Oklahoma 2nd District candidate Mullin tapped to give national GOP address Saturday

The Republican candidate in Oklahoma's hotly-contested 2nd Congressional District will get some national exposure this weekend, as House Speaker John Boehner has tapped Markwayne Mullin to deliver the GOP weekly address.

KRMG contacted Mullin within moments of hearing the news from his campaign and asked how the opportunity came about.

Mullin says he was in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago and met with House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor and Rep. Boehner, who was impressed with his story.

"With your business experience, you're what we need up here. You understand regulation without having to be taught it. You deal with it every day. And that's the main reason why they picked us, because we understand business," Cantor and Boehner told him.

Boehner's office contacted Mullin this week to ask if he'd be willing to make the weekly address and Mullin agreed.

He tells KRMG he's honored and humbled by the opportunity and it shows that Oklahoma does have a voice on the national scene, though it's not considered a "battleground" state.

"First of all, I think it's a wonderful opportunity for Oklahoma to get national exposure like this, especially on our race, because Oklahoma's no different from the other 49 states, we've got issues, and sometimes we may get overlooked because we're a conservative state, so it's not a targeted presidential state. However, it's good to know that the national party's still looking at us, it still knows us, and we're gonna have a strong voice up there."

Democrat Rob Wallace said he thinks the choice of Mullin indicates he's already in the pocket of special interests.

"It' proof that he's caved in and he's siding with the D.C. special interests. It's a payoff," Wallace told KRMG.

But Mullin says he was chosen to help get across a message to the nation's leaders from small business owners.

"We're going to be talking about small businesses and the struggle that we face every day, with regulations and the government interference in our business every day."

He says the statement will be crafted by he and his staff in cooperation with the GOP national party and will also respond to whatever topic the president chooses to cover in his weekly address.