This week Oklahomans will take to the polls to choose their party’s candidates for several positions including the U.S. House of Representatives. The presumptive winners will most likely come from the Republican Party, so they have garnered most of the attention.As per the U.S. Constitution, members of the House serve two-year terms, so all five Oklahoma’s districts are up for reelection.In two of Republican primaries, incumbents are running unopposed: Josh Brecheen in District 2 and Stephanie Bice in District 5. The other three districts are moving forward but if you watch TV commercials, it seems as if there is only one race flooding the airwaves: incumbent Tom Cole versus challenger Paul Bondar for District 4.There are many issues in this race, from border security to funding for Ukraine, to who does Trump loves most. But the real issue seems to be Bondar’s Oklahoma residency. While I am in no position to answer this question, the idea of who can run for Congress seems worthy of exploration.First, the Constitution. Article 1, Section 2 reads, “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other Persons.”What this fancy language means is that the number of Representatives for each state is determined by population. Later in the section it states that a census is made every 10 years and the Representatives are arranged accordingly. Oklahoma is a smaller state so based on the 2020 census it only has five Representatives while Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Vermont and Washington D.C. only have the mandatory one, while California has a whopping 52 Representatives — scary. According to the original Constitution, the numbers are made up of free people, including indentured servants and possibly the most controversial part of the Constitution, three out of every five slaves. Indians were not counted until 1924 when they became citizens.Section 2 also lists the qualifications of Representatives: “No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty-five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.”
