Molly Ooten
Molly Ooten (Democratic Party) ran in a special election to the Oklahoma State Senate to represent District 22. She lost in the special general election on April 6, 2021.
Ooten completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. Click here to read the survey answers.
Elections
2021
A special election for Oklahoma State Senate District 22 was called for April 6, 2021. A primary took place on February 9, 2021. The candidate filing deadline was December 9, 2020.[1]
The seat became vacant after Stephanie Bice (R) was elected to represent Oklahoma's 5th Congressional District. Her resignation was effective December 31, 2020.[1]
General election
Special general election for Oklahoma State Senate District 22
Jake Merrick defeated Molly Ooten in the special general election for Oklahoma State Senate District 22 on April 6, 2021.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jake Merrick (R) | 65.4 | 7,418 |
 | Molly Ooten (D)  | 34.6 | 3,916 | |
| Total votes: 11,334 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Special Democratic primary for Oklahoma State Senate District 22
Molly Ooten defeated Dylan Billings in the special Democratic primary for Oklahoma State Senate District 22 on February 9, 2021.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Molly Ooten | 72.5 | 1,020 |
 | Dylan Billings | 27.5 | 386 | |
| Total votes: 1,406 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Special Republican primary for Oklahoma State Senate District 22
Jake Merrick defeated Keri Shipley in the special Republican primary for Oklahoma State Senate District 22 on February 9, 2021.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jake Merrick | 58.4 | 2,328 |
 | Keri Shipley | 41.6 | 1,657 | |
| Total votes: 3,985 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Darrick Matthews (R)
- Rob Johnson (R)
Campaign themes
2021
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Molly Ooten completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Ooten's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Since then she has worked in both the adult and pediatric settings, but most notably she has been employed for the last 6 years by Oklahoma County SoonerStart, an early intervention program serving local children and their families. In this role, she has had many leadership opportunities, including providing training and in-service to fellow SoonerStart employees, being a guest lecturer at the University of Central Oklahoma, and presenting at two consecutive state conferences in the field of speech pathology. In 2018 she completed the Partners in Policymaking training, a national program to develop and support advocates for people with disabilities.
She and her husband Michael have been married for 7 years and have two kids, Henry and Mazie. They moved back to Molly's hometown of Edmond and are privileged to be able to live close to both of their extended families. Molly has recently enjoyed serving as a deacon at their church, Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ.- Community - Molly knows what makes our communities great. Small businesses, churches, schools, and families are the heart of Oklahoma. Molly will fight to protect what makes our communities great and ensure that their future is clear throughout and after the COVID-19 Pandemic.
- Education - As a speech pathologist, giving a voice to Oklahoma's children has been and continues to be Molly's passion. All educators and families can rest assured that the quality of public education in Oklahoma is one of Molly's top priorities.
- Healthcare - Working Oklahomans have suffered far too long without adequate and affordable access to healthcare, including mental health and multidisciplinary therapy services. Passing Medicaid expansion at the ballot was a good first step, but Molly knows there is still work to do in protecting and expanding the right to healthcare in Oklahoma.
For the community, Molly believes in supporting small businesses and securing the future through the COVID-19 Pandemic. Molly believes that Black Lives Matter and that our communities should work towards meaningful solutions to decrease the prison population, introduce trauma-informed care in the justice system, and make our communities safe for all, especially women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ individuals.
For education, Molly supports empowering educators and ensuring competitive pay and education funding across the board. A proud supporter of the arts, Molly believes that access to education in the arts is a vital part of our children's education. Molly understands the pressures that many hard-working, Oklahoma families face to find childcare in Oklahoma and believes that afterschool programs are essential.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2021 Elections
External links
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Candidate Oklahoma State Senate District 22 |
Personal |
Footnotes
