Primary loser accuses winner of being a stand-in, says the real candidate died in 2011

(Image credit: Facebook.com/Frank-Lewis)

last updated 8 January 2015

There was a clear winner last Tuesday in Oklahoma's 3rd congressional district Republican primary: Rep. Frank Lucas, who received 82.8 percent of the vote. Too bad he's dead, and a body double has been impersonating him since 2011.

Well, that's what his opponent, Timothy Ray Murray, is claiming. Murray came away with just 5.2 percent of the vote, and is now contesting the results, saying on his website: "It is widely known Rep. Frank D. Lucas is no longer alive and has been displayed by a look alike. Rep. Lucas' look alike was depicted as sentenced on a white stage in southern Ukraine on or about Jan. 11, 2011," then hanged by "The World Court."

A rep for Lucas says that he is alive and well and has never been to Ukraine. Lucas himself told news station KFOR: "It does come as kind of a shock to read that you're not you."

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This weird Dave meets Weekend at Bernie's scenario might take the cake for most bizarre conspiracy theory. "A lot of stupid things happen in Oklahoma politics, but this may be the stupidest I've ever heard," Keith Gaddie of the University of Oklahoma told The Washington Post. "Welcome to Oklahoma."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.