Driving down a two-lane country road in east Oklahoma, Anne Fite immediately recognized the large object about a mile away on the horizon. It was another bright red diesel-powered truck rumbling her way, hauling crates filled with hundreds of white-feathered chickens. 

By Fite’s count, it was the 15th poultry truck she had passed while spending the day knocking on doors and introducing herself as the Democratic candidate for the House District 86 election in November. 

“It’s just a constant reminder of why I’m running,” Fite said about the truck load of chickens that had been picked up from a local farm. 

Fite, a former juvenile counselor, has made opposition to the state’s growing industrial poultry sector a core part of her campaign in this eastern Oklahoma House district, which includes Adair, Delaware and Cherokee counties. Combined, the three counties see more than 30 million chickens raised annually. 

Political wisdom would give her long odds of winning. 

The district is solidly conservative, and the incumbent, Republican Rep. David Hardin, was first elected in 2018 by a nearly 20-point margin. Since then, he’s been automatically reelected to two more terms without drawing a challenger. 

But the nation’s largest poultry company isn’t taking any chances. 

A political action committee for Tyson Foods, the large meat company based in neighboring Arkansas that has contracts with many local poultry farmers, recently donated $2,500 to Hardin’s campaign, a sizable sum in a rural House race.  

Hardin’s campaign also received $2,500 from Mark Simmons, the chairman of Simmons Foods, a poultry company that has increased contracts with east Oklahoma farms in recent years. 

Hardin has authored bills supported by the poultry industry, including a proposal this year to shield companies like Tyson and Simmons from lawsuits over pollution caused by chicken waste. 

Tyson Foods did not respond to a request for comment about its donation to Hardin’s campaign. The Tyson corporation and John Tyson, the company’s former CEO, have spent $36,500 on Oklahoma campaigns since 2017. The recipients have all been Republicans or Republican-aligned groups.

A win by Fite wouldn’t alter the balance of power in the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature, which has passed multiple bills designed to protect poultry corporations. However, it could signal a growing frustration among voters over the poultry industry and the pollution, health concerns and traffic that have followed. 

“She grew up on the Illinois River, she knows how beautiful it used to be and can see with her own eyes what has happened to it,” said Drew Edmondson, the state’s former attorney general who sued several large poultry companies in 2005, including Tyson, over pollution to the Illinois River watershed in eastern Oklahoma. 

Edmondson and his wife donated $1,750 to Fite’s campaign. 

On Oct. 28, Hardin had $28,500 in campaign cash on hand. The Tyson donation of $2,500 was one of his largest donations in months, according to the latest campaign finance reports.  

Fite has raised more than $20,000, according to her latest finance report. 

“I would hope that if (Hardin) bites the dust at the polls, it will give other legislators at least a second thought before they sign onto something that damages natural resources for corporate greed,” Edmondson said.  

Hardin’s bill shielding poultry companies from liability over pollution advanced through the state House earlier this year. A Senate bill with similar language ultimately won full legislative approval and was signed into law by the governor. 

Senate Bill 1424 was one of several bills state lawmakers had approved in recent years that environmentalists claim further deregulated the poultry industry. In 2023, lawmakers passed a bill that made it harder for residents to protest water well permit applications for new poultry farms. 

In 2013, the state changed the permit system for industrial poultry farms, allowing many to be built closer to homes and without notice. 

Industrial poultry farms often include several long steel buildings holding thousands of chickens each. Residents living near the farms have complained about strong odors, increased truck traffic and chicken waste that washes into neighboring properties when it rains. 

Most of the litter from industrial poultry farms is hauled to other farms and used as fertilizer. Phosphorus from the chicken waste ends up in nearby rivers and streams, decreasing the oxygen supply in water, which is harmful to fish. The pollution also forces cities to spend more money on water filtration systems for public drinking water. 

Hardin did not respond to a recent request for comment, but previously told Investigate Midwest his bill and the Senate version that passed sought to protect local poultry farmers. Any lawsuits over pollution should be brought against the state Department of Agriculture, which approves permits for poultry operations, Hardin said. 

Hardin has spent part of his campaign promoting the health of the Illinois River. He recently posted on his campaign’s Facebook page that programs to transport more poultry litter out of state are working to protect the state’s eastern waterways. 

“The Oklahoma legislature and the governor supported protecting law-abiding farmers from frivolous lawsuits filed by extremists,” Hardin posted online, referring to his bill. 

But Fite said many voters were shocked to hear about Hardin’s bill earlier this year. 

Pollution in the Illinois River watershed has recently decreased in many areas, but phosphorus rates remain higher than state standards, according to the Spring Creek Coalition, a nonprofit that tracks water pollution.  

The lawsuit filed by the state against Tyson in 2005 received a ruling last year as a federal judge said poultry companies were responsible for pollution. The state and poultry companies are still trying to come to an agreement, per a court order. In his 2023 ruling, U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell criticized Oklahoma lawmakers for not doing enough to protect rivers and lakes from poultry litter pollution. 

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