[Ed. note: The following article is the first of two looking back on the political career of State Rep. Mike Sanders (R-Kingfisher) who is ending a 12-year career in the House of Representatives as the longest-serving Republican in District 59.]

At 11 and 9, Davis and Walker Sanders have ridden in more parades, eaten at more pancake breakfasts and chili suppers, cheered at more state championship basketball games and been photographed with more local, state and national political figures than most Oklahomans will in a lifetime.

And their dad wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Nellie and I have always felt that if we can show our boys what public service looks like by seeing dad and mom actually doing it, that’s going to make society better,” state Rep. Mike Sanders said.

“They’ve seen what good has come out of serving others and giving back and that’s the thing we’ve always stressed.”

Family and politics have always been inextricably intertwined for the Sanderses.

In their first year of marriage, they moved cross country from Washington, D.C., where Sanders had been working in the Bush Administration, to make a new home in Sanders’ hometown of Kingfisher.

Nellie was pregnant with Davis during Sanders’ hardfought first campaign for the House District 59 seat in 2008.

He was one of four candidates who filed to replace Republican Rob Johnson of Kingfisher, who did not seek re-election after two terms.

Sanders slipped past Chris Cameron in the Republican runoff primary by 218 votes after a three-way primary race that also included Tim Riddle.

His general election victory was decisive – he carried 79% of the 14,023 votes cast to win the seat over Democrat challenger Don Russell.

Helping Make History

That would turn out to be Sanders’ last general election experience.

He’s faced only one challenger for the District 59 seat since, Republican Rodney Hiebert whom Sanders defeated so decisively in 2012 that his 95% vote margin still holds the record for Oklahoma state elections.

Sanders’ service in office has been historically remarkable in other regards as well.

He was elected the same year his party gained control of the Senate and four years after Republicans gained control of the House and was serving when the GOP accomplished the trifecta in 2010 by also winning the Governor’s seat.

With the May 22 close of his last session in office, he is officially the longest serving Republican in the District 59 seat.

And, he finished his state legislative career in 2020, the beyond bizarre year when comfortable state savings socked away in the prosperity of 2019 were wiped out overnight by the one-two punch of oil price collapse and coronavirus shutdowns, when the State Capitol was completely shuttered by the pandemic and when the GOP’s now impenetrable veto-proof majority was used six times to override vetoes by its own governor.

Back to the Beginning

But all that the weird, wacky and totally unpredictable twilight zone of 2020 was 11 years in the future when a younger, greener Mike Sanders was first sworn into office in January 2009.

He was no stranger to public service even then – he’d helped with his first campaign in grade school, worked as field director for U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas, then went to Austin to work in the George W. Bush presidential campaign before following President Bush to Washington, D.C., to work in his administration.

Still, state governance is a whole different division in the sausage-making industry and Sanders had much to learn.

One of the first pieces of advice he received turned out to set the pattern he’s used to represent his district ever since.

“My first day at the Capitol, I remember Rep. Earl Sears from Bartlesville put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘those 100 other colleagues of ours are our friends, but you need to remember that not a one of them ever voted for you or ever will,’” he said.

That “dance with the one that brought you” comment cemented a goal Sanders already had set to represent every city and town in his sprawling district as if it were his own hometown by being accessible, responsive and, most of all, present. In his book, there is no

In his book, there is no next best thing to being there.

Anatomy of a District

In the vast expanse of District 59, Sanders had set himself no small task.

His legislative district is the third largest in the state, stretching 141 miles from southeast corner to northwest corner and encompassing portions of 24 cities and towns and 32 zip codes.

“It’s five counties and pretty diverse,” he said. “From Piedmont to El Reno to Ft. Supply and everything in between.”

From the beginning, Sanders set out to prove to his 35,000-plus constituents that he represented them all.

“It takes some time,” he said, with no small amount of understatement.

“I knew I needed to know and have the pulse of every town in my district, so I visited every single local newspaper and took out a subscription. I think I had 13 papers coming to me weekly, some twice a week and then the Woodward paper which was daily.”

Then came the trickle of invitations to local events – FFA dinners, county fairs, pie auctions, Lions Club meetings, fire department chili cook-offs and more.

“I kept agreeing to come and I never, ever backed out,” he said. “If I said I was going to be there, I was going to be there no matter what.”

And, of course, the more invites he answered, the more he received, until the trickle became an unending torrent.

A Family Affair

Family involvement is key to balancing his home and district priorities, Sanders said.

And it takes his family, plus friends, legislative staffers and whomever else he can recruit, to cover his frequently conflicting schedule.

“It’s not uncommon for three chamber banquets to be on the same night,” he said. “And in 12 years, I’ve never missed a single parade.”

He sums up how all that is possible in one word.

“Nellie. The common denominator in all this is that I have the best wife in the world,” he said. “I don’t know too many wives who would agree to move across country, campaign while pregnant and be as warm and welcoming to the idea of me just being gone a bunch.”

Meanwhile, he hopes his boys are learning the value of public service by watching both him and Nellie, who when she’s not being a politician’s wife, is busy in her own demanding career at the Center of Family Love.

“They’ve seen what good has come out of giving back and that’s the thing we’ve always stressed.”

Next: Sanders discusses the legislative challenges and triumphs of his six terms in office.