What’s next for Mike Sanders?

The soon-to-be outgoing state representative for District 59 was asked that question during a talk last Thursday to the Kingfisher Lions Club.

Sanders, R-Kingfisher, is the current majority leader and will see a 12-year career in the state House come to an end in mid-November due to term limits.

“Well, I’m too young to retire,” said Sanders, 45, before mentioning the importance of the upcoming presidential election and its widespread significance.

“That’s going to have a lot to do with the future of our country,” he said, then admitted he knew the question was more specifically for him.

As he picked up his cup of water for a quick sip, Sanders relented…somewhat.

“We’ll tell you before long,” he said.

Sanders spent a majority of his speech recapping the 2020 legislative session.

“It wasn’t exactly the type of year I was wanting to go out on,” he said. “It was an odd year to say the least.”

Sessions begin in February and generally stretch into May, but about a month into this year’s session is when the state and nation were basically shut down due to COVID-19.

One of the results of the pandemic was turning what was initially a $400 million budget shortfall (due to declining oil and gas activity) with which the legislators needed to deal into a $1.4 billion shortfall.

Although what Sanders referred to as a “responsible” budget was passed, it was one of 18 bills vetoed by Gov. Kevin Stitt.

The legislature answered right back by overriding the budget veto and nine others.

Although Sanders said it was portrayed in a lot of media - both traditional and social - as a big feud between the governor’s office and the legislature, Sanders insisted it was much more cordial.

“We had a disagreement and the legislature prevailed,” he said.

On top of the budget, Sanders outlined some oth-er bills that were passed in 2020, which he referred to as “good policy.”

Sanders also briefly touched on some things the legislature - some of which were his own bills - had accomplished in his tenure.

“We’ve done a lot of good things for Oklahoma in this district,” he said.

Mike Dobrinski of Okeene recently won the Republican primary to take over Sanders’ seat in November. Sanders had endorsed Dobrinski prior to the election.

“Representative-elect Dobrinski will take over and he will do a good job for the district,” said Sanders.