Harris, Hern in runoff for NASA chief’s ex-House seat

OKLAHOMA CITY — Former Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris and businessman Kevin Hern have advanced to a Republican runoff in a crowded race to fill the Oklahoma congressional seat vacated by a GOP congressman who left to become administrator of NASA.

Harris and Hern were among five GOP candidates in the race Tuesday for the 1st Congressional District seat. It has been vacant since April, when former U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine resigned to accept President Donald Trump’s nomination to lead the space agency. Bridenstine was elected to the seat in 2012 and served on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Harris and Hern will meet each other in a runoff election on Aug. 28. Democrats Tim Gilpin and Amanda Douglas will face a runoff on the same date.

In Oklahoma’s four other congressional districts, incumbent Republicans Reps. Tom Cole, Markwayne Mullin, and Steve Russell won re-nomination, and Rep. Frank Lucas ran unopposed.