OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Even Democratic officials concede Republican John McCain will beat Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential race in Oklahoma.

But the question is whether Obama will do better than John Kerry's dismal showing four years ago when he got just 35 percent of the vote in the state.

State Democratic Party Chairman Ivan Holmes says the vote may surprise people.

Holmes says many people don't realize the number of voters age 35 and younger who plan to vote for the first time.

In other areas of the country Democrats have been registering in record numbers but that hasn't happened so far in Oklahoma.

During the first six months of the year about 7,000 voters registered as Republicans compared to about 3,000 Democrats.

The last Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state was Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

The closest a Democrat has come since then was 1976 when Jimmy Carter lost the state by 13,000 votes to Gerald Ford.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)