Oklahoma state senators propose renaming Route 66 segment as President Donald J. Trump Highway

Two state senators in Oklahoma on Tuesday introduced a bill that would rename a short stretch of Route 66 in Commerce as President Donald J. Trump Highway.

Sens. Nathan Dahm (R-Broken Arrow) and Marty Quinn (R-Claremore) announced the bill. State Rep. Sean Roberts (R-Hominy) will be the bill’s primary Oklahoma House author.

According to a news release from the senators, Senate Bill 1089 would require the funds needed for the new signs on Route 66 to be covered by the Senate and House authors and co-authors, meaning there would be no cost to taxpayers.

The two-page bill also states: “The Department of Transportation shall cause suitable permanent markers bearing that name to be placed on the highway.”

The release states the Route 66 stretch of President Donald J. Trump Highway would run from Highland Avenue near Miami through Commerce and ends at Industrial Parkway in Ottawa County.

It took some searching, but Industrial Parkway also is known as Highway 69A or South 580 Road. Route 66 from there to Highland Avenue is 3.6 miles, according to Google Maps.

Attempts to verify the exact route from the lawmakers’ staffers and an Oklahoma Senate staffer were unsuccessful.

KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City had the story first. Here are quotes from the lawmakers in the release:

“President Trump has done an outstanding job on behalf of our nation and Oklahoma,” Dahm said. “We feel like this is a perfect opportunity to commemorate the great impact his leadership has had on improving the economy and bringing jobs and commerce back to our great state.” […]
“Oklahoma is in the heart of America,” Quinn said. “Its conservative values of freedom, liberty and limited government are what our country was built on and has made America a strong nation and President Trump continues to fight for these values.” […]
“It is an honor to have authored this legislation that will help memorialize President Trump and his contribution to keeping America free and prosperous,” said Roberts. “Many sections of our state highways are named after presidents such as Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. This continues that noble tradition and honors a man who will no doubt be known in our nation’s history as one of our most famous presidents.”

The bill will be considered by the Oklahoma Legislature in February, when its session begins. A staffer in Quinn’s office said the measure probably would be packaged with other bills.

Here’s the bill:

I saw no reaction from President Trump about the bill. He hadn’t mentioned it on Tuesday afternoon on his Twitter account, which he uses frequently.

Sen. Quinn resides in a Route 66 town most famous for being the longtime home and final resting place of humorist Will Rogers, who undoubtedly would find humor in the situation.

As you might have guessed, Trump is very popular in Oklahoma. During the 2016 election, he won every county in the Sooner State.

Trump mentioned Route 66 as a reason he picked Springfield, Missouri, for a rally in 2017.

A European Route 66 fan who’d heard the news about the proposed President Donald J. Trump Highway messaged me, asking whether it was breaking tradition by not waiting until a president had died before renaming anything after him.

He apparently didn’t know Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama, had dozens of things named after him while he still was in office.

So the wait-until-deceased precedent had been broken some time ago.

(Image of President Donald Trump from a rally in Springfield, Missouri, in 2017 via the White House)