Lankford: No time to rest with a full-time job and a campaign to run

James Lankford may have trounced the opposition in the GOP primary for US Senate in Oklahoma, but he's not taking anything for granted when it comes to the November general elections.

He tells KRMG he'll continue to work long hours representing his district in Congress while keeping his campaign machine rolling.

On weekends and when Congress is on a break, he'll be back in the Sooner State meeting voters and answering questions, he said.

"When I'm home on the weekends and home on those district work weeks I'll still travel the entire state, take the opportunity to be able to meet as many people as I can. We're a state of four million people, and as many people as I have met in the last five months, I'm not even close to meeting the number of people who want to be able to ask a question."

He added "this is a job interview and it's my responsibility to be able to meet people face-to-face, let them size me up and determine if 'this is someone I can trust,' and then if they say yes, then it's my responsibility to actually do the job and do it well."

Lankford buried his primary challenger, former Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon, and five other opponents in the June 24th Republican primary.

And while what he's doing has clearly been working for him, he admits it's time to reset and consider the best approach moving forward.

"It's a different race to be able to run a Republican primary race than it is a statewide race for Republicans, Independents and Democrats. And so strategically, we will reload and then get right back at it again."

He said he surprised by his margin of victory, but not by the win itself.

"Candidates when they're out talking to people, you get beyond the polls. The polls can give you a snapshot of a few people that answer the phone, but it's different when you actually get to restaurants, go to  workplaces, meet people on the street. Then you begin to get a feel of what's really happening on the ground."

And indeed he told KRMG Tuesday before the results came out that he didn't expect there to be a runoff.

For his part, Shannon has pledged to support Lankford going into November.