Oklahoma Elects Lesbian State Senator, Flipping GOP Seat to Dems

Deep-red Oklahoma has elected another lesbian Democrat to its state legislature.

Allison Ikley-Freeman emerged the winner by 31 votes over Republican Brian O'Hara in a Tuesday special election to fill the state Senate seat being vacated by Dan Newberry, also a Republican, who is resigning to take a job in the private sector, NBC News reports. The seat is in District 37, in the western part of Tulsa.

"Her win is the fourth pickup for state Democrats in special elections this year in Republican-dominated Oklahoma, which has seen years of state budget shortfalls and the scandal-fueled resignations of several Republican incumbents," NBC reports.

"The odds were not in our favor, and we knew it, but we knew if we could fight hard, we had a chance," Ikley-Freeman told the network. "It was worth fighting for." She and her campaign workers went door-to-door to meet voters in the district and sent out handwritten postcards.

Ikley-Freeman said her priorities as a state senator will be improving public education, mental health services, police accountability, and aid to the homeless.

The senator-elect, 26, is a therapist at a nonprofit mental health agency. She is married and has three children.

Sen. Kay Floyd, a Democrat from Oklahoma City, was the first out lesbian elected to the legislature. She was elected a state representative in 2012 and senator in 2014. Al McAffrey, a gay man, was the first openly LGBT person to serve in the body. He was elected a state representative in 2008 and state senator in 2012, in the same district as Floyd.

National and local activists praised the election of Ikley-Freeman, who will take office February 1, the day after Newberry's resignation takes effect. "Oklahomans are voting for Democrats in these deep-red districts because they know our candidates will work to resolve the budget crisis facing Oklahomans and help build an economy that works for every working family, not just a wealthy few," Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez told the Washington Blade, adding, "The DNC is proud to have invested in this race and we will continue working with the Oklahoma Democratic Party to elect Democrats up and down the ballot."

Toby Jenkins, executive director of Oklahomans for Equality, called Ikley-Freeman's victory "a huge historic step" and "really inspiring to our young people," according to NBC News. She's "the first openly LGBTQ individual elected to an office in Tulsa County," Jenkins noted, as well as a "no-nonsense person," willing "roll up her sleeves" to do what needs to be done..