The Candidate

On a cold January night in Washington, we got the call. I was sitting in my bed in our basement when Harvey walked down the stairs and gave me the news: Tom Coburn was going to announce his resignation from the Senate two years before the end of his term, two years earlier than expected. That in itself was not the big news for us--it was the ramifications of that decision that would be consequential.

Coburn had already announced that he would not seek reelection in 2016, and we thought that when his seat opened up, someone in the Oklahoma House delegation might run for it, leaving another open seat behind. We had talked about the possibility of Harvey's running for Congress in that scenario. So when we found out that this process was being sped up, we realized that the time for us to make this move, if we were going to, was upon us. Still, we were not sure who would seek that Senate seat and what House seat would open up. We prayed.

Over the next few days, we learned that James Lankford would run for the Senate. That meant that the seat that opened up in the House was in the Fifth District of Oklahoma, the district where Harvey and I both grew up and went to college, where most of our family still lives. In many ways we felt like the Fifth District was still our home, so it seemed fitting for us to run there. We began to plan and continued to pray.

Harvey made countless phone calls to friends and colleagues to seek counsel. He met with our pastor. He spoke to his boss and the chief of staff. He communicated with people in Oklahoma who had shown interest in heading up a campaign. All along he felt a burning desire to do something he'd dreamed of doing all his life: run for office. We prayed.

Harvey prayed that if this desire was not from the Lord, he would take it away, but it only burned stronger. God was showing us that this could be an opportunity for us to bring him glory--through our faith, through our obedience, through a dignified campaign in which we talk about him and lead others to seek him both by our words and by our example. We did not have any assurance from the Lord of victory--only a strong conviction that he was calling us to run and that he could use us for his glory win or lose. And we trusted his Word that he would never leave us or forsake us--he would provide for our needs no matter what happened. If we won, praise be to God, and we would use the larger platform to influence even more people for him. If we lost, well, we trusted God would provide other opportunities for us. Worst-case scenario: we spend all of our savings and lose in humiliation. But we would still have our family and our faith. It would not be the end of the world. We kept praying.

Part of the pressure in making this decision was the time constraint. The primary is in June, only about four months away from the time when we were debating the move. Harvey felt that if we were going, we needed to get back quickly so we wouldn't lose valuable time in the campaign. We needed to decide. There was only one thing holding us back. We loved our life in Washington. We had an amazing church and wonderful friends. We had a comfortable home and lovely neighborhood just minutes from the Capitol. We'd had so many unique and special experiences, and there was the potential for so many more if we stayed. Did we want to give all that up to go back to Oklahoma, where we would have no income, have to find a church, have to move the kids to a new school again? What would compel us to leave such a comfortable situation for such an uncertain one? We wanted to be sure we were following God's calling and not our selfish ambition. We prayed.

Harvey had many sleepless nights and trouble eating. His stomach was constantly turning. Friday, February 14, was decision day. As he left for work that morning, I didn't know which direction our lives would be headed by the time he came home. I prayed and I waited. We texted back and forth a few times--he was still unsure. The Holy Spirit was keeping me calm and helping me encourage him, and I shared some scriptures (Philippians 1) God had used to convince me that we should enter the race. These were the final texts we sent each other before Harvey went in to resign:

Harvey: Please let me know if you think this is a big mistake.

Me: I am willing to risk that. God will redeem.

That sums up pretty well our mindset both then and now. But at this point, though there have been rough moments, we cannot conclude that it has been a mistake.

There's much more to the story, but I'm going to break it up into parts instead of writing one long post. Coming next: The Move.