George Faught, one of two candidates in the Aug. 28 Republican primary for US Congressional District 2, visited with the Durant Daily Democrat on Wednesday.

Faught received the most Bryan County Republican votes out of six candidates in the June primary with 576, or 47.21 percent. District-wide, Faught and Markwayne Mullin were the highest finishers and will be on the Aug. 28 run-off ballot.

Faught, from Muskogee, said he came to Durant this week to thank the voters for their support. “I just wanted to let them know we are still around and here to see them,” he said. “That’s the main thing, to thank the voters, especially down here.”

He is looking forward to debates with Mullin, mostly to be held in the Tulsa area, ahead of the primary run-off. Faught is a six-year state representative and small business owner. Some of the biggest focus issues of his campaign have been health care reform and its impact on state’s rights and his “proven conservative record.”

“What people really think about are the economy and debt, putting people back to work and defending those family values we believe in,” he said. “I’ve got a strong record of defending all of those. We have a great opportunity to change the direction of our country. We want a citizen legislator, someone with goals to fix things for our country.”

He said “too much unrepresented government” is hampering business growth, even in rural parts of Oklahoma where economies are struggling.

“You can create an environment where business can thrive, and that’s not at the doing of government, it takes government getting out of the way,” Faught said. “All the government regulation prevents businesses from thriving. We’ve got good workforces. There’s a lot we can do at the federal level, if we can get government out of the way.”

He called President Barack Obama’s health care reform act a “job killer,” noting that he led the state legislature’s fight against government-run health care exchange in 2011 because “it’s not a free market solution.”

Faught has a wide variety of endorsements, from former opponent Wayne Pettigrew to Arkansas ex-Gov. Mike Huckabee, as well as organizations including Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum.

Local support for Faught is being organized by Holly Gerard. For information, she can be reached via email: holly@georgefaught.com.

The winner of the Aug. 28 primary will appear on the ballot with the Democratic winner between Wayne Herriman and Rob Wallace. Both of them recorded nearly three times as many votes among Bryan County Democrats in the June primary as Faught did among local Republicans.