By Andrew W. Griffin

Red Dirt Report, editor

Posted: March 7, 2012

reddirtreporter@gmail.com

OKLAHOMA CITY – Talking to Red Dirt Report from his campaign RV, now parked in Tulsa, anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, who was on Oklahoma’s Democratic primary ballot, was excited about getting 18 percent of the vote and likely qualifying for as many as two delegates.

“I beat (Obama) in 12 counties. They were in the west and the south and I took the entire Panhandle,” Terry said.

In all, Obama lost 15 out of Oklahoma’s 77 counties, according to the Associated Press.

Terry was among three other lesser-known Democratic presidential candidates to qualify and appear on Tuesday’s primary ballot. By the end of Tuesday, Obama had won 57 percent of the vote while the other candidates split up the remaining 43 percent, leaving Terry with an impressive 18 percent.

As we have been reporting over the past week, Randall Terry’s campaign has been entirely grassroots. Watching him interact with voters, Terry has an amiable nature and a healthy sense of humor, despite his notoriety as a radical anti-abortionist and founder of Operation Rescue.

As wind blew in the background, Terry largely attributed his strong showing on the graphic TV ads that showed images of aborted babies.

“It shows the power of our advertisements where we show aborted babies,” Terry said. “And it’s a rebuke of Obama’s attack on religious liberty, his attacks on the church and the promotion of child killing.”

When Terry arrived in Oklahoma three weeks ago to begin his campaign, he was largely dismissed. As we already reported, the Shawnee News-Star wouldn’t even talk to Terry after he showed up at their newspaper office when they had originally arranged for him to be interviewed.

Bigger papers in the state had a similar attitude.

“The Tulsa World said Randall Terry intends to turn this election into a referendum on dead babies,” Terry told Red Dirt Report. “The dead babies win.”

Terry has no illusions that he will win the Democratic nomination. The DNC has even dismissed Terry’s campaign, saying he is not a real Democrat since he doesn’t embrace the Democratic platform. And while the Oklahoma Democratic Party officials have been cordial to Terry, he saves his real disappointment for the pro-life community that has failed to endorse him and embrace his candidacy.

“I hope that pro-life leaders and activists now have the wisdom to invest in this campaign,” Terry said. “We did this without any help from any pro-life groups. They sat on the sidelines for this battle. I hope they get in the fight for the next one.”

Terry did get a big dose of support from a nationally-known conservative pundit and writer – Ann Coulter – who spoke of her support of him at a rally last Saturday in Broken Arrow. Coulter, incidentally, is also supporting Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination.

While his small group of “Team Terry” volunteers head back to West Virginia, where his home and campaign are based, Terry will spend some time with his mother in Florida before resuming his campaign. He still has three few months to spread his pro-life message in New Jersey, where he has qualified to appear on the Democratic ballot there. He said his plan is to air his graphic anti-abortion ads on TV stations in New York City and Philadelphia, the two media markets that serve the Garden State. The New Jersey primary is June 5^th.

Besides the pro-life issue, Terry also discusses his support of American energy independence and exposing the current president’s attacks on religious liberty and issues surrounding “ObamaCare.”

With his impressive 18 percent in Oklahoma, Terry said he has “a story to tell” and that exposing “Obama’s Achilles heel” – support of “child killing” and attacks on the church – that more and more pro-life and conservative Democrats will rally around his strengthening candidacy.

As we noted in part two of our article on Randall Terry's campaign in Oklahoma, we headlined it "Will Randall Terry be 'the man who causes Obama's defeat?'" It was a headline Terry himself had half-jokingly suggested to this reporter. Now, it looks like Terry's support may be growing, particularly as we see the rising support around the country for socially conservative Republican candidate Rick Santorum who went on to win Oklahoma.

 “The truth be known, we were always shooting for 15 (percent of the vote),” Terry said. “I didn’t say it publicly, because if I only got 12 (percent) it would be a defeat. At the end of the day our goal was to get delegates. Now we can use this (outcome) to raise money.”

For more information go to www.terryforpresident.com.

Read part one of our article on Randall Terry here.

Copyright 2012 West Marie Media