Johnson Upends Okla. Co. Sheriff In GOP Runoff

Tommie Johnson III beat out incumbent PD Taylor for the Republican nomination for Oklahoma County Sheriff on Tuesday with roughly 60% of the vote. 

Johnson, a first-time candidate, ended the night more than 9,000 votes ahead of Taylor in the runoff race. 

Johnson will face Wayland Cubit, an Oklahoma City Police Lieutenant and the Democratic nominee, in the November general election. 

“The first day, if I’m elected, I will be speaking to the guys because there's a lot of institutional knowledge there,” Johnson told News 9 at a campaign watch party. “It's not ‘me’ who gets it done, it's ‘we’ that gets it done. And we push this organization forward." 

Taylor, who won the June primary ahead of Johnson and Mike McCully, was first elected Oklahoma County Sheriff in 2017 and has a law enforcement career that spans more than 40 years. 

Taylor did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. 

Ahead of Tuesday’s election, he said on News 9 that his office is “in the community all the time.” 

Read: Sheriff P.D. Taylor, Tommie Johnson Face Off In Republican Run-Off For Okla. Co. Sheriff

“I think we have the citizen’s trust, we’re not being criticized,” Taylor said. 

Johnson challenged that statement saying the sheriff’s office needs to improve on community outreach. 

“I don’t think the current administration is doing enough to reach out to the partners….They need to know their voice is being heard and we can work together,” Johnson told News 9’s Ashley Holden. 

Part of Johnson’s platform was based on financial responsibility. According to his campaign’s website, he said the sheriff’s office has dealt with “terrible mismanagement.”