The retired high school and college teacher ran unsuccessfully in 2006 for lieutenant governor. He also ran for the U.S. Senate in 2002 and in 2004. He failed to win his party's nomination in any of his statewide campaigns.
"Might as well," Rogers said when asked why he joined the presidential sweepstakes. "Everybody else is."
Rogers is the only one of the 18 candidates to show up at the State Election Board office in the state Capitol to file to be on the ballot. Filing, which started Monday, ends at 5 p.m.
The campaigns of U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican, submitted paperwork earlier today to the State Election Board office.
Also, Fred Thompson, a former actor and former U.S. senator from Tennessee, and Daniel Gilbert, a North Carolina businessman, filed papers today and the required $2,500 fee to have their names placed on the Feb. 5 ballot. Both are Republicans.
Dodd, Connecticut's senior U.S. senator, was elected to Congress in 1974 and was elected to the Senate in 1980.
Huckabee was sworn in as governor of Arkansas in 1996 and was elected to a full four-year term in 1998. He was re-elected in 2002; he could not seek a third term because of term limits.
Gilbert's Web site states he owns a company that manufactures electronic musical drums and percussion instruments.
Thompson was elected in 1994 to finish the remaining two years of Al Gore's unexpired Senate term after Gore was elected vice president. Thompson won election to a full term in 1996 and did not seek re-election in 2002.
Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, all Democrats, and Republican Alan Keyes filed Tuesday.
Representatives of nine candidates — seven Republicans and two Democrats — filed papers Monday.
Republicans filing Monday were U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona; U.S. Reps. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, Duncan Hunter of California and Ron Paul of Texas; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani; former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Jerry Curry of Haymarket, Va.
U.S. Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York were the Democrats to file Monday. Only Democratic and Republican candidates will be on the presidential primary ballot because their parties are the only officially recognized political parties in Oklahoma. Because the two parties are the only ones that can be on that ballot, only registered Democrats and Republicans can vote in the primary.
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