OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The former director of a Tulsa space museum shocked a five-term incumbent congressman in a Republican primary by criticizing him as not conservative enough for Oklahoma.

Thirty-six-year-old Jim Bridenstine also attacked U.S. Rep. John Sullivan for a high absentee rate that Sullivan blamed on his treatment for alcoholism and the death of a child.

Fueled by tea party support, Bridenstine painted Sullivan as a career politician whose votes during 10 years in Washington were no longer appropriate in a place considered the reddest of the red states after President Barack Obama failed to win a single county here in 2008.

In a statement Tuesday night, Sullivan accepted defeat and said he would work to turn Obama from office in the fall.