Oklahoma Political News

When Oklahoma’s primary election concluded this evening, Edmond voters increased the city’s lodging tax from 4 percent to 6 percent, reelected Rep. Preston Stinson and sent the Senate District 47 Republican primary to an August runoff.

After no Republican candidate received more than 50 percent of vote in SD 47, Kelly Hines and Jenny Schmitt will face off in the Aug. 27 runoff election to decide who will be the GOP candidate in the November general election.

Hines received 37.5 percent of the vote while Schmitt received 31.4 percent of the vote — an 11 vote difference that could spur a formal recount effort.

The Edmond lodging tax increase passed with 62.7 percent of the 7,086 ballots cast, while Stinson (R-Edmond) won reelection with 58.7 percent of the 2,574 votes cast in House District 96.<</p>

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With all justices concurring, the Oklahoma Supreme Court issued a narrow ruling Tuesday siding with Edmond Public Schools over State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, the Department of Education and State Board of Education regarding what body has authority to regulate books in a school district’s library. The opinion called the respondents’ arguments “not persuasive.”

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Oklahoma ranks in the top half of all states in only two of sixteen diverse indicators measured in the 2024 KIDS COUNT® Data Book, a 50-state report of recent data developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation analyzing child well-being in post-pandemic America. The data show Oklahoma leaders must do more to position Oklahoma children and families for success.

For the 2024 KIDS COUNT® Data Book, Oklahoma ranked 46th overall for child well-being, with only Nevada, Mississippi, Louisiana, and New Mexico ranking lower. Oklahoma’s individual rankings on major categories were:

• 39th in economic well-being
• 40th in family and community context,
• 45th in health, and
• 49th in education (ahead of only New Mexico).

Read the rest of the article at Oklahoma Policy Institute

Three Republicans seeking to succeed outgoing President Pro Tempore Greg Treat in the open Senate District 47 seat all proposed placing Oklahoma on a path to eliminate the state’s personal income tax at a forum Tuesday — something the long-time Senate leader has opposed owing to unanswered questions about how core government services would otherwise be funded.

Aaron Curry, Kelly Hines and Jenny Schmitt are seeking the Republican nomination for the open seat June 18. If a candidate receives a simple majority of the vote, they will advance to a Nov. 5 general election against Erin Brewer, the lone Democrat to file candidacy for the district.

Read the rest of the article at NonDoc

Oklahoma’s teen birth rate drops to #5 in the nation. 2022 data on the number of teen births is in, and it’s good news for the Sooner State. The birth rate for females ages 15-19 fell from 24.1 births per 1,000 to 21.1, knocking us down from last year's fourth-place ranking.

Teen pregnancy is linked to poorer pregnancy outcomes, as well as lower high school and college graduation rates for both mom and baby. So it's super exciting to see that the state’s teen birth rate has decreased a whopping 28% between 2018 and 2022.

Tulsa County has seen even larger declines. Why? According to Tulsa World’s coverage, local orgs that support sex-ed and contraception access are helping youth make healthy decisions in partnership with their parents.

Heather Duvall, executive director at Amplify Youth Health Collective, said the data represents a “huge accomplishment.” She believes the trend will continue as long as young people have “access to education, information and resources, health care services like (family planning) clinics, and free or low-cost contraception and condoms.” Dig deeper.

From Metriarch's Instagram

Thousands of bills were filed this legislative session and hundreds were signed into law by Gov. Kevin Stitt. KOSU and StateImpact reporters followed some of those measures until they either became law or died somewhere in the process. Here is what they learned:

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University of Oklahoma to end NEW Leadership program over governor’s executive order

The closure of a popular women’s leadership program has caused uproar among female officials at the state Capitol and across Oklahoma, who say the governor’s executive order against diversity, equity and inclusion is striking down initiatives meant to improve representation.

The University of Oklahoma announced last week the National Education for Women’s Leadership program, which encourages young women to engage in politics and public policy, will end because of an anti-DEI executive order Gov. Kevin Stitt signed in December. The program has graduated more than 650 female students from 42 colleges since it was founded in 2002.

NEW Leadership’s closure heightened concerns about the fate of state-funded programs meant to empower women and minorities.

Read the rest of the story on Oklahoma Voice.

Two Oklahoma tribal nation leaders were on Capitol Hill this week to stress the importance of public safety funding almost four years after the McGirt v. Oklahoma ruling.

The McGirt ruling had a significant impact on Indian Country, particularly on the Cherokee and Muscogee nations, whose leaders testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.

The Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Chuck Hoskin Jr., and Muscogee Nation's Self-Government Coordinator, Carson Ball, addressed Congress, requesting increased funding for law enforcement.

“Since the McGirt decision Cherokee Nation has dramatically scaled up its criminal justice system, boosting spending by $35 million annually to strengthen our law enforcement capabilities and meet the massive 380 percent increase in felony and misdemeanor case filings,” Hoskin Jr. wrote in a submitted testimony.

Read the rest of the story on KOSU.

When Edmond City Council members received a citywide housing study at an August meeting, they sought to start a conversation with community members about how to address the city’s lack of affordable housing. Instead, what ensued was an hour of intense public comments that underscored the robust challenges and major disagreements often defining housing and homelessness conversations in Oklahoma’s mid-sized municipalities.

With nearly 75 percent of Edmond’s workforce living outside the city limits, the study projected a need to add at least 8,900 homes — of all housing types — over the next decade to meet Edmond’s housing demand.

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Governor Kevin Stitt wants to make Oklahoma the business headquarters of the world with corporate welfare and big business incentives at the expense of everyday tax-paying citizens. Stitt calls for: “…not more taxes, but more taxpayers” in his address, putting all the burden on individuals while not increasing taxes on his big business friends. His desire to cut income taxes to zero with no plan to pay for core services already stretched to their limit is reckless and poor management of our state’s economy. Read more from Oklahoma Democrats...