Deciding the best choice

Five Republican candidates running for Senator Tom Coburn's seat met in Lawton on Friday evening to hold a public debate.

The debate, held at Cameron University's main campus in Shepler Ballroom.

The ballroom was packed with concerned citizens across the southwestern portion of the state.

Besides Speaker T.W. Shannon and current U.S. Representative James Lankford, Randy Brogdon and two relatively unknown candidates, Dr. Kevin Crow and small business man Eric McCray, participated in the debate.

Questions were asked by a moderator, with each candidate having 90 seconds in which to respond.

Each candidate responded to questions from the economy, energy concerns, the Bowe Bergdahl release, what character from the Bible each candidate thought they were, to what was the biggest failure of Obama's presidency.

While most of the debate was very civilized, candidate Dr. Kevin Crow, a professor of ancient history at USAO, did point out that Speaker Shannon missed 80 percent of the vote in this recent cycle.

Dr. Crow wasn't shy to take on Congressman Lankford either, stating that Congress needed to rein in President Obama.

Congressman Lankford wasn't shy to respond to that, pointing out that Congress is currently working to do just that.

Other debates are planned for the candidates throughout the state.