Wes Watkins

The Republican House leadership persuaded Watkins to run as a Republican, seeing a chance to win a seat where they had never made a serious bid since Oklahoma joined the Union in 1907.

They promised Watkins a seat on the Ways and Means Committee with full seniority if he ran as a Republican and won.

No congressman had ever served on all three of the major financial committees (Appropriations, Budget and Ways and Means) before.

Despite Albert endorsing Watkins' Democratic opponent, State Senator Darryl Roberts, Watkins won a narrow victory, becoming the first Republican to represent Little Dixie since statehood (it had previously been the 4th District from 1907 to 1915, and had been the 3rd since 1915).

Two years later, U.S. House Speaker Carl Albert announced his retirement after 30 years representing the 3rd District.

Based in the southeastern part of the state, an area known as Little Dixie, the 3rd was heavily Democratic in both local and national elections.

Watkins faced a formidable opponent in Albert's popular longtime Chief of Staff and Administrative Assistant, Charles Ward.

However, Watkins had closer local ties in the district, while Ward had spent decades in Washington.

Watkins prevailed in the Democratic primary runoff and he then gained Albert's endorsement and won the general election with 82% of the vote.

He was re-elected six more times, always by close to 80% of the vote.

For most of this time, he served on the Budget or Appropriations Committees, allowing him to bring large amounts of money to his mostly rural and agricultural district.

He was also very active in oil and natural gas issues, and took particularly strong interest in economic development issues for his rural district.

Wesley Wade Watkins (born December 15, 1938) is an American politician from the state of Oklahoma.

He graduated from Oklahoma State University in 1960, receiving a Master's degree from that same school in 1961.

After a brief stint working for the United States Department of Agriculture, he worked as an administrator at his alma mater from 1963 to 1966.

During that time, he was initiated into Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity as an honorary member while serving as their faculty advisor.

Watkins became active in Democratic party politics in the early 1970s, and was elected to the Oklahoma State Senate in 1974.

In 1972, he was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board.

Later, he spent two years heading one of the first economic development districts in the country, based in Ada.

In the Democratic primary, he ran ahead of House Speaker Steve Lewis, yet lost to eventual winner David Walters, who had been the Democratic Gubernatorial nominee 4 years earlier in 1986.

Watkins was openly disappointed in the lack of support from the state Democratic hierarchy.

Watkins did not seek an eighth term in 1990, instead running for the Democratic nomination for governor to succeed Republican Henry Bellmon.

He raised $3 million for his campaign, the most ever raised for a gubernatorial bid in Oklahoma at the time.

In 1994, Watkins ran for governor again, this time as an independent.

He only won 23% of the vote.

However, his independent candidacy siphoned off enough votes from Lieutenant Governor Jack Mildren, the Democratic candidate, to allow Frank Keating, a Reagan administration official, to become only the third Republican governor in Oklahoma history at that point.

Watkins tallied over 233,000 votes, far more than Keating's 171,000-vote margin over Mildren.

He dominated his former congressional district, winning many of the counties there by large margins.

In 1996, Brewster decided to retire from Congress as it became known that Watkins wanted his seat back.

Watkins initially planned to retire from office in 1998 after undergoing back surgery, but was persuaded to run again.

He was handily re-elected that year, defeating Walt Roberts.

He faced no major-party opposition when he ran for his third term in 2000.

Watkins' voting record in his first period in Congress had been characterized as somewhat moderate.

During his second period, however, his voting record was strongly conservative, usually receiving ratings in the high 90s from the American Conservative Union.

Oklahoma lost a congressional seat after the 2000 census due to slower than expected population growth.

The final map saw Watkins' district dismantled, with its territory split between three nearby districts.

Watkins is a retired member of the United States House of Representatives where he had represented OK's 3rd congressional district for 14 years as a Democrat and then for six years as a Republican.

Wesley Wade Watkins was born to Losie Virgil Watkins Sr. and Mary Etta Johnson Watkins.

Wes has one older sister, Mary Althea Yeats Watkins and an older brother, Losie Virgil "L.V."

Watkins Jr. Watkins was born in De Queen, Arkansas but moved to Oklahoma as a boy.