In the race to fill the US Senate seat being defended by Jim Inhofe, three independent candidates are hoping to sway votes to their side.
None of them have much campaign money, but the freedom to avoid affiliation with a major political party allows them to get out the vote however they want.
Three very different people are hoping to play the role of spoiler when voters head to the polls in less than a month.
59-year-old business consultant Joan Farr tossed her hat in the ring because she says there needs to be more women, Christians and regular people in the Senate.
She’s also hoping to be Oklahoma’s first woman in the upper chamber.
The self-proclaimed conservative isn’t tied to any one party, but she has some ideas of what she would like to get done in Washington, DC.
“I want to do CPR on our country. Challenge Congress to give government back to the people. “P” is for protect and maintain quality of life, and “R” is for reducing our debt.”
Farr considered joining the Tea Party Republicans, but says she will let Oklahomans decide who she’ll caucus with when she gets to the Senate.
To get her message out, she’s been trying to raise money on her website.
“As a matter of fact, my donation button and my contact button have been blocked on my website somehow, and so we are traveling all over Oklahoma. We go door to door. Try to let people know that I’m running.”
Joan’s not the only candidate tied to the conservative wing.
79-year-old Ray Woods always considered himself an independent, but registered as a Republican to vote for Ron Paul.
After a disappointing experience at the state party convention a few years back, he returned to being an independent.
Woods wants to get to the Senate to push an amendment he’s calling “Reboot the Constitution”.
He says it would remove all federal laws outside of the scope of the constitution and allow states to have complete control.
“We’ve got 50 extremely strong, solvent states that can pretty much take care of themselves. Our difficulty is where we are having to give so much to the federal government it’s starting to hurt us.”
Woods says his amendment would also reestablish the separation of powers in the three branches of government.
Having no war chest for campaign funding, he’s talking to newspaper editors and traveling to universities across the state.
“Hopefully we can get enough interest among the young people to make enough noise and things to let people know who I am so when they go on the Internet they can look at what I’m proposing.”
But, the youth vote might already be taken by a young man living in Texas.
30-year-old Aaron DeLozier spent most of his life in Oklahoma, but now works as a call center technician in Wichita Falls.
Aaron says he wants to be a voice for young and disenfranchised voters.
“This isn’t just one thing where I feel that there’s been a slight or an overstep or something that has been completely missed. It’s more about policy making. The constant ignoring of the American people and just wanting to change it.”
Like the other two, Aaron has no money for his campaign, and as a full time employee has no time to travel around, so he’s educating voters through You Tube.
“Short videos about why I want to run, why I’m the best choice, and what I will do if elected. And, really just give people an idea of, ok, that’s what this person stands for.”
Aaron says he’s also going to use his you tube channel and a website to get people more civically involved in politics.
The general election is set for November 4, with early voting to start on October 30.
