Wes Watkins

Wes Watkins

Wesley Wade "Wes" Watkins (born December 15, 1938 in De Queen , Arkansas ) is an American politician . Between 1977 and 1991 and from 1997 to 2003 he represented the third constituency of the state of Oklahoma in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Wes Watkins attended Bennington High School until 1956 and then studied until 1960 at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater . From 1960 to 1967 he was a member of the Aviation Division of the Oklahoma National Guard. Between 1961 and 1963 he worked for the Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC After that he was employed in a managerial position at the University of Oklahoma until 1966.

Watkins was then a member of the Democratic Party . In 1972 he took part as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention . He was a member of the Oklahoma Senate in 1975 and 1976 . In 1977 he was elected to the US House of Representatives in the third district of Oklahoma, where he succeeded Carl Albert, who was no longer running for 30 years, on January 3, 1977 . After he was confirmed in office in the following elections, he was initially able to exercise his mandate in Congress until January 3, 1991. There he was a member of the budget committee most of the time. In 1990 Watkins declined to run again. In the run-up to the upcoming gubernatorial elections in 1990 , Watkins applied unsuccessfully for his party's nomination for this office. Four years later, in 1994, he ran again unsuccessfully for governor as an independent.

In the 1996 congressional election, Watkins sought a return to the US House of Representatives. The Republicans urged him to run as their candidate and in return offered him membership in all major congressional committees dealing with budgetary issues ( appropriations , budget, and ways and means ). Watkins accepted the offer and was re-elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican. There he replaced William K. Brewster on January 3, 1997 , who had taken over his seat in 1991. After two re-elections Watkins could spend three more consecutive terms in Congress until January 3, 2003. There he was initially considered moderate. But his voting behavior became increasingly conservative. After a reorganization of the constituencies in Oklahoma, in which his hometown Stillwater was taken out of his district, Watkins decided not to run again in 2002. His seat then fell to the Republican Frank Lucas .

Web links

• Wes Watkins in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Wes Watkins in the nndb (English)