By Alyssa Sperrazza
Staff Writer
A couple that campaigns together wins together.
That is at least true for Marc Hader and Denise Crosswhite Hader, both who celebrated midterm victories Tuesday evening. Marc Hader was elected to another term as Canadian County’s District 1 commissioner and wife Denise was elected to her freshman term as House District 41 state representative.
Their mutual love of politics and public policy was a foundation for their relationship, meeting at their daughter’s gymnastics practices. They have now been married for over 18 years.
“We’re a blended family… we met when our girls were doing gymnastics,” Denise recalled.
“And so we would talk about public policy when we were sitting there waiting for them to finish… It’s something we‘ve both cared about and addressed.”
Deciding to Run
Marc said when they both felt called to run there was initial hesitation, worried if voters would be concerned with a married couple seeking public office, but he said the concern was unwarranted.
“We both felt called to be in a political arena,” Marc explained, “and it’s nice cause there’s a lot of folks where one spouse is wired one way and the other is not and it can cause trouble in the marriage. But, lucky for us, we both have a passion in the political arena. So now one will be doing legislative work and the other doing administrative work.”
As both celebrated each other’s victories, Denise said campaigning alongside her spouse for both of their races turned out to be fun and it ended with big rewards.
“Marc is really glad and he’s absolutely enjoyed what he’s been doing,” Denise said. “So it’s been nice having citizens affirm that and continue… And I’m really excited to get to serve.”
Denise’s decision to seek a political office was a long-time coming, trying again after 14 years. Denise ran in a four-way race in 2004 for state Senate, coming in second to future lieutenant governor Todd Lamb. She gave up on public office, only deciding to try again nearly a year and a half ago.
“Things kept falling into place and we’re Christians so we really prayed about this and God just provided,” Denise said. “I just kept watching the way things were falling and some of the things I was hearing at the Capitol was frustrating to me and I kept thinking, ‘could I be the one to make that difference?’”
A Team Effort
Both consider their victories a team effort, knocking on doors for their office and one another’s. Marc said knocking on doors for Denise would often seamlessly transition to discussion of his work, making campaigning a little smoother.
“I’d knock on doors for her campaign and they’d be like, “Aren’t you county commissioner?’ and the discussion of better roads would come up so it was a twofer,” Marc said. “With Denise, she had someone announce pretty shortly after she did so we knew she was gonna be in a race so we had to work that pretty hard. We were able to focus as a team on her race initially and as I got opponents, we then began to split up.”
Both agreed they were fortunate to be campaigning in an area with “the three best precincts” overlapping which included Surrey Hills and Piedmont, Denise’s home turf.
“I grew up in Piedmont so that was a natural home-base and it was just an opportunity to walk right out your front door and hit every person on our actual street,” Denise said.
Looking Forward
Remaining in his role as county commissioner for Canadian County, Marc said he ’d like to continue some of the work his office is doing as they continue to grow and modernize.
“We just got an HR Director and she’s doing a great job helping us broadcast more widely on filing positions and being protective about workplace liabilities,” Marc explained. “We’re also interviewing for an IT director which Canadian County has never had those positions before.”
Marc also discussed an agreement with the Canadian County Technology Center which has agreed to host and facilitate a strategic planning process.
“We’ll get the stakeholders of county government together and jointly plan how to move forward and serve citizens,” Marc said. “A lot of buzzwords for this election cycle have been performance audits and we’re ahead of the curve on that.”
The county commissioners’ office recently completed an audit on the Canadian County sheriff’s department after they discussed some problems managing funds. Marc said he will also continue coordinating with cities, trying to serve the citizens, and continue building and maintaining roads.
Transitioning from a legislative assistant to the woman in charge, Denise said she’s looking forward to digging into the issues and is excited to work alongside Governor-elect Kevin Stitt.
“I’m very excited about Governor Stitt who wants to make our economy flourish just like President Trump,” Denise said. “I’m hopeful to see us be mindful of the money we already have.”
When discussing Denise’s interest in infrastructure and whether it was related to her husband’s role as County Commissioner, she said while her husband’s work has been helpful, her interest in infrastructure began long before he took office.
“In 1992, I worked on a campaign to unseat a sitting congressman who I didn’t feel like was doing a quality job,” Denise explained. “I went to work for Congressman Earnest Istook as a field representative. When I did that for 10 years I did infrastructure, roads and bridges, transportation, Heartland flyer happened during that time, and I also did military issues, service academy nominations… Well, this district has Vance Air Force Base and that worked out quite well for me because I had that background.”
