Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Matt Pinnell today announced that long-time Republican activist Al Snipes will be awarded the 2012 OKGOP Ronald Reagan Award. The Ronald Reagan Award is the OKGOP’s ‘lifetime achievement’ award.
In 2004, Snipes was given the Skip Healey Party Builder Award – given to honor individuals responsible for helping build the Republican Party at the grassroots level. Snipes becomes the first individual to be awarded both the Ronald Reagan Award and Skip Healey Award.
The 2012 Ronald Reagan Award will be awarded at the OKGOP State Convention Gala featuring guest speaker, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. The Gala takes place May 11th at the Norman Embassy Suites, as part of the Oklahoma Republican Party State Convention.
“I’d like to congratulate Al Snipes on this high honor,” said Chairman Pinnell. “For over half a century, Mr. Snipes has worked tirelessly to build the Republican Party in Oklahoma. It is fitting that the man widely regarded as the “father of the Republican Party in Oklahoma” will become the first individual to win both of the OKGOP’s most prestigious awards.”
A native of south Oklahoma City, Al served his country in the Army Air Corps in World War II and was later a champion Golden Gloves boxer. After some years in the grocery business, he founded an independent insurance agency in south Oklahoma City. Al was a pioneering Oklahoma County GOP chairman whose organizational and candidate recruiting work helped lay the foundation for a winning party. In 1966, he engineered the defeat of then-Speaker J. D. McCarty, one of Oklahoma’s most powerful Democrats, proving once and for all that Republicans were the wave of the future in Oklahoma politics.
Al Snipes has also been a community leader, having played a central role in the founding of what would become Oklahoma City Community College. He is today widely recognized as one of the true elder statesmen and founding figures of the modern Oklahoma GOP.
“I hope Republicans from across Oklahoma will join us May 11th in honoring a true pioneer of the Oklahoma Republican Party” concluded Pinnell.
Tickets for the 2012 State Convention Gala are available now online here. To reserve a table, please contact Robbie at (405) 528-3501 or robbie@okgop.com.
