Conservatives have been frustrated that their elected representatives from conservative states often go to Washington and abandon everything they promised to do while on the campaign trail.
Oklahoma Senate candidate T.W. Shannon believes his record will convince Oklahomans that he will not abandon his conservatism and his vote won’t be for sale.
Appearing on Breitbart News Saturday on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125, Shannon, the former Oklahoma House Speaker who is running for Sen. Tom Coburn’s Senate seat, said his campaign has closed a 35-point deficit to single digits because Oklahomans are realizing that he is the only candidate in the race that has a proven record of standing up to the political establishment in favor of conservative politics.
Shannon has the endorsement of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose signature issues are fighting against crony capitalism and the permanent political class, to assure Oklahomans they can trust him not to sell out once he gets to Washington.
Speaking to co-hosts Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon, Shannon said a prominent reason he earned the endorsement of Palin, who has a 78% favorable rating in Oklahoma and whose endorsement makes the most impact in GOP primaries, is because he has proven he does not fall victim to the “seduction of the craft”–even when he was Speaker of the state legislature.
He said Palin, who he called the most exciting figure in the conservative movement, gave his campaign a “huge boost in the arm” with her endorsement. Shannon said the buzz that comes with Palin’s endorsement has made a difference on the campaign trail in helping get his conservative record out to more of Oklahoma’s voters.
He said it is so easy for politicians to get seduced once they attain power to go against “their constituents and the very principles that got them elected.” He emphasized that when he was elected by conservatives to lead the most conservative chamber in the United States, he did not “fall in line with the establishment” in order to cut taxes and reject more debt.
“There was a huge temptation to take out the credit card,” Shannon said. “We said no.”
Palin trusts Shannon to go to Washington to stand up to the permanent political class because of what he has done as Oklahoma’s House Speaker, in which he led a movement to force the state government to live within its means to reduce the debt and even pass significant welfare reform.
He said because of the country’s debt, America’s friends “don’t trust us and our enemies don’t fear us” because they question the country’s ability to maintain its military strength in case of armed conflicts. In addition, he said that if countries drop the dollar as a reserve currency en masse, a day of reckoning could soon come. That is why he wants to go to Washington to help the country change course and why the debt is a huge national security issue in his mind.
In previous speeches, Shannon has said that he would not be a “manager” who is simply content to manage the decline of America but would be someone who would fight against both establishments to turn the country around. He said he was optimistic that the country was “on the verge of an economic explosion” because business leaders tell him that their companies have the largest cash reserves in their history, but the proper policies and leadership is needed in Washington, D.C. to unleash that potential.
He said business leaders need to know that “America is open for business again.”
Though he did not directly criticize his opponents, Shannon said that they do not have the record that he has amassed “of saying no to more debt,” leading an effort to nullify Obamacare, and passing welfare reform that required able-bodied recipients of food stamps to work 20 hours a week.
Though he was once trailing Rep. James Lankford (R-OK), who has been accused of being cozy with the D.C. GOP establishment, by 35 points, Shannon now trails him by nine points and has the momentum in the race.
Shannon said that the same principles that compelled Palin to endorse him are why he is surging and what is needed in D.C.
“We have proven that conservative principles are what lead to prosperity,” Shannon said, citing Oklahoma’s low unemployment rate and recent figures that indicate it is one of the top-10 states to which people want to relocate. “That’s what we need to focus on in D.C.”
Breitbart News Saturday can be heard weekly from 10AM to 1PM on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125.
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