Ervin Yen
Ervin Yen (Republican Party) was a member of the Oklahoma State Senate, representing District 40. He assumed office on November 19, 2014. He left office on November 21, 2018.
Yen (independent) ran for election for Governor of Oklahoma. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022. He did not appear on the ballot for the Republican primary on June 28, 2022.
Yen completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
On October 19, 2021, Yen announced that he had changed his partisan affiliation from Republican to independent.[1]
Biography
Ervin Yen earned a high school diploma from Putnam City High School. He earned an M.D. from the University of Oklahoma in 1981. His career experience includes working as a doctor.[2]
Committee assignments
2017 legislative session
At the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, this legislator served on the following committees:
| Oklahoma committee assignments, 2017 |
|---|
| • Appropriations |
| • Health and Human Services, Chair |
| • Public Safety |
2015 legislative session
At the beginning of the 2015 legislative session, Yen served on the following committees:
| Oklahoma committee assignments, 2015 |
|---|
| • Appropriations |
| • Business and Commerce |
| • Finance |
| • Health and Human Services, Vice-Chair |
Elections
2022
- See also: Oklahoma State Senate elections, 2022
General election
General election for Governor of Oklahoma
Incumbent Kevin Stitt defeated Joy Hofmeister, Natalie Bruno, and Ervin Yen in the general election for Governor of Oklahoma on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Kevin Stitt (R) | 55.4 | 639,484 |
 | Joy Hofmeister (D) | 41.8 | 481,904 | |
 | Natalie Bruno (L)  | 1.4 | 16,243 | |
 | Ervin Yen (Independent) | 1.4 | 15,653 | |
| Total votes: 1,153,284 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Paul Tay (Independent)
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Governor of Oklahoma
Joy Hofmeister defeated Constance Johnson in the Democratic primary for Governor of Oklahoma on June 28, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Joy Hofmeister | 60.7 | 101,913 |
 | Constance Johnson | 39.3 | 65,894 | |
| Total votes: 167,807 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Governor of Oklahoma
Incumbent Kevin Stitt defeated Joel Kintsel, Mark Sherwood, and Moira McCabe in the Republican primary for Governor of Oklahoma on June 28, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Kevin Stitt | 69.1 | 248,525 |
 | Joel Kintsel | 14.3 | 51,587 | |
 | Mark Sherwood | 13.3 | 47,713 | |
 | Moira McCabe | 3.3 | 12,046 | |
| Total votes: 359,871 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Ervin Yen (R)
Libertarian primary election
The Libertarian primary election was canceled. Natalie Bruno advanced from the Libertarian primary for Governor of Oklahoma.
2018
- See also: Oklahoma State Senate elections, 2018
General election
General election for Oklahoma State Senate District 40
Carri Hicks defeated Joe Howell and Christopher Hensley in the general election for Oklahoma State Senate District 40 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Carri Hicks (D) | 57.8 | 15,572 |
 | Joe Howell (R) | 38.7 | 10,426 | |
 | Christopher Hensley (Independent) | 3.5 | 945 | |
| Total votes: 26,943 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Oklahoma State Senate District 40
Carri Hicks defeated Danielle Ezell in the Democratic primary for Oklahoma State Senate District 40 on June 26, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Carri Hicks | 51.4 | 5,350 |
| Danielle Ezell | 48.6 | 5,054 | ||
| Total votes: 10,404 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Oklahoma State Senate District 40
Joe Howell defeated incumbent Ervin Yen in the Republican primary for Oklahoma State Senate District 40 on June 26, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Joe Howell | 60.0 | 5,316 |
| Ervin Yen | 40.0 | 3,537 | |
| Total votes: 8,853 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2014
- See also: Oklahoma State Senate elections, 2014
Elections for the Oklahoma State Senate took place in 2014. A primary election took place on June 24, 2014. The general election was held on November 4, 2014. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was April 11, 2014. John Handy Edwards was unopposed in the Democratic primary, while Steve Kern and Ervin Yen defeated Joe Howell, Michael Taylor, David Hooten and Brian Winslow in the Republican primary. Yen defeated Kern in the August 26 primary runoff. Yen defeated Edwards in the general election.[3][4][5]
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican |  Ervin Yen |
54.5% | 10,473 | |
| Democratic | John Handy Edwards | 45.5% | 8,753 | |
| Total Votes | 19,226 | |||
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
|---|---|---|
|
Ervin Yen (advanced to runoff) |
39.5% | 2,533 |
| Steve Kern (advanced to runoff) |
20.1% | 1,289 |
| Brian Winslow | 12.2% | 781 |
| David Hooten | 11.2% | 718 |
| Joe Howell | 9.5% | 606 |
| Michael Taylor | 7.5% | 483 |
| Total Votes | 6,410 | |
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
|---|---|---|
|
Ervin Yen (advanced to general election) |
65.2% | 3,388 |
| Steve Kern | 34.8% | 1,808 |
| Total Votes | 5,196 | |
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Ervin Yen completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Yen's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
With almost 410,000 registered Independents in Oklahoma, there are now enough Independents to win the Governor's seat. Oklahoman's are ready for a Governor who can work across political party lines,representing the will of the people and start fixing the problems facing our state. It is ludicrous to believe that a candidate who has been ineffective in 4 years (Stitt) and 8 years (Hofmiester) will be able to get things done now. Making healthcare more affordable and accessible for all Oklahomans is one of my priorities. That can be done in part by offering financial incentives to medical students who will in turn commit to working in some of our rural areas upon graduation. Working with the state attorney general's office we can lower the cost of many prescription drugs by criminalizing price gouging.
Our Education system needs immediate attention, and I propose using 1/4 of the state's surplus to raise teacher pay to be competitive with the rest of the nation, as well as ensure there is an equitable division of funds across state school districts.- This is the first chance Oklahomans will have to elect our first Independent Governor. There are now over 410,000 registered Independents in Oklahoma. We have never had an election with this many Independents.
- We cannot continue to elect and depend on the same people who broke the system to fix it. We must be willing to do something different in order to get the results we are seeking.
- An Independent Candidate is the only one who can truly move our state forward.
OR 007 - James Bond
HA!
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2014
Yen's campaign website highlighted the following issues:[6]
Guns
- Excerpt: "As a conservative gun owner with a concealed carry permit myself, I will vigorously fight any attempts to weaken the ability of law-abiding citizens to own firearms, to hunt or to defend themselves and their families."
Jobs and the Economy
- Excerpt: "As your Senator, I will work to make Oklahoma a more attractive business environment to encourage more quality, high-paying private sector jobs to come to our state."
Pro-Life
- Excerpt: "I am 100% committed to the pro-life movement and will do everything I can to help promote a culture of life in our state. As such, as your Senator, I will do everything in my power, not just to bring about an end to abortion, but to promote alternatives by making it easier for Oklahomans to adopt, increasing the services available to women who choose to carry their babies and improving the state foster care system."
Obamacare
- Excerpt: "As your Senator, I will do everything I can to free us from the oppressive regulations of Obamacare and work toward a health care system that works for Oklahoma patients instead of left-wing government bureaucrats."
Education
- Excerpt: "Providing the best quality education for our state's students should be our top priority. While funding is certainly a part of that, we already spend over half of the entire state budget on education. I think it is more important that we look at how those funds are spent and work to reduce administrative overhead and make sure that as many dollars as possible actually make their way into the classroom. We also need to be supporting our top teachers through merit pay."
- Excerpt: "We MUST promote math, science, technology, and engineering in our schools. We need rigorous state educational standards to prepare our students and we need to hold our schools and state educational leaders accountable for preparing our students for the future in Oklahoma. And we should continue seeking creative avenues, including school vouchers, to provide the best opportunities for Oklahoma students."
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Oklahoma scorecards, email suggestions to [email protected].
2018
In 2018, the 56th Oklahoma State Legislature, second session, was in session from February 5 through May 3.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on business issues.
- Legislators were scored based on their votes on bills supported or opposed by the organization.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to children's interests.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to environmental issues.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.
2017
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2017, click [show]. |
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In 2017, the 56th Oklahoma State Legislature, first session, was in session from February 6 through May 26. The legislature began a special session on September 25. The session ended on November 17. The legislature began another special session on December 18, which adjourned on December 22.
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2016
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2016, click [show]. |
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In 2016, the 55th Oklahoma State Legislature, second session, was in session from February 1 through May 27.
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2015
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2015, click [show]. |
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In 2015, the 55th Oklahoma State Legislature, first session, was in session from February 2 through May 22.
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See also
2022 Elections
- Oklahoma State Senate
- Senate Committees
- Oklahoma State Legislature
- State legislative elections, 2018
- Oklahoma State Senate elections, 2018
- Oklahoma state legislative districts
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The Oklahoman, "Second Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate changes political affiliation, abandons GOP," October 19, 2021
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 3, 2022
- ↑ Oklahoma State Election Board, "Candidates for State Elective Officials 2014," accessed April 15, 2014
- ↑ Oklahoma State Election Board, "Official Results Statewide Primary Election — June 24, 2014," accessed July 10, 2014
- ↑ Oklahoma State Election Board, "Official General Election Results, Federal, State, Legislative and Judicial Races — November 4, 2014," accessed November 5, 2014
- ↑ Yen 4 Senate, "Issues," accessed May 27, 2014
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Cliff Branan (R) |
Oklahoma State Senate District 40 2014-2018 |
Succeeded by Carri Hicks (D) |
 |
State of Oklahoma Oklahoma City (capital) |
|---|---|
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