Underdog No More, Lankford Stuns Calvey

James Lankford capped his campaign for Congress today with a stunning, almost 2-to-1 win over the once-favored Kevin Calvey in the Republican runoff for the 5th District seat.

Underdog Lankford, with four precincts still out, had 29,579 votes to just 15,812 for Calvey. That's 65.16 percent to 34.84 percent.

Lankford's longshot bid to win the seat in Congress began a year ago when he resigned as director of the Falls Creek Youth Camp, a position he held for more than a decade.

He was considered a "no-name" candidate in the primary, when all the talk and focus was on Calvey, the Iraq veteran and former House member who spent four years planning this campaign after losing in the GOP primary for Congress in 2006.

Lankford first stunned Calvey in the primary, running first by about one percent. His momentum continued into the runoff and culminated in today's vote.

Lankford faces Democrat Billy Coyle and Independents Clark Duffe and Dave White in the general election.

Share |