TULSA — After the Republican caucus’ choice to be the next Senate Pro Tem lost his primary election in June, the party turned to an eight-year veteran of the Senate and asked him to fill that important role.

State Senator Lonnie Paxton (R-Tuttle) told KRMG Tuesday he never expected to be in the position he finds himself in, but he’s ready to take on the job and keep the state moving forward.

[Hear the KRMG In Depth report on Sen. Lonnie Paxton HERE]

Tuttle visited the KRMG studios Tuesday to introduce himself and talk about his expectations for the upcoming session, which begins in February.

“This is not a role I was expecting to have,” Paxton told KRMG. “I’m really kind of trying to learn a lot right now, working extremely hard. We have a lot of new senators that are coming in, I think almost a third of the Senate body might be new next year when you count the Democrats and Republicans combined. And so, all those, whether they’re Republicans or Democrats, I want to meet them all, get to know them, and see who’s coming in - and also start kind of start giving them some heads up on what to expect.”

He said he remembers being a rookie senator eight years ago, and all that he had to learn in order to do the job.

Now, he’s taking on a much expanded role - and he’s got a lot more learning to do.

Paxton has lived in Tuttle his whole life, minus the four years he attended the University of Oklahoma.

Raised on a farm, he still works there with his family, in addition to running an insurance business, serving as a volunteer firefighter, and helping his wife of 33 years put four kids through college (three have graduated thus far).

Looking forward to the next session, he fully expects the governor’s long-sought cut to the state income tax will be something lawmakers will tackle once again.

“You visit with Governor Stitt, he’s still going to be pushing for that income tax cut,” Paxton said. “And so I’m sure that will be a discussion that we will have, and we will absolutely engage him and see if that’s what we need to be doing. So that will definitely - I have no doubt that we will be talking about that again.”

He played down the tensions which highlighted the last legislative session, with House Speaker Charles McCall and Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat squaring off on that tax cut, and other issues.

The new Speaker and he are friends, and while they’ll have their disagreements, he’s confident they’ll work well together.

And, Paxton added, there will be unforeseen challenges - because there always are.

“One thing you can count on is the unexpected,” he told KRMG. “There’s always something that we don’t know that is out there that will pop up.”

Paxton ended the interview by saying his overarching goal is always the same.

“If our kids and grandkids want to live in Oklahoma and raise their families in Oklahoma, we need to make sure there’s plenty of opportunity here for them to do that, that they don’t leave Oklahoma because there’s a better job somewhere else.”