Keith Austin
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Keith Austin is a
Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...
and American politician who served on the
Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...
tribal council representing the 14th District between 2015 and 2023.


Career

Austin owns All Points Delivery. In May 2013, he was appointed to the editorial board of the
Cherokee Phoenix The ''Cherokee Phoenix'' () is the first Native_American_newspapers, newspaper published by Native Americans in the United States and the first published in a Native American language. The first issue was published in English and Cherokee on Febr ...
on which he served until November 2014.


Cherokee Nation tribal council

In 2015, Austin ran against William "Bill" Pearson for the 14th District of the
Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...
tribal council seat in a race to succeed Lee Keener. Keener had retired to run for deputy chief. In June, Pearson won the initial general election by one vote, leading Austin to file for a recount. After the recount, both candidates vote totals decreased, and Pearson maintained a 6-vote lead. In July, Austin appealed to the
Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...
Supreme Court arguing "14 votes were cast and shouldn't have been, three were rejected that should have been accepted and two ballots were lost." The court ruled for a new election to be held alongside the already scheduled runoff elections that month. Austin won the new election with 53% of the vote. He was sworn on August 14, 2015. In 2019, Austin ran for re-election and faced former tribal councilor
Cara Cowan Watts Cara Cowan Watts (born April 23, 1974) is a Cherokee Nation politician. She served on the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council from 2003 to 2015 and was a candidate for Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in the 2023 Cherokee Nation principal chief ...
in the general election; he defeated Watts with 56% of the vote. He was sworn in for his second term August 14, 2019. In
2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...
, Austin was a Republican primary candidate for the 2nd District of the
Oklahoma Senate The Oklahoma Senate is the upper house of the two houses of the Legislature of Oklahoma, the other being the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The total number of senators is set at 48 by the Oklahoma Constitution.United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant Christian denomination, denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was ...
. He is married to his wife Pam and has two children.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, Keith Living people Members of the Council of the Cherokee Nation Oklahoma Republicans Candidates in the 2022 United States elections Cherokee Nation businesspeople Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Oklahoma politicians 21st-century Native American politicians