Result
Rep. David Smith (R-Arpelar) has secured a fifth term in Oklahoma House District 18 after a close Republican runoff on Tuesday, Aug. 25. Smith beat Pamela Gordon) 51.7% to 48.3%, and with no Democrat or independent in the race, the runoff decided the seat, so it did not appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
Smith led a three-way primary on Tuesday, June 16 with 47.4% of the vote to Gordon’s 30.5%, short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff. His new term begins Wednesday, Nov. 18. Smith first won the seat in 2018, when he unseated Democrat Donnie Condit with 51.6% of the vote, and he won his 2022 primary) with 59.3%.
Candidates and Platforms
Smith chairs the House Veteran and Military Affairs Committee and served in the Army, where he specialized in military intelligence. The Oklahoma Veterans Council named him its Representative of the Year in 2025.
This year, Smith was the House author of Senate Bill 1533, which requires a veteran to have been an Oklahoma resident to qualify for state burial assistance, and Senate Bill 1832, which reauthorizes income tax refund donations to veterans programs. Both became law, as did his House Bill 3934, which expands the services dental assistants and hygienists can perform.
Smith has also focused on volunteer rural fire departments. He held an interim study in 2024 on recruiting and retaining rural firefighters and then filed the Rural Volunteer Firefighter Clothing Allowance Grants Act.
District and Chamber
District 18 covers Hughes and Okfuskee counties and parts of Coal and Pittsburg counties. Its communities include McAlester, Holdenville, Okemah and Wetumka. Statewide, Republicans kept their supermajority in the Oklahoma House on Nov. 3, though Democrats flipped six Republican-held seats.
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