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CLAREMORE, OK - Brad Carson, a Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma tribal member, has won the congressional race in Oklahoma’s Second District. Carson has pledged to work with the Cherokee Nation to reach a fair settlement in the Arkansas Riverbed dispute as well as work for passage of the Five Nations Land Reform Act, which would help individual Indians hold on to restricted Indian land.

"We are pleased that a Cherokee tribal member will represent Oklahoma’s Second Congressional District," said Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. "If you look at a map, the Cherokee Nation is the Second District. Carson has pledged to be an advocate for Indian issues in Congress and we anticipate that he will be attentive to his entire constituency, including the Cherokee Nation."

Carson is a 6th generation resident of Oklahoma's Second Congressional District. He and his wife, Julie, live in Claremore.

Carson received his law degree with highest honors from the University of Oklahoma, where he was recognized as the Outstanding Law School Graduate. A Rhodes Scholar, he took a masters degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Brad received his B.A., also with highest honors, from Baylor University, which inducted him into Phi Beta Kappa.

From September 1997 to December 1998, Brad worked at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., where he was Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Special Projects & White House Fellow. At the Department of Defense, Brad was involved with some of the most significant issues facing the post-Cold War military, including readiness and gender-integrated training. During the course of his work, he visited American troops and bases across the United States and in the United Kingdom, Germany, Bosnia, Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.

Before joining the Department of Defense, Brad was an attorney in private practice. Committed to using his legal skills for the public good, he devoted one-third of his time to free representation of poor and indigent clients. Because of Brad's work on behalf of low-income Oklahomans, his firm was awarded the 1996 Exceptional Contribution to Legal Services by Legal Services of Eastern Oklahoma. In 1997, Brad provided free representation in the much-watched case of Kruse v. City of Cincinnati, which reached the United States Supreme Court and was the first legal attack on our country's out of control campaign finance system.