano said independents are most concerned about education.

“Their biggest concern is, ‘What are you doing to our public schools to make them better?’ To put it bluntly: “What are you doing with Ryan Walters?” Public schools don’t seem to be in his best interest.”