Gingrich Campaign Press Release - Newt Draws Large Crowds in Tulsa, Oklahoma City

Newt brought his campaign of bold solutions to Oklahoma yesterday with stops in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. In Tulsa, he spoke to over 3,500 people at the Mabee Center on the campus of Oral Roberts University. Watch the full speech here. In the speech, he talked about the Founding Fathers, his jobs and prosperity plan, his plan to drill here and drill now, and more.

Gingrich touched on themes popular with his audience: religion, energy, hard work and the "competition between two worlds. On the one side is the left-wing world on the other side is the classically conservative, American world."

The foundation of the classically conservative, American world, said Gingrich, is the Declaration of Independence.

Liberals, he said, do not really believe in the principles of the Declaration of Independence.

Gingrich charged the Obama administration with a "war against religion" - apparently a reference to new rules requiring employees of church-owned hospitals and schools be given access to birth control services - and promised to "repeal every act of anti-religious bigotry by the Obama administration."

Gingrich outlined plans to lower the federal income tax rate to a flat 15 percent with few deductions or exemptions, replace the Environmental Protection Agency with an "Environmental Solutions Department," privatize Social Security and more aggressively pursue domestic oil and gas reserves.

The result of his proposals, Gingrich said, would be to create more jobs, lower national debt and increase personal financial security.

"I want to be known as the paycheck president," he said.

In a bit of whimsy, Gingrich managed to combine his disdain for environmental concerns and energy efficiency with gun rights.

"Let me start with a simple proposition that Oklahomans will understand," said Gingrich. "You cannot put a gun rack in a Volt."

In Oklahoma City, over 500 people packed in to the Jim Thorpe Association and Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. Newt once again slammed President Obama for his anti-American energy policies and pledged to undo his radical policies on day one.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich pledged Monday to expand offshore oil and natural gas drilling as well as drilling on federal lands and in Alaska and promised on the first day to take action to undo much of what the president has done the past three years.

His comments were met by cheers and applause in this oil- and natural gas-rich state, where President Barack Obama, a Democrat, failed to win any of Oklahoma's 77 counties four years ago.

Gingrich said he would remove obstacles to encourage more domestic drilling so the United States would reduce its dependence on foreign oil.

"I want the United States to be so energy independent that no future president" ever bows before another country's ruler, he said.

Gingrich said he would approve the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would carry oil from Alberta, Canada, through Oklahoma to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.

The Obama administration last month rejected the project, which Gingrich said would bring gasoline prices down to $2 to $2.50 a gallon (they are projected to reach $4 before summer), as well as produce more U.S. jobs and make America more energy independent. Lowering gasoline prices to those levels would mean a savings of about $100 a month for the average American family.

Read more about the campaign stop in Oklahoma City here.