Oklahoma Freedom Caucus Loses Two More Senators in GOP Runoff Rout

Oklahoma voters ousted two incumbent state senators aligned with the Oklahoma Freedom Caucus in Republican primary runoffs this week, delivering a pair of wins to Senate GOP leadership and further narrowing the far-right faction's influence in the 48-member chamber. In Senate District 34 in Tulsa County, challenger Aaron Forst unseated Freedom Caucus co-founder Dana Prieto by a landslide, while in Senate District 18, covering Canadian County and Yukon, challenger Tyler Herring knocked off incumbent Jack Stewart.

The results, certified Tuesday, showed Forst defeating Prieto 3,406 votes to 1,829, or 65.1% to roughly 35%, according to The Oklahoman. In Senate District 18, Herring topped Stewart 4,354 to 3,593, or 54.8%, a reversal from June, when Herring had actually finished behind Stewart in the initial primary, per OK Politics Today. Both winners now advance to the November 3 general election, where Forst will face Democrat Amy Hossain and Herring will face Democrat Meredith McGinnis, according to Oklahoma Voice.

A Summer of Setbacks for the Far-Right Bloc

Stewart and Prieto's losses cap what has become a rough stretch for the Oklahoma Freedom Caucus, a far-right coalition of lawmakers that has repeatedly derailed Senate proposals backed by more moderate Republican leadership. The caucus's troubles began in June, when Vice Chairman Sen. Dusty Deevers finished third in his own Senate District 32 primary and failed to even make it to a runoff, according to The Frontier's reporting on the caucus's failed bid to take over the legislature. That same June round saw all seven incumbent Senate Republicans challenged by Freedom Caucus-backed candidates hold onto their seats, thwarting the group's strategy of expanding its voting bloc, the same OK Politics Today report notes.

The caucus was officially launched on September 3, 2024, as an Oklahoma affiliate of the national State Freedom Caucus Network, co-founded by state Senators Shane Jett, Dusty Deevers, and Dana Prieto alongside Representative Jim Olsen, according to OU Daily. Hoodline previously covered a related skirmish in a Senate Whip primary fight, where a Freedom Caucus-backed challenger tried and failed to unseat Senate Whip Bill Coleman in Senate District 10.

Leadership Clash Set the Stage

Tensions between the caucus and Senate leadership had already boiled over months before the runoffs. In February, Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton stripped caucus Chairman Shane Jett of two committee assignments and his floor presiding duties, accusing Jett of self-promotion and stalling Senate business, per The Frontier's reporting on the power struggle. That rift played out against a backdrop of a chamber where Republicans already held a commanding 40-to-8 supermajority over Democrats heading into the 2026 cycle, according to Ballotpedia.

Because Oklahoma runs closed primaries, only registered Republicans were eligible to vote in Tuesday's runoffs, which were triggered under state election law because no candidate had cleared 50% outright in June, according to Oklahoma.gov. Those structural rules, combined with the state's status as the first in the nation to impose legislative term limits after voters passed State Question 632 in 1990, according to the Oklahoma Policy Institute, shape a legislature where turnover is common but factional control still hinges on primary-day math.

What the Losses Mean for November

With Prieto and Stewart gone and Deevers already eliminated in June, the caucus's presence in the Senate has shrunk considerably heading into the fall, according to the same OK Politics Today account of the runoff results. Reporting from States Newsroom framed the broader dynamic as one where mainstream “governing Republicans” convinced primary voters to reject obstructionist tactics, restoring a measure of ideological cohesion to Senate GOP leadership ahead of November.

Forst and Herring now turn to general election matchups against Hossain and McGinnis, respectively, in districts that have leaned Republican in past cycles. Whether the caucus regroups or continues losing ground will likely become clearer once the new Senate convenes, but for now, its co-founders and top leadership have taken direct hits at the ballot box two election cycles in a row.