VOz: “Who is N'Kiyla Jasmine Thomas, the socialist nurse who caused an upset in Oklahoma and pledged to remove Trump from office if she reaches the Senate”
She will now face Republican Kevin Hern, a U.S. representative from Oklahoma's 1st District since 2018 and a candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump, in a race where she starts at a clear disadvantage, as Oklahoma has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1990.
People voting at a polling place in a file photoAFP
August 25, 2026
While the Democratic Party continues to be torn between the center and the radical left, there is a new rising political star in the ranks of the Democratic Party: N'Kiyla Jasmine Thomas, a nurse with no prior political experience, won the Democratic Senate runoff in Oklahoma on Tuesday, defeating attorney Jim Priest and securing her spot as the Democratic nominee for November.
With this victory, which many considered unexpected when the race began, Thomas becomes the first Senate nominee in the state's history to openly identify as a Democratic socialist.
The victory comes just one week after state legislator Angie Nixon, also a Democratic socialist, won the Democratic nomination for the Florida Senate, and adds to a string of victories by the party's left wing in this primary cycle, where voters have consistently had to choose between moderate figures and new faces moving further to the left.
For years now, this phenomenon has been fueling an internal debate among very progressive sectors, close to figures such as Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as the moderate—and, in some cases, conservative—wing of the Democratic Party, which argues that this shift to the left is driving the party away from voters in conservative states.
Thomas led the initial race in June with 45% of the vote compared to Priest's 24% in a five-candidate primary where no one reached the majority needed to avoid a runoff. Despite being vastly outspent in campaign funds, she raised just $60,000 compared to the nearly $10 million raised by Republican Kevin Hern. Thomas ended up winning comfortably in the runoff as well.
She will now face Hern, a U.S. representative for Oklahoma's 1st District since 2018 and a candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump, in a race where he starts at a clear disadvantage, as this state has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1990 and Trump won there by nearly 35 points in 2024. The task seems nearly impossible for Thomas, who, nevertheless, has already made a name for herself within the Democratic Party thanks to his strong performance in the primaries.
Full article here.
