Few Women Running For Public Office In Oklahoma

We are seeing a record number of candidates running for public office in Oklahoma, and that could lead to record voter turnout Tuesday. 

And while the number of female candidates is up, there are still many more men running for office than women.

"We were expecting a large number of candidates, which would have been around six hundred or a little more than that. Instead, we had around 800 candidates file which is a modern record,” said Board of Elections Secretary Paul Ziriax.

With a significant increase in early and mail in voting, coupled with high profile races and hot button issues like medical marijuana, don’t be surprised if we see record voter turnout.

What we aren’t seeing are record numbers of women running.

Representative Leslie Osborn (R) Mustang successfully ran for the House five times and is now running for labor commissioner. Osborn is running against Cathy Costello.

Osborn says it’s disappointing to see how few women are running.

"You know traditionally Oklahoma has a very low number of women and I've said since I've run for the house several times and now statewide office it's really not that women can't win,” said Osborn. “It's that women don't run."

For example, women only make up 29 percent of the candidates running for the state legislature.

"I think it's because we're a Bible based, stay home with your kids kind of state. I myself waited until my kids were almost to college age before I ran,” said Osborn.

Osborn’s advice to women. Run. She says the state Capitol isn’t the boys club people think it is.

"I would call the percentage of men that didn't want to work with me under five percent. And that's the honest truth. Never felt a glass ceiling in this building. And that's why I say women need to get out there and file. You can be successful. It's not necessarily an old boys club it's just that women don't run,” said Osborn.