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The race for the District 11 seat in the Oklahoma House of Representatives will be competitive in the fall, as several candidates have submitted their candidacy forms for the position by the Good Friday deadline.

Incumbent Derrel Fincher has refiled, and he said he is honored to be able to go out and represent Oklahomans and how they can make the state better, especially during the trials we are facing with COVID-19. He said we will get over the first hump, which is stabilizing the economy.

The second hump is the recovery phase, which is what state lawmakers are working on now. Representative Fincher said Oklahoma is going to need people with experience who use that experience to avoid the pitfalls of the future. He said COVID-19 will also present a challenge to future policies and statutes moving forward as well.

Constituents have told Rep. Fincher that they want stability. He said they are worried about how Oklahoma is going to move forward, because they want to see the state prosper. This to them means diversifying the economy and having a top education system.

Running against Rep. Fincher is Republican candidate Wendi Stearman from Collinsville and Democratic candidate Emilie Tindle, who is also from Collinsville.

In an interview with Tindle in late January, she told us who she was and why she was running for the House District 11 seat.

Tindle is a fifth generation Oklahoman with family ties to Collinsville and Bartlesville. She is running to bring better policies to the state house in order to make Oklahoma a vibrant state for families and businesses to thrive is her top priority for House District 11.

Tindle grew up in Tulsa and learned early on the values of faith and hard work from her tight-knit family and local community. She is a 2014 alumnus of Tulsa Technology Center's Vision Care Technologies program. This has led to her work in healthcare as an eye doctor's assistant in Oklahoma, Kansas and across the Midwest for four years. Changing career directions, she revamped a social media program for a small Oklahoma business.

Through each of her experiences, Tindle says she has learned the importance of advocacy for all people, experienced the necessity of regular access to preventative healthcare, and saw firsthand the structural problems of our current system.

Tindle has been married to James Tindle, who serves as a historian for the Air Force, since 2014. Tindle is a non-traditional student at Oklahoma State University pursuing a Bachelor's of Arts in History. Through university research and civic involvement, Tindle continues to exercise her skills of bringing people together and advocating for diverse perspectives. Tindle is also active in her community, she is a member of the Collinsville Chamber of Commerce, and strives to help Oklahoma thrive.

Meanwhile House District 10 Representative Judd Strom and District 29 Senator Julie Daniels are running unopposed for their positions in Oklahoma City.