Her victory made national headlines, but the Democratic state senator from Tulsa is still sitting on the sidelines waiting to be sworn in.
She squeaked by with 29 votes.
Democrat Allison Ikley-Freeman won Oklahoma's 37th district in November, but she's still considered a 'Senator-elect'.
“Going into it, nobody really quite understood what the limitations would be, but we knew there would be limitations," said Ikley-Freeman.
She hasn't been sworn in yet.
Senator Dan Newberry who announced his resignation last summer told the governor he would officially resign January 31st.
“I think it would be really nice if we were able to figure out a mutually beneficial agreement, but that's kind of hard right now. so, we have what we have and I just get to make the best of it," said Ikley-Freeman.
That means Ikley-Freeman can't file any bills for the upcoming session--that deadline is in the middle of January.
More than a month after the special election, she said she can't get an official e-mail, a phone number or an office at the capitol in Oklahoma City.
“A lot of the preparatory things all the legislators get to spend the two months before session doing, I’m going to be doing it in about three days," said Ikley-Freeman.
While she waits, Ikley-Freeman says she's working with other elected Democrats to get legislation filed.
She's set up a Google Gmail account so her new constituents can reach out to her.
2 Works For You spoke with Senate Republican leadership Wednesday evening.
They tell me regardless of whether it was republican or democrat, Senator Newberry's replacement would still start their term on February 1.
Sen. Newberry told 2 Works For You:
The date was established with my irrevocable resignation letter. I chose the date so that the district would have representation in the event of a special session and to give the Governor plenty of lead time to coordinate the special election with another election to reduce costs. Everyone knew when the date would take effect when the special election was called.
Lawmakers will head back to capitol the first Monday in February.
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