MCN primary leads to run-off for Chief, 5 council seats

OKMULGEE, Okla. – Unofficial primary election results show that Muscogee (Creek) Nation voters will be heading back to the polls come November.

James Floyd and current Principal Chief George Tiger finished first and second among five primary election candidates on Sept. 19 for the tribe’s top job.

Floyd received 1,282 votes, or 27.18 percent of the votes cast, compared to Tiger’s 1,179 votes, or 25 percent. With no one candidate receiving a majority, the top two will advance to the general election, scheduled for Nov. 7.

 National Council member Adam Jones III finished third with 848 votes, followed by National Council member David Nichols with 804 and National Council Speaker Thomas Yahola with 603.

The former director of the Veterans Administration’s Jack C. Montgomery Medical Center in Muskogee and Ernest Childers Clinic in Broken Arrow, Floyd started his professional career with the tribe in the early 1980s before accepting positions with Indian Health Services and the VA in Oregon, Utah and Kansas City.

Since launching his campaign, Floyd has declined all contributions and has opted to take a grassroots approach in an effort to reintroduce himself to the community after living outside the tribe’s jurisdictional area for more than two decades.

“Having been back less than four years, people might know me or my family, but they haven’t seen me for a while,” he said. “I want to be able to meet, talk and  discuss the issues facing the Creek people, so I’m trying to make myself available, but it is time intensive.”

Meanwhile, Chief Tiger said he sees the results, coupled with early feedback from absentee voters who supported another campaign during the primary, as a positive sign for his potential re-election. Since taking office in 2011, the Tiger administration has emphasized economic development, including the purchase of the Riverwalk Crossing in Jenks and the multi-million expansion efforts going on at the tribe’s flagship casino in Tulsa.

“We’ve got a great platform and have only scratched the surface on what’s going on at Creek Nation,” he said.

“I know people are amazed in what we did in three years. When we came in as an administration…we said the status quo’s no longer acceptable. We’ve held to that.”

Along with Principal Chief, five National Council seats will also be up for grabs, as no one candidate pulled in a majority from Okfuskee, Okmulgee, McIntosh, Tulsa or Tukvpvtce districts.

The unofficial numbers have current National Council members Johnnie Greene from Wagoner/Rogers/Mayes District and David Hill from Creek District getting re-elected. Each only drew one opponent.

Second chief Louis Hicks and Muskogee District representative Pete Beaver ran unopposed.

Creek voters who did not request an absentee ballot for the primary election may do so for the general election starting Monday. The election board must receive all absentee ballot requests by Oct. 15. The form is available at the election board office at the tribal complex’s Solomon McCombs Building or online through www.muscogeenation-nsn.gov.