August US Senate Runoff To Feature Perennial Candidate Rogers
Reclusive, perennial Oklahoma candidate faces longtime state senator in U.S. Senate primary
by Graham Lee Brewer
Standing on a busy street corner in Midwest City, Jim Rogers, waves to passing cars as he fights to hold on to two large handmade campaign signs in the Oklahoma wind.
The signs Rogers holds are white poster board scrawled with various political messages written in black permanent marker. Emblazoned in white letters on his bright red sweater, its shoulders beaten by the sun, are the words “Oklahoma Jim Rogers U.S. Senate 2004.”
“I get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and on the street by 5 o’clock, and I campaign at restaurant centers and on the corner and wherever I can find a crowd gathering or leaving,” Rogers said. “I stay with it all day.”
Rogers, 79, faces state Sen. Constance Johnson in a runoff election Aug. 26 for the Democratic nomination in a U.S. Senate race that is garnering national attention. The winner will face U.S. Rep. James Lankford for the seat being vacated by Sen. Tom Coburn.
The occasional passing car will honk, and rarely, someone walking past will stop and talk for a moment before moving on, said Mark, a taxi driver who asked that his last name not be used. He drives the yellow taxi that takes Rogers from corner to corner to campaign, as he puts it.