Kevin Hern wins the Oklahoma Senate primary, pushing the SAVE Act through Congress

Deep in Trump’s land, a Republican running for office in the Senate is wondering why his potential colleagues can’t pass a key voter ID and citizenship bill.

Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., sailed into the first convention Tuesday night in the Sooner State, where he told Fox News Digital in an interview that the one thing he hears frequently from voters is whether Congress will pass the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act.

“They say we have to work for, you know, the SAVE law,” Hern said before Primary Election Day. “I mean this is the time and the time.”

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But the legislation is stuck in the Senate, where all Democrats have vowed to block it. Republicans voted for the bill in different ways, too.

“This is something that I’m not really sure why Republican leaders don’t support,” Hern said. “I understand why Democrats don’t support it. They don’t support anything that protects America.”

Hern has served five terms in the House, where he rose through the ranks to the fourth-highest role in House GOP leadership as House Republican Policy chairman. He also ran for House Speaker when former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted.

His decision to leave the House to seek a seat in the Senate came after President Donald Trump nominated an Oklahoman, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, to lead DHS.

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Since jumping into the race earlier this year, Hern has received dozens of endorsements from senators and Trump, who praised the legislator as “strongly supported by the strongest MAGA Warriors in Oklahoma, and the most respected leaders in the United States Senate!”

And Hern knows Oklahoma is Trump’s home state, noting that voters there “love the president. They love the fact that I support the president and I work with the president.”

Hern likely won’t face strong headwinds in November against one of the Democratic candidates seeking the nomination in the Sooner State, as Trump has won the state — and all 77 of its states — three times.

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President Donald Trump speaks during a proclamation signing in the Oval Office of the White House on June 11, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

That doesn’t mean he intends to rest until November. Hern, who grew up without running water in the house, said he knows the importance of work and preparation. That’s what led him to his own McDonald’s franchise empire in Oklahoma, where he had 24 restaurants – his previous life in business earned him the nickname “McCongressman.”

“I respect the concept of work. I think hard work gives you a chance to compete with anyone,” Hern said. “And then, the same thing with the Senate race. I came out strong, I set the tone from day one.”

“The president approved me in the first 48 hours because of the work I have done in the last eight years,” he continued. “And I think it goes back to that common word of work and hard work.”

And if successful in November, Hern is not ruling out the option of seeking a spot in the Senate GOP leadership.

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Hern said that throughout his business career he has told anyone that “if you wait until something is available, and you start working hard, it’s too late because there are other people like me who have started in the parking lot.”

“We have people at third base who think they’re ready to be in leadership, and I run past them, and they say, ‘Who’s this guy?’ And he’s a guy like me who’s been working hard, putting in, building relationships,” Hern said. “And I think that’s important going forward, and we’ll see what opens up.”