The Republican primary to represent Owasso, Sperry and northeast Tulsa has the attention of conservative insiders.
The Oklahoma Senate District 34 race pits incumbent Freedom Caucus founding member Dana Prieto, who has official certification from the state GOP, against challenger Aaron Forst, who has his own list of conservative endorsements.
Pundits are watching after another Freedom Caucus co-founder, Sen. Dusty Deevers of Elgin, finished third in his bid for the party nomination in Senate District 32. However, at least three House members associated with the caucus secured their re-election bids: Tom Gann of Inola, Jim Shaw of Chandler and Molly Jenkins of Coyle.
“The Freedom Caucus didn’t lose, Dusty Deevers lost,” Prieto said. He added the Republican candidates set to replace Deevers have aligned themselves with Freedom Caucus policies.
Prieto, 69, finished first in a four-way race with 29.4% of the vote — 115 votes ahead of Forst at 27.3%. He came into office in 2022 after upsetting incumbent Democrat J.J. Dossett after the district boundaries were redrawn to include more east and north Tulsa neighborhoods, compared to the earlier map of largely Owasso, Sperry and Collinsville areas.
Early voting runs from Aug. 20-22, with Election Day set for Aug. 25. The winner will face Democrat Amy Hossain in the Nov. 3 general election. Find more information about what’s on your ballot and where to vote at the Flyer’s voter guide.
Being among the founders of the Freedom Caucus helped define his first term. It is considered the furthest right faction at the capitol, often challenging Republican leadership by pushing for hardline conservative, traditional and biblical principles. Other founders were Sen. Shane Jett of Shawnee and Rep. Jim Olsen of Roland, with former Sen. Nathan Dahm of Broken Arrow assisting.
“Voters who voted for me wanted one thing: to be a conservative,” Prieto said. “I have been endorsed almost 100% across conservative platforms for my votes. My priorities are not different. I’m still working with constituents and voting conservative to uphold the Constitution.”
Prieto emphasizes his acceptance into the OKGOP Certified Program that the Oklahoma Republican Party launched this year. To be certified, a person must:
- Agree with 80% of the party’s platform;
- Not have been registered with another party for the past five years;
- Not have donated to a Democratic candidate in five years;
- Not have supported abortion access;
- Not have participated in efforts to “infringe” on gun rights.
“Sometimes you have to vote no on some bills that don’t fulfill a core function of government or core value,” Prieto said.
Prieto passed legislation that regulates the controversial herbal supplement kratom and filed bills that would reinstate the President’s Fitness Test in schools and reform the Oklahoma Department of Human Services’ child welfare division.
The candidates agree on many policy positions, including wanting to eliminate the sales tax, bolster trade programs in high schools, reduce government mandates on businesses, establish guardrails on data centers to produce natural resources, protect gun rights, promote the free market and back private school tax credits. They are both anti-abortion, Christian conservatives who champion parental rights.
They split on the issue of childcare.
Forst, 43, owns the Granny & Dot’s Early Childhood Development Center in Owasso with his wife, Adrienne. He has been involved with interim studies and legislation to retain more workers and reform DHS practices to create more options for families. He views childcare as a workforce and economic issue.
He said he worked with Rep. Suzanne Schreiber, D-Tulsa, to shape House Bill 2778 that allows low-income childcare workers qualifying for a childcare subsidy to be exempt from the copay. Basically, it gives qualifying workers an incentive to stay on the job by helping with their own child-care needs. It had an $11.5 million impact to the budget and passed into law with a veto override.
The bill sponsors were Republicans Rep. Trey Caldwell of Faxton and Sen. Chuck Hall of Perry. Prieto was absent from the vote. But, Forst says the incumbent told him he opposed the measure because it was attached to a Democrat.
“The incumbent didn’t care whether the bill was good or not, only that a Democrat was involved,” Forst said. “It’s not a Republican or Democrat bill. It was about childcare and had nothing to do with politics. We have a guy who is not working with people in the Legislature and not working with people in his district.”
Prieto denies his opposition to the bill was due to a Democratic association, pointing to working across the aisle with former Reps. John Waldron and Amanda Swope. On his website, Prieto alludes to his opponent asking him to write childcare bills costing $100 million. Forst says his opponent is spreading lies.
Prior to owning a childcare and wedding venue business, Forst worked in the healthcare field. He was an EMT, then earned a biomedical engineering degree and designed medical equipment. He is active in Owasso Public Schools, where his children attend, and coaches youth at First Church in Owasso.
His endorsements include Tulsa Fraternal Order of Police, firefighters associations in Tulsa and Owasso, OKBizPac, Oklahoma Second Amendment Association, Moms for Liberty and Mental Health Now. He signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge from Americans for Tax Reform.
Forst’s top priority is tackling the overregulation of businesses and offering more incentives for locally owned businesses, pointing to an imbalance of tax packages going mostly to out-of-state, large corporations.
To offset the revenue losses of phasing out taxes, Forst said smaller government can be accomplished by eliminating burdensome requirements on businesses to remain open. Forst remains critical of DHS and wants more reforms, pointing to an August 2025 audit that found DHS mismanaged $63 million meant for childcare.
“The support we have gotten has been amazing,” Forst said. “It’s hard going up against an incumbent. But, we saw about 71% of the district feels the way I do and voted against one of his challengers. That says something: Our incumbent is not present and does not work for the people of this district.”
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