Oklahoma Senate - Terms & Qualifications

Terms & Qualifications

In order to file for election to the Senate, candidates must be twenty-five years of age at the time of their election. The candidate must also be a qualified elector in their respective counties or districts and shall reside in their respective counties or districts during their term of office. No person is eligible to serve as a member of the Legislature if they're an officer of the United States or State government. Also, any person who has been adjudged guilty of a felony is not eligible to election to the Legislature. If a member of the Senate is expelled for corruption, they are not eligible to return to the Legislature.

The senators are elected to four year terms on alternating cycles. The odd senatorial districts are elected in the same cycle of every presidential election year (years divisible by four, e.g., 2012, 2016); the even numbered senatorial districts are elected during the gubernatorial election year (even-numbered years not divisible by four, e.g., 2010, 2014).

No legislator can serve more than 12 years in the Oklahoma State Legislature. When term limits were implemented in 1992, they were not applied retroactively which meant that senators elected prior to their implementation could serve up to three full terms following the implementation of term limits. For example, the longest-serving member of the Oklahoma State Senate, Gene Stipe was elected in 1956, but would not have been term limited out until 2004, had he not resigned the previous year.