Two Republicans will square off in the State House District 59 race that will be decided June 30.
Mike Dobrinski, who owned a Chevrolet dealership in Okeene for over 30 years and has served on the Pioneer Telephone Board, faces Adam Masters, a political newcomer from Kingfisher.
The district includes parts of Canadian County, including rural areas of north Yukon, far northwest Oklahoma City west of Piedmont and Okarche. The district covers most of Kingfisher and Blaine and all of Dewey counties in northwest Oklahoma.
At Piedmont Road and Northwest Expressway, the southeastern tip of the district is developing quickly, a contrast to the more rural and unpopulated areas of the northwest part of the district, Dobrinski said.
A new Mercy Clinic is being built just outside of the district, but SH District 59 residents are likely to use it. But meanwhile, a Mercy Clinic in Okarche has closed. More rural hospitals are struggling, he said.
Both Masters and Dobrinski say rural health care is an important issue.
A 1985 Oklahoma State University, he earned a Business Administration degree and owned Dobrinski Chevrolet.
He said, rural education and rural health care are issues.
“Those are certainly challenging issues right now.
There is still a hospital in Okeene, but it is struggling in the pandemic, he said.
“Our state and our country need to address that and give some more funding to rural healthcare and keeping those resources viable,” Dobrinski said.
“For years and years rural hospitals were able to survive on their own but now they rely in recent years most rural facility has established an alliance or management relationship with the metro area, Mercy, St. Anthony’s as is the case in Okeene,” Dobrinski said.
“Throughout this crisis it has been really surprising that healthcare facilities in the metro area are struggling and laying people off.”
Masters, 25, is running in his first political office. He has worked as an intern in U.S. Sen. James Lankford’s office and for the Mick Cornett Oklahoma gubernatorial campaign in 2018.
A 2013 Kingfisher High School graduate, Masters earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma in political science in 2017. He has worked on a farm in Loyal and paid his own way through college at OU. He said he has learned to drive tractors and feed cattle and the value of hard work. He also says farming is a struggle to many in Oklahoma.
Masters said he is proud of the school districts in House District 59 including Yukon, Piedmont, Kingfisher and others in northwest Oklahoma.
He said communities should continue to fight to save their hospitals. Once hospitals are lost, it can be devastating to communities and hard to get them back, he said. He said the need for internet service continues in the rural areas of the district.
“I think the coronavirus exposed a lot of our weaknesses. We have talkedabout the importance of internet and rural internet service.
He said voters he has met campaigning say they live where they do because they like the schools or because they are close to a hospital.
“Schools are a priority in our communities, but it has been a disappointment if internet service is not accessible for online learning,” Masters said.
He said he opposed to State Question 802 that would expand Medicaid.
“I will fight for free market-based solutions to lower healthcare costs and lower the cost of pharmaceuticals without crushing small businesses, which I believe (SQ) 802 will do.,” Masters said.
He said he agrees with Governor Stitt’s position on the state question.
“I agree with the Governor when he expressed his concerns about the financial burden put on the state with the passage of (SQ) 802. I am not for unfunded mandates that require the taxpayers of this state to shoulder a burden that was presented without means to fund it. Paying for it would require raising taxes or cutting funds from other services such as education or infrastructure which I am opposed to,” Masters said.
