2026 Oklahoma statewide and federal: Ideology matters

As I write this, there are six more hours for early voting today, Saturday, October 31, 2026, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. There were reports of long waits at Tulsa County's east and southeast locations (Election Board HQ at 11th and I-44 east of Garnett, Tulsa Tech SE Campus in Broken Arrow), but no wait at all at O'Brien Park in north Tulsa and Chandler Park near Berryhill.

I've updated the BatesLine ballot card with Tulsa-area county races and local races, including the Verdigris Fire District Board and the Oak Grove Fire District millage.

I have seen a few comments online about not voting, casting a protest vote for an independent, or voting for the Democrat in certain statewide races. Some talk of "playing the long game," rejecting an undesirable Republican in hopes that future party primaries will produce better candidates. Pastor Michael Clary's perspective on the Ohio governor's race can be applied to Oklahoma as well:

I believe playing the "long game" is a luxury we cannot afford. We aren't playing with action figures here. Whoever is governor will actually govern and enact policies that affect people's lives. And I believe Acton's policies will be worse than Vivek's. I'd rather oppose a Hindu who wants to appeal to conservatives than a liberal Democrat who despises my existence.

And don't believe the line that a Republican statehouse will keep Acton in check. We've seen what she did with executive power when she had it. The lockdowns didn't come from the legislature. A governor appoints the people who run state agencies, sets their priorities, and holds the veto pen. Hamstrung is not the same as harmless.

The days of peace-time elections are over. Every election is now a war-time election. The results of elections are not mere matters of policy, but matters of survival. Amy Acton is a leftist, and the left has increasingly demonstrated their willingness to crush anything that stands in their way. Democrats have gotten increasingly unhinged, irrational, and draconian. The Democratic Party is running open socialists and Islamists around the country. They cannot be reasoned with, only defeated.

This certainly applies to our governor's race, where we have a solid pro-life Christian conservative in Mike Mazzei who wants to cut our taxes and streamline government, even if you don't like his opinion on an aluminum processing plant (not a smelter) in Inola, a matter now under the authority of local officials and state and federal environmental regulators, not the governor. His opponent is a paradigmatic AWFL -- affluent, white, female leftist -- a transplant to Oklahoma, never married, no children, pro-abortion, pro-trans. Imagine the sort of people leftist Cyndi Munson will appoint to the State Board of Education, the state Supreme Court and appellate courts, as regents for our colleges and universities, to state boards and agencies. Many of these appointees will be her fellow transplants installed in Oklahoma non-profits by our leftist philanthropocrats.

It applies in a big way to the Attorney General race. Jon Echols was not my choice, but at least he's a pro-life, pro-capitalism, pro-gun conservative Christian. AG is very much an ideological office, who defends our state's conservative laws in Federal court, who protects Oklahoma's sovereignty during hostile presidential administrations, who guides state and local officials in the interpretation and application of laws. We've seen enough damage done by an alleged conservative AG who used his platform to attack the governor and other Republican elected officials. Imagine having an AG like Nick Coffey, who would not defend our conservative laws but would gladly surrender to left-wing sue-and-settle schemes, whether brought by local non-profits or by a future Gavin Newsom or Kamala Harris administration.

In the State Superintendent race, the calculus runs the other way. If phony Republican Robert Franklin wins, he will owe his election to the unions and other leftist activists, and that's how he'll staff the State Department of Education. If Jennettie Marshall wins, she will owe nothing to the official Democrat Party, which has ignored her and whose activists have worked against her in both the primary and general elections. She will owe more to Republicans who have helped her in the general election campaign. Watch her presentation after the release of the Tulsa Public Schools audit, as I did again recently, and I think you'll agree: We want someone with Jennettie Marshall's mastery of detail and insistence on accountability riding herd on Oklahoma's public school system. It would be even better if she were a conservative, but that is not an option on the ballot.

In the other statewide and federal races:

Lt. Governor: T. W. Shannon (R) was a good Speaker of the Oklahoma House, one of the few Republican Speakers who treated the Republican caucus fairly and used the office to advance conservative governance. His amicus brief in support of Jimcy McGirt still gives me heartburn.

Opponent Kelly Forbes (D) is a man "married" to a man, with a doctorate in "administration and leadership." His hairstyle is... interesting.

Attorney General: Regarding Jon Echols (R), see above. Opponent Nick Coffey (D) is a former federal prosecutor and defense attorney representing energy companies who was a generous donor to Democrats Kamala Harris for President ($600) and Kendra Horn for Congress ($1,500). There's no indication that he has a wife or children.

Treasurer: Cindy Byrd (R). Byrd has been an excellent State Auditor and will be an excellent State Treasurer. Tulsa taxpayers should be especially grateful for her work to expose fraud and waste at Tulsa Public Schools.

Byrd's only opponent is Kiefer Perry, Libertarian state vice-chairman. A fan of Austrian economics (a good thing!), Perry works at Lowe's. He seems to be the Libertarian Party's best hope of meeting the 2.5% vote threshold to keep official recognition.

Commissioner of Labor: Kevin West (R) spent his career as a cabinet maker and the owner of a cabinet-making small business. He has a stalwart conservative voting record with high rankings on all the conservative scorecards. Encouraging the skilled trades and working with small, locally owned businesses will be his focus.

There are two other candidates: Kevin Dawson (D) from Norman is a retired railroad locomotive engineer and, unusually for Democrat nominees this year, has a 43-year marriage and children and grandchildren. Dawson has been a generous donor to the Oklahoma Democratic Party and Democrat Federal candidates, including Joe Biden, Jeff Pixley, and Madison Horn. Libertarian Mike Horn is a program manager with a construction materials company.

Insurance Commissioner: Bob Sullivan (R) prevailed in the runoff over former State Rep. Marty Quinn. This was the only one of the four runoffs where both candidates were certified Republicans -- pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment, no recent party switching, no recent donations to Democrats. Before the primary, the Oklahoma Autobody Association interviewed all the candidates for Insurance Commissioner and has posted audio and transcripts. I've skimmed the transcripts for Bob Sullivan and his Democrat opponent, Craig MacIntyre. Both seem to be plausible candidates, with significant experience in the insurance industry. Sullivan has raised a considerable amount of money from insurance agents, including the Oklahoma Association of Insurance Agents and Mark Tedford, head of Tedford Insurance and also a candidate for Congress.

As I've written, nothing is more important this year than maintaining Republican control of both houses of Congress, however disappointing some of our individual congressmen are. A Democrat majority means the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and Ilhan Omar in charge of congressional committees and lots of impeachment trials. Republican majorities protect the conservative, pro-America agenda of the Executive Branch and the confirmation of more constitutionalists as Federal judges. As it happens, Oklahomans have good Republican candidates to support.

U. S. Senate: Kevin Hern (R) has been a faithfully conservative congressman for the 1st District who quickly became a leader in the House Republican caucus. He will be an effective conservative voice for Oklahoma in the U. S. Senate, and I expect he will rise in leadership there as well. The unspellable Democrat nominee is a meme candidate.

U. S. House, District 1: Mark Tedford (R), whom I supported in the primary, should have no trouble defeating John "Flaky" Croisant, who bears a great deal of blame for waste and fraud at Tulsa Public Schools as a rubber-stamping board member. I mentioned before the primary how impressed I was to hear Mark Tedford's thoughtful extemporaneous discussion of the Christian doctrine of vocation; that link will take you to the video.

U. S. House, District 2: Josh Brecheen (R) is the conservative star of the Oklahoma delegation. His Democrat opponent Brandon Wade affirms all the standard leftist dogmas: "I will stand firm in defending the rights of women, LGBTQ+ individuals, immigrants, and minorities--rejecting discrimination, hate, and attacks on equality."

U. S. House, District 3: Frank Lucas (R) is the dean of the delegation. I wish he were tougher on spending, but I have to respect the fact that his election in 1993 was the harbinger of the Republican congressional sweep in 1994.

U. S. House, District 4: Tom Cole (R) is my least favorite Oklahoma congressman, although I've always enjoyed listening to him speak about Oklahoma's political history. Democrat opponent Mitchell Jacob wants to abolish ICE.

U. S. House, District 5: Stephanie Bice (R) is running for her fourth term in Congress. In her first term she was elected president of that year's class of freshman congressmen. She is now Vice Chair of the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.