Tulsa Election 2026: June 2026 Archives

In-person absentee voting will be available at your county's early voting locations on Thursday, June 10, 2026, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Friday, June 11, 2026, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Saturday, June 12, 2026, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tulsa County will have in-person absentee voting at the new Tulsa County Election Board location at 12000 E. Skelly Drive and at Tulsa Tech Broken Arrow Campus near 111th Street S & 129th East Ave (aka Florence and Olive). Polls in each precinct will be open Tuesday, June 16, 2026, from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.

NOTE: Precinct boundaries, voting locations, and district boundaries have changed, in some cases dramatically. Enter your name and date of birth on the Oklahoma State Election Board's online voter portal and you will see where to vote and your sample ballot.

In response to popular demand, I have assembled the guidance detailed below into a downloadable, printable, single-page PDF.

Here are the candidates I'm recommending and (if in the district) voting for in the Oklahoma Republican primary elections on June 16, 2026. (This entry will change as I decide to add more detail, link previous articles, or discuss additional races between now and election day. The entry is post-dated to keep it at the top.)

As I post this, I'm still unsure about several races, and there are other races I had planned to write about in detail, but time is short, people are voting, and many have asked for a summary of my recommendations. My most enthusiastic choices are in bold; in other races, there may be one or two other candidates that would be acceptable, or I simply don't know the endorsed candidate as well as I would like. There are certain incumbents that I'd like to see defeated, but I don't feel comfortable endorsing an opponent at this point. I'll try to fill in TBDs and NOTs before the start of early voting.

US Senate: Kevin Hern
1st Congressional District: Mark Tedford
2nd Congressional District: Josh Brecheen
3rd Congressional District: Wade Burleson
4th Congressional District: Marcie Everhart
5th Congressional District: No primary

SQ 832 (eternal minimum wage escalator): NO

Governor: Mike Mazzei
Lt. Governor: David Ostrowe
Auditor and Inspector: Melissa Capps elected without opposition
Attorney General: Jeff Starling
Treasurer: Todd Russ
Superintendent of Public Instruction: John Cox
Labor Commissioner: Kevin West
Insurance Commissioner: Marty Quinn
Corporation Commissioner: Justin Hornback

The Treasurer's race was a tough call. I admire Cindy Byrd's work in eight years as State Auditor. She had been running for Lt. Governor but switched races at filing time. Todd Russ has gotten great investment results for Oklahoma's public funds, has improved the state's credit rating, and has divested from funds that discriminate against the oil and gas industry. But Jason Murphey, whom I greatly respect, sees "danger signs" in Russ's handling of the Invest in Oklahoma Board and his hiring of a lobbyist. On the other, other hand, reporting from OCPA's Ray Carter makes it clear that Russ bent over backwards, extending the deadline, so that taxpayers had multiple bidders from which to choose. The winning bidder was the low bidder, and the various state pension fund boards will independently choose whether or not to opt-in to invest with the fund.

District Attorney, District 14: Steve Kunzweiler.

This is the most important race on the Tulsa County ballot. Kunzweiler is an honest, hardworking leader who has done a great job for us, despite limited resources and obstacles like McGirt and SQ 780 that make it much harder for a DA to put bad guys behind bars. I've looked into the accusations against him, amplified by dark money from Delaware, and they reflect a failure to understand the law and the facts.

His opponent, Colleen McCarty, has never tried a case before a jury but has spent her entire, 5-year legal career leading non-profits that advocate for bad ideas from the Left: lighter sentencing for career criminals, "social justice," trans rights and woke history in schools, and California-style jungle primaries. She has been dishonest about her 17-year history as a Democrat and deceptive in the way she tells conservative audiences about her left-wing non-profit work, describing letting criminals out of jail early as "fiscally conservative." She protested against a bill that would have acknowledged unborn children as persons with unalienable rights.

District 14 District Judge, Office 4: Dustin Allen. Either Allen or Phillip Peak would be preferable to DEI supporter Loretta Radford, but Allen has law enforcement backing and a longer history as a Republican.

In the State House and Senate, we need to re-elect Freedom Caucus members and elect challengers who will join them in resisting lobbyists and corporate welfare and who will stand for the taxpayers of Oklahoma. If you want to see the Capitol Swamp's hostility toward Oklahomans, watch Senate Majority Whip Bill Coleman's angry rant about the Freedom Caucus. Jaden Terrazas, his challenger for District 10, offers a dignified response.

Senate 2: Payton Pepin
Senate 4: Kenny Smith
Senate 10: Jaden A. Terrazas
Senate 12: Todd Gollihare
Senate 20: Mark LeMarr
Senate 26: Brady Butler
Senate 28: Robert Trimble
Senate 34: Dana Prieto (i)
Senate 42: Malana Bracht

House 3: Rick West (i)
House 8: Tom Gann (i)
House 9: Debbie Long
House 10: Jake Bair
House 11: Wendi Stearman
House 12: Sandy Hodges
House 14: Roy Timmons
House 24: Chris Banning (i)
House 32: Jim Shaw (i)
House 33: Molly Jenkins
House 36: Jenni White
House 69: Angela Strohm
House 74: Kevin Norwood (i)
House 98: Gabe Woolley (i)

Tulsa County Assessor: John Wright re-elected without opposition
Tulsa County Treasurer: John Fothergill
Tulsa County Commissioner District 1:
Tulsa County Commissioner District 3: Kelly Dunkerly re-elected without opposition
Osage County Treasurer: Shawna Myers
Wagoner County Commissioner District 1: Josh Stenros

City of Bixby Charter Amendment Propositions: NO

MORE INFORMATION:

POLLING:

May 21-25 NonDoc poll of Governor and State Superintendent races: This poll was used to decide which candidates qualified for the NonDoc debates
June 2-3 JMC Analytics poll of Governor, Senate: JMC Analytics is a Louisiana-based polling company

OTHER CONSERVATIVE VOICES:

Here are some blogs, endorsement lists, candidate questionnaires, and sources of information for your consideration.

• Muskogee Politico news, questionnaires, and analysis
• Muskogee Politico primary picks
• Muskogee Politico legislator tax votes, 2016-2018
• Oklahoma Conservative PAC meeting videos, including candidate speeches
• Tulsa Beacon endorsements
• Jason Murphey Primary Voter Guide
• Oklahoma Constitution Index: Scores incumbent legislators on voting record
• iVoterGuide surveys of Oklahoma statewide, federal, and legislative candidates
• Tulsa County Republican Party candidate guide, with links to social media, GOP questionnaires, and GOP candidate interview transcripts
• City Elders Tulsa speakers' videos, including candidate speeches
• Oklahomans for Life candidate surveys: 2026 primary survey
• Oklahomans for the 2nd Amendment (OK2A)
• NRA-PVF endorsements
• Make Oklahoma Healthy Again (MOHA) endorsements -- formerly Oklahomans for Health and Parental Rights (OKHPR)
• Charlie Meadows's picks

ANTI-CONSERVATIVE VOICES:

Historically there have been some endorsement lists that are generally negative indicators, including public employees and teacher's unions (and front groups like Oklahomans for Public Education), but these groups have become careful to conceal their support, which backfires in a Republican primary.

The State Chamber of Oklahoma puts out a voter guide that lists State Chamber PAC endorsements. Being pro-business is great, but please read my 2016 article "Chambers of Horrors" to understand why social and fiscal conservatives, opponents of cronyism, and supporters of historic preservation should find Chamber endorsements problematic.

There are some self-styled "conservative influencers" who have shown themselves confused, inconsistent, or downright treacherous. Caveat lector. Anyone who promotes an inexperienced left-winger for District Attorney is not someone conservatives should look to for endorsements.

If you appreciate the many hours of research that went into this guide and into the rest of my election coverage, and if you'd like to help keep this site online, you can contribute to BatesLine's upkeep via PayPal. You can also support BatesLine through a paid Substack subscription. In addition to keeping me caffeinated, donated funds pay for web hosting, subscriptions, and paid databases I use for research. Many thanks to those generous readers who have already contributed.

UPDATE 2026/06/13: I've added recommendations for the open seat in House District 9 (Rogers County), the rematch in House District 74, Wagoner County Commissioner 1st District, and Osage County Treasurer.

UPDATE 2026/06/15: Serious and credible accusations of sexual misconduct with minors have emerged today against Senate 12 challenger Craig Stump. Because of incumbent Todd Gollihare's connection with the late-session Senate obstruction of House bills, I had joined other conservatives in calling for Gollihare's replacement, but Stump is clearly the wrong choice.

There's always more to say than time to write, so here are some final loosely organized notes and thoughts on the 2026 Oklahoma Republican primary.

A politically involved friend texted to ask, "Have you ever in your time in Tulsa seen political campaigns so dark and nasty?" It's been a bad year, and a lot of factors are making it worse: All the statewide races are strongly contested, and all but one (State Treasurer) is an open seat. There's been a massive amount of dark-money spending. The closeness of the Governor's race and the 1st CD race means that a campaign will seize on anything that might add a few voters to the candidate's column or demoralize the other candidate's voters into staying home. Of course, there are so many things to vote on, that demoralization about one candidate wouldn't necessarily cause a voter to give up voting on anything.

Oklahoma Grassroots Conservatives LLC, a Delaware-registered dark-money group, has reported spending $677,828.65 opposing Steve Kunzweiler and supporting Colleen McCarty for Tulsa County District Attorney in the Republican primary. Dustin McIntyre is named as the group's treasurer; the address is a private mailbox facility at 4th and Yale. That astronomical amount does not include any spending in the last two weeks of the campaign.

Dark-money groups, like Oklahoma Grassroots Conservatives, LLC, offer a way for corporations to influence an election; it's illegal for corporations to donate directly to candidates for public office. Dark-money groups also provide an avenue for secret support from donors whose gifts might be embarrassing to a candidate and a way for donors to exceed the $3,500 maximum allowed by law.

It's interesting that we haven't seen many contributions to either candidate from people connected with Tulsa's progressive philanthropocrats. Names that are often on campaign contribution lists just aren't there. It may be that, because their names are poison in GOP primaries, these people are giving instead to the dark-money group to help McCarty.

There are a couple of exceptions. Former Democrat mayor Kathy Taylor gave $1,000 to McCarty, and so did Rachel Zarrow, a San Francisco teacher and freelance writer who serves on the board of the Maxine and Jack Zarrow Family Foundation, which was a 2023 donor to Oklahoma Appleseed Project.

George Kaiser and his associates have not yet given to Colleen McCarty's campaign, but the George Kaiser Family Foundation gave $50,000 in 2023 and $50,000 in 2024 to McCarty's Oklahoma Appleseed Project. (The 990 for 2025 is not yet due to be filed.)

By World Economic Forum - Flickr: George Soros - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

Billionaire leftist George Soros has been involved in a long-term effort to take over District Attorney's offices across America. According to a 2022 report from the Foundation for Government Accountability, Kim Foxx in Chicago, George Gascon in LA, Alvin Bragg in Manhattan, and DAs in Portland, Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and New Orleans won office with support from Soros's organizations.

In 2022, there has been a rise in violent crime across the United States. But many cities and counties run by Soros-backed district attorneys have seen a disproportionally sharp increase in violent crime. Delaware County, Pennsylvania, saw a 127-percent increase in homicides once a Soros district attorney took over the top prosecutor job. Nearby Philadelphia had the highest murder rate of the 10 largest cities in the country. Cook County, Illinois, saw the largest spike in Chicago homicides in more than 30 years while the progressive district attorney backed by $2 million from Soros dropped charges against 30 percent of felony defendants. In Dallas County, Texas, after District Attorney John Creuzot decriminalized theft under $750, criminal trespass, and drug possession, crime increased 15 percent, while convictions dropped 30 percent.

Soros-backed district attorneys in California witnessed crimes in their districts that would seem more at home in movies. Shocking videos emerged of organized flash mob robberies at places like San Francisco's Union Square, Nordstrom, and Louis Vuitton. In Los Angeles, a flash mob ransacked a convenience store and the rest of the country got to learn what exactly rail theft entails.

This is to be expected when prosecutors who promise no prosecution are elected. Parts of the nation can begin to look like a third-world country because people will always push boundaries when there are no consequences....

Funding the campaign of a district attorney is much cheaper than that of a presidential, senatorial, congressional, or gubernatorial candidate. Soros spent $40 million to help elect district attorneys that represent more than 70 million Americans. The most expensive Senate race was Georgia's in 2020 with more than $500 million spent and the most expensive House race that cycle was a special election in California with more than $38 million spent. With the same amount of money as one House race, Soros was able to elect district attorneys representing more than a fifth of all Americans. Money really does go further in these races, which are arguably much more consequential for the day-to-day lives of Americans....

Soros's efforts to turn a largely nonpartisan position into an ideological one is in full swing. These progressive district attorneys have turned criminal law on its head, protecting the criminals and leaving the citizenry exposed. This has predictably led to an increase in crime and a feeling of unease for law-abiding citizens when in the streets of large cities.

After several Soros-backed DAs were ousted by voters in 2022, because of the chaos they caused, Soros wrote in the Wall Street Journal that he would continue to fund "reform prosecutors" in District Attorney elections. Soros echoes the same themes we've seen in McCarty's work at Oklahoma Appleseed and Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform: The criminal justice system is biased against African-Americans, and too many people are going to prison.

Oklahoma Grassroots Conservatives, LLC, has spent nearly a million dollars attacking DA Steve Kunzweiler and supporting Colleen McCarty. There isn't a corresponding dark-money group fighting on the other side. There's a world-renowned billionaire who has publicly stated he funds "reform" DA candidates who align with the "criminal justice reform" policies for which Colleen McCarty has advocated her entire, short, legal career. There's a local billionaire whose foundation made significant grants to Colleen McCarty's organization for the most recent two years for which 990s have been filed, 2023 and 2024. If any names traceable to either billionaire turned up in McCarty's campaign disclosures, it would destroy her viability as a Republican primary candidate. But there's a Delaware-registered dark-money organization right there, making it possible for donors to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars helping their preferred candidate without hurting her by association.

It may take years to find out who's behind it, but if it looks like Soros, and it smells like Soros, you have to wonder.

Amy Dickens is a prosecutor now, working in the Crimes Against Children unit, but many years ago she was our kids' babysitter and part of our church family. Dickens received the Pillar of Hope award last fall from the Child Advocacy Network for her work prosecuting cases involving child abuse. She has some words about tomorrow's election for Tulsa County District Attorney that are worth your attention.

Tomorrow is the day to vote for Steve Kunzweiler to remain the Tulsa County DA.

Colleen McCarty has lied about a lot of things during her campaign but one particular lie so offends me, both personally and professionally, that I feel I have to address it.

Anyone who claims that our office does not prosecute cases involving sexual abuse of children under age 12 is LYING. I've spent seven years prosecuting those crimes.

Someone who has never tried a single case may have the naive luxury of believing that, to quote her directly, "you would be hard pressed to find 12 people in Tulsa county who would NOT convict a child molester and sentence them to 25 years." If only that were true.

The reality is this: IT IS HARD to secure convictions in those cases. It is hard to watch attorneys deliberately confuse small children, twist their words, make them cry, then tell a jury the reason they "can't keep their story straight" is that they are lying. It is hard to explain to a jury why so many times children don't disclose right away, or how frustratingly quickly DNA evidence disappears. It is hard to get jurors to understand that someone who abuses a child for a period of months deserves that 25 year minimum just as much as someone who abuses a child for a period of years. And it is hard to get jurors to tune out the little but loud "reform groups" who work tirelessly to shift society's focus to criminals who want to paint themselves as victims rather than keeping the focus on the actual victims - groups like those McCarty has spent her entire career working for, advocating for criminals.

That doesn't mean we don't file those cases. We do. And we secure convictions in a lot of them because experienced prosecutors handle them. But anyone who thinks that prosecutors can just snap our fingers and get a jury to convict every single time because we say so is frighteningly naive. It simply does not work that way, which McCarty doesn't understand because she's never actually done this job. And claiming that we do not prosecute those cases because the 25 year minimum makes them too hard is an outright lie.

When you're a prosecutor you don't get to lie. You don't get to spin, or twist people's words, or provide incomplete context, or actively work to deceive people to get them on your side. Every single thing Colleen McCarty is doing in her campaign is the very opposite of what it means to be a prosecutor.

On June 16th vote Steve Kunzweiler for DA.

Well said, Amy. Steve Kunzweiler has put together and kept together a great team at the Tulsa County DA's office, despite budget restrictions and the heartbreak of working with victims. Amy is one of several ADAs that our family got to know before their time working at the DAs office, so we have a good sense of the kind of dedicated, hardworking, and intelligent attorneys that Kunzweiler has recruited and retained. None of the attorneys I know want to see Kunzweiler replaced.

(Dickens mentioned separately that, although the legislature recently reduced the minimum sentence from 25 to 10 years, crimes that were committed prior to the change must still be tried under the previous sentencing minimums.)

Here are a few of my thoughts as we reach the end of this campaign:

Congressional candidate Jackson Lahmeyer canceled his sermon this morning at Sheridan.Church. Hours later, the London-based Daily Mail published an expose of Lahmeyer's flirtatious texts with a former Miss Oklahoma USA. Although the texts indicate no sexual involvement had yet occurred, the reaction from Lahmeyer's wife shows that she saw her husband moving toward the exits with Caitlin Simmons Key, a single mom who worked as a fundraiser for the campaign.

Jackson Lahmeyer, 34, the Tulsa megachurch pastor whom Donald Trump anointed a 'MAGA Warrior' last month, faces a torrent of his own text messages obtained by the Daily Mail ahead of Oklahoma's 1st District Republican primary on Tuesday.

In them he professes his love for the former pageant queen, invites her to his hotel room, and recounts leaving Mar-a-Lago to visit a strip club at 1am after being offered cocaine, which he declined.

Her reply now reads as prophecy: 'Jackson if u become congressman & if ever got caught u would be headlines.' Then, one word: 'Pastor.'

Caitlin Simmons Key, a 40-year-old single mom who worked as a fundraiser for Lahmeyer's campaign, tells the Daily Mail they shared inappropriate texts before his wife learned of the relationship on the eve of Mother's Day.

'You are a home wrecking whore. Did you enjoy ruining our family?' Lahmeyer's wife Kendra wrote to Key on May 9: 'He has 5 kids.'...

Key first met Lahmeyer in 2022, when he was a political newcomer mounting a long-shot Republican primary challenge to incumbent US Senator James Lankford.

She was active on the Oklahoma conservative scene; he was the pastor who had refused to shut his church during Covid. She signed on to raise money for the campaign.

Lahmeyer lost to Lankford in a landslide. But the two stayed in touch, and, Key said, grew closer as she went through a bruising divorce. She said he would call to check in. It became an intense friendship that went too far, she says.

'Eventually the conversations crossed the line of probably what most people would consider appropriate for a married man and a single woman,' she said.

Through that period Lahmeyer's national profile climbed. He founded Pastors for Trump and was brought into the president's new White House Faith Office. Key worked as a media contact for Lahmeyer's organization. He was in Washington constantly, she says, and repeatedly encouraged her to join him: 'You gotta come to DC.' She declined every time.

Key posting about Trump's endorsement started the ball rolling toward exposure:

On May 6, the president endorsed Lahmeyer on Truth Social telling Oklahoma's 1st Congressional District: 'HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!'

The next day, Key shared the endorsement on Facebook with a header vouching for the candidate: she wrote that she knew him well, knew his family, and was ready to 'get to DC.'

It was that public revelation, she says, that undid them. The morning after the post, she got a call from campaign manager Killian. 'She's pissed,' Key said he told her, meaning Kendra Lahmeyer. 'She got into Jackson's messages.'

That led to Mrs. Lahmeyer's "home wrecking whore" message quoted above.

Here's the May 7 Facebook post that reportedly triggered Mrs. Lahmeyer:

A couple months ago people kept asking me, "Why would Jackson even run for this?"

"Do you realize how many people are in this race?"

"That's impossible."

"That's going to be HARD."

And honestly? They weren't wrong. Politics is brutal. Crowded races are brutal. Public opinion changes by the hour and everyone with a Facebook account and a WiFi signal suddenly becomes an expert. America's favorite Olympic sport: confidently yelling from the comments section.

But impossible and difficult are not the same thing.

Today, Jackson Lahmeyer received President Donald Trump's endorsement, and regardless of where anyone lands politically, that is a huge moment in this race.

I support Jackson because I actually KNOW him. I know his family. I see the conversations people don't see, the work people don't see, and the heart behind all of it.
If there's one thing I've learned over the years working around politics, it's this: politics can be ugly... but not every person in politics is.

There are good people trying to do good things, and Jackson is one of them.

And also... let this be your reminder that people will always tell you something can't be done right before it starts happening.

Later, Jackson Lahmeyer texted Key:

Kendra wanted to recover all of our messages. I deleted them. I told her I got way too close to you and became emotionally attached. She lost it on me. [...]

I've been very clear with her that I got way to close to you and shared too much about myself... but we were not romantic. I deleted all her texts and she thinks there is way more going on. She is flipping on me because I will not share more. [...]

I did not see this coming. She came home and wanted to read our texts and I had deleted them and then she lost it. Saying I had something to hide. And so I have shared with her that you and I have gotten close and that I crossed the line and etc... but was very clear we had nothing romantic or etc... but she doesn't believe me.

The morning after Mother's Day, he then instructed Key to delete messages:

Ok send me a screenshot of our last several texts and I'll show which ones to remove.

Kendra has really shifted now. I think the hurt and wine caused yesterday

Archive link to the story.

MORE: Key's public political posts on Facebook since May 7 have been in support of Chris Merideth for Insurance Commissioner.

Jackson Lahmeyer posted the following response on Facebook at 9:07 pm Sunday evening, June 14:

Today, a distorted story from a British Tabloid was released just two days before my election.

This matter was already dealt with privately between me and my wife, Kendra, through counsel and prayer with God and spiritual advisors. I own crossing a boundary line through text messaging. I also ended all communication. The British Tabloid tried to paint me out in a way which is not the case.

At the same time, we must ask the question if this story was paid for and why our communications were carefully cherry-picked to create an impression that is not accurate.

I am beyond grateful to have Kendra's support. I am fully committed to my family, church and Oklahoma's 1st Congressional District.

I have little doubt that those in the political establishment who oppose my America First Candidacy will attempt to make more of this than it is. My wife Kendra may have more to say on this subject in the coming days.

If the messages were cherry-picked to create a misleading impression, Lahmeyer would be in a position to provide the context he says is lacking, assuming he didn't delete those messages.

THE OTHER SHOE HAS DROPPED: After the initial story, Lahmeyer's limited-hangout response, and Trump's reaffirmation of his endorsement, the Daily Mail has a second story, in which Key claims that the two kissed several times, and a text from Lahmeyer seems to corroborate the claim. (Archive link.)

THE THIRD AND FINAL SHOE: In a story published by the Daily Mail on June 17, Lahmeyer admitted that he had had an alcohol-fueled sexual encounter with Key during his 2022 Senate campaign:

He denied any physical relationship ahead of Tuesday's primary.

Key then went on the record, describing multiple kisses throughout the spring and warning the pastor to stop lying as she hinted there was more to the story.

Pressed by the Daily Mail on the gap between his account and hers, Lahmeyer finally cracked.

Asked directly whether Key was lying, he said: 'No, she is not lying.'

Asked if the two ever had sex, he replied: 'We kissed and in 2022 I had an affair on my wife and I've owned that. But Caitlin Key and I did not have sex during this election. There's plenty of text messages to prove that.'

Pushed on whether he was admitting that in 2022 it crossed the line into sex, he said simply: 'In 2022 I cheated on my wife.'

He cast his withdrawal from the race as a moral reckoning, telling the Daily Mail he was 'heading down a very, very bad path' and that the implosion of his campaign 'may have spared my life and my family.'

(Archive link.)

This is conjecture, but if Kendra Lahmeyer was already aware of the 2022 affair, it would explain why she was triggered by Key's social media post about the Trump endorsement, and why she texted Key to ask her to change it. It would also explain why Kendra demanded to see Jackson's text messages shortly thereafter.

Shortly after this revelation, Lahmeyer suspended his campaign, and Trump switched his endorsement to Mike Tedford.

Lahmeyer filed papers by the deadline to withdraw from the runoff, making Tedford the nominee. This also happened in 2001, when John Sullivan finished first in a December 11, 2001, special election to fill the vacancy in the 1st Congressional District after Steve Largent resigned to run for Governor. First Lady Cathy Keating finished second with 30.5% well behind Sullivan at 45.5%, and she opted to withdraw from a runoff she was highly unlikely to win. That allowed the general election to occur on the scheduled runoff date, on January 8, 2002.

Jackson Lahmeyer has responded on Facebook to a last-minute mailer from the Mark Tedford campaign. The two are front-runners in the battle for the Republican nomination in Oklahoma's 1st Congressional District.

I wish I didn't have to do this, but unfortunately my opponent, Mark Tedford, has revealed his lack of character by running a false TV ad & mailer about me just 3 days before the election.

Mark can't win on the issues so he's resorting to false personal attacks. That's what career politicians do.

He claims over a decade ago that my wages were garnished by Sheridan Church. That's false.

I had a medical bill I was unaware of go to collections. Once I was notified of this, I paid the medical bill and have the Satisfactory Statement from the collector.

This is simply dirty politics.

We are the ONLY candidate endorsed by President Trump. The Swamp in DC is scared of our movement because they know we're not going to bend the knee to the establishment.

On Tuesday, June 16 take action and vote Jackson Lahmeyer. I will never let you down!

Here's the court case. If I'm reading the docket report correctly, it took Lahmeyer six months after he was served with the lawsuit, five months after the court ruled against him, to get around to paying, and that did not happen until a garnishment was filed and served to the church.

Typically a creditor doesn't file a suit until they've sent months of notices, followed by notices from the collection agency. Saying, "Once I was notified of this, I paid the medical bill," is dishonest spin.

It may be that Sheridan Church never paid a garnishment, but the church was served with a garnishment notice. Here's the timeline of key events from the docket report:

• 11-10-2016: Small claims initial filing for $1066.82
• 11-15-2016: Summons served on Jackson R. Lahmeyer
• 12-13-2016: Judgment against Lahmeyer for $866.82, plus $86 attorneys' fees and $93 court costs
• 05-02-2017: Garnishment affidavit with summons filed for $1,024.78
• 05-10-2017: Garnishment discharge filed
• 05-30-2017: Release from judgment

It's worth pointing out that this was shortly after Lahmeyer's divorce from his first wife, and it appears that he had sole custody of their child.

Tedford also had two similar small claims cases in which a medical bill went to collections. The first case, from 2011, appears to have been disputed, as Tedford's attorney entered appearance in the case shortly after the suit was served, and the plaintiff dismissed the case. In the second case, from 2017, the summons was served on July 8, 2017, and the case was dismissed on August 25, 2017, with no intervening entries on the docket, suggesting the bill was paid soon after the summons was received.

Medical bills do sometimes slip through the cracks, but taking six months to deal with the matter after being served with a lawsuit, rather than setting up a payment plan right away, to let things get to the point of garnishment, that seems irresponsible. Whether it ought to matter in a congressional race 9 years later is up for debate, but increasingly character matters as much as a candidate's platform. How are we going to trust you to fulfill your platform if you're not honest with us?

Markwayne Mullin's appointment as Secretary of Homeland Security set off a series of electoral dominoes. As Congressman Kevin Hern opted to seek Mullin's Senate seat, a dozen candidates filed to succeed Hern in the 1st District. Dan Rooney dropped out after President Trump endorsed another candidate, leaving 11.

If you're trying to take off from a short runway, you'd better have a lot of thrust. Some elected officials who have run credible campaigns in the past didn't step up this time, perhaps because they knew they couldn't get off the ground quickly enough.

In an earlier entry, we saw how important it was for a candidate to have ready cash to lend his campaign; three months is not enough time for fundraising. A half-dozen have managed either to raise or borrow six figures or more: Nathaniel "Nathan" Butterfield, Jed Cochran, Kim David, Jackson Lahmeyer, Mark Tedford, Todd Woods.

After the second and penultimate day of the filing period for the 2026 City of Tulsa elections, two more races have become competitive, but six remain uncontested. The last chance to file is tomorrow, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Tulsa County Election Board, 12000 E. Skelly Drive.

The only other jurisdiction in Oklahoma with the same filing dates is the Town of Tecumseh in Pottawatomie County. (Oklahoma should have standard municipal election dates, along with school board elections, in the fall of odd-numbered years.)

The Oklahoma State Election Board tracks candidate filings on their website, and the Tulsa County Election Board has posted a list of filings to date.

Candidates have the option of listing websites, email addresses, and phone numbers on their declaration of candidacy. I've linked those candidates who specified a website.

District 1 City Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper drew two opponents, Reggie Williams and Corinice Wilson. That sets up a possible November runoff should none of the candidates get a majority of the vote in August. All three candidates are registered Democrats.

District 9 now has two candidates, as Pete Regan, a registered Republican, joins Ben Johnson, a registered Democrat, in the race for the only open Council seat this year. Incumbent Carol Bush announced yesterday that she would not seek re-election.

The other contested seats:

District 2: Incumbent Anthony Archie, challenger Aaron Bisogno. Both candidates are registered Republicans.

District 5: Incumbent Karen Gilbert, a registered Republican, challenger Adam Burnett, a registered Democrat.

Tulsa needs some city councilors who actually know something about creating wealth. What we mainly have now are NGO employees who only know about spending other people's money. Take a look at the district map, see where you live, and think about friends and neighbors you know who have intelligence and backbone.

To file for any City of Tulsa office, you'll need a $50 cashier's check, you'll need to complete and notarize a declaration of candidacy, and you'll need to read, sign, and date the qualifications for office, then file the paperwork with the Tulsa County Election Board at its new location at 12000 E. Skelly Drive, on the southeast service road of I-44 just north of 11th Street. The City of Tulsa 2026 election packet is available on the TCEB website.

As if we didn't have enough to notice right now: Filing for all nine seats on the City of Tulsa City Council and for City Auditor is happening one week before the Oklahoma primary. Filing began this morning, Monday, June 8, 2026 and will end at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, June 10, 2026. The Oklahoma State Election Board tracks candidate filings on their website, and the Tulsa County Election Board has posted a list of filings to date.

After the first day of filing, it's mainly incumbents that have filed: City Auditor Nathan Pickard will run for a term that was changed by charter to run four years instead of two, offset from the Mayor's four-year term. Incumbent councilors Vanessa Hall Harper (District 1), Anthony Archie (2), Jackie Dutton (3), Laura Bellis (4), Karen Gilbert (5), Christian Bengel (6), Lori Decter Wright (7), and Phil Lakin Jr. (8) all filed on Monday. One candidate, Ben Johnson, has filed in District 9.

Only two races are contested so far: Aaron Bisogno is running once again for District 2. Adam Burnett has filed in District 5 to challenge Councilor Gilbert.

The election is August 25, 2026. If a race draws three or more candidates and no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in August, there will be a runoff on November 3 between the "several candidates for the office receiving the greatest number of votes totaling fifty percent (50%)," and then it's first-past-the-post.

To file for any City of Tulsa office, you'll need a $50 cashier's check, you'll need to complete and notarize a declaration of candidacy, and you'll need to read, sign, and date the qualifications for office, then file the paperwork with the Tulsa County Election Board at its new location at 12000 E. Skelly Drive, on the southeast service road of I-44 just north of 11th Street. The City of Tulsa 2026 election packet is available on the TCEB website.

Only one of the 14 elective District Judge seats in Judicial District 14 (Tulsa and Pawnee Counties) is on the June 16, 2026, primary ballot. Judge Daman Cantrell is not running for re-election. Three candidates, Phillip Peak, Dustin Allen, and Loretta Radford, are seeking to replace him. The election will take place only within Tulsa County Judicial Election District No. 4, which can be roughly described as north Tulsa County and east City of Tulsa.

The Tulsa County Bar Association hosted a forum with the candidates and posted the video (most of it anyway; the beginning seems to be missing).

Loretta Radford has been a Tulsa County special judge since 2022. Special judges are appointed and serve at the pleasure of the elected District Judges. She retired from the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma in 2019 after 26 years of service. This speaker's bio from 2021 has more about her time in Federal service and her prior job as an Assistant Public Defender in Tulsa County.

Before being hired as a special judge, Loretta Radford was Legal Director for the Oklahoma City University School of Law Center for Criminal Justice. In 2021, while in that role, Radford wrote that diversifying the bench was the "single most important goal" for the law profession in Oklahoma, and she called for "implicit bias" testing and training, imposing this DEI notion upon anyone who seeks to be a lawyer or a judge in Oklahoma (emphasis added):

The single most important goal for the future of the practice of law in the State of Oklahoma is to diversify the bench, the legal clerical support, the district court benches and the appellate courts of this state with people of color. Law Schools need to stress this fact in their recruitment efforts; lawyers need to stress this fact in the courtrooms when they are picking juries and arguing cases, and in carrying out their pro bono or public service duties; Bar Associations need to recognize the historical disadvantage that people of color experience in just trying to compete with the majority; and current judges need to support the addition of people of color to the bench. To have true diversity we must change the culture. The majority has to quit the mindset that they are somehow diminished professionally by giving a taller foot stool to a person of color in order to give that person of color just a minimal opportunity to compete at the same vantage point. When we realize that true diversity and inclusion is a not a handout but a hand up, we can change the culture and improve the efficiency of the legal system for all of the citizens of the State of Oklahoma.

I recommend that lawyers, law students, and law school Bar Associations learn to identify the areas of implicit bias that stifle their thoughts and ultimately their work in the legal profession. The Harvard Implicit Bias test is designed to measure the attitudes and implicit biases people may be unwilling or unable to report. Lawyers, students, judges and Directors of Bar Associations should include this test in their training and curriculums. Then, training should be implemented to teach individuals how to combat the bias. It can be instituted for lawyers as a part of the curriculum requirements for admission to the bar; administered to students in first year law school in much the same way that legal research and writing is required; provided in the success training templates as a part of the professional conduct guidelines for every Bar Association; and administered to judges both at the district court level and the appellate level as a part of their oath of office. When all aspects of the legal profession become serious about diversity, we will lose the fear of discussing race and the implicit bias that affects our professional lives. We will lose the unconscious bias that continues to influence the actions and decisions of those we hire, those we promote, who we appoint as judges, how we interact with people of a certain group, and even how we evaluate the work performance of employees. Diversity training, beginning with identifying implicit bias, is the single most effective way to encourage young people to get involved in diversity issues. They will do what they see us do.

In 2022, Radford was very pleased by the confirmation of Ketanji Brown-Jackson to the US Supreme Court:

"She has shown all of America the leadership qualities that she has. And she's given hope, quite frankly, to other people of color, to other people."...

"The revelation by today's confirmation is that America's ready for the highest court in the nation to reflect the population and the citizenry of the United States," Radford added.

Here's Radford in 2019, at a forum on "criminal justice reform":

Radford said the lives of countless Oklahomans have been derailed even as necessities for reform have been obvious. According to census counts, 1,047 people are incarcerated for every 100,000 Oklahoma residents. About 10% of children in Oklahoma have had a parent incarcerated at one time or another, and those children become six to seven times more likely than other children to end up in prison themselves.

Radford said goals at OCU's Center for Criminal Justice include gathering and studying data to reveal strategies for reducing disparities in the system that affect especially minorities and people in poverty. Worthy of special attention, she said, would be the state's cash bail system. Many people charged with crimes who lack resources end up being jailed for lengthy periods without being convicted of anything. She said there should be more focus, too, on helping people who have made mistakes, like Strahorne-White when she was in her 20s, to avoid incarceration.

In October 2022, just before taking up her appointment as a special judge, Loretta Radford moderated a panel discussion for the "2023 Policy Reveal" for Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR). That's where Colleen McCarty worked as Policy Counsel and Deputy Director, advocating against sentence enhancements for repeat offenders and arguing that multiple misdemeanor thefts in a six-month period should not add up to a felony. It's a progressive non-profit that puts the interests of the criminal first, and Radford seems delighted to be helping them.

Then there's this story of a case in Judge Radford's courtroom involving the Oklahoma enforcement of a California child support order. I can't vouch for the website, and it's only one side of the story, but there are a lot of links and details provided.

Radford has been endorsed by Judge Cantrell and a number of other retired judges. According to voter and land records, Radford has had a home in Owasso since 2004.

Dustin Allen is private practice attorney. Allen has been endorsed by Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado and a long list of area FOP chapters. His LinkedIn profile has his pronouns (He/Him) and says that Allen worked as an ADA in Tulsa County for 9 months, as a Tulsa County Assistant Public Defender for 3 years and 1 month, and as an ADA in Wagoner County for 6 months, covering the period from June 2011 to July 2015, when he began private practice. According to voter and land records, Allen lived near 91st and Memorial before purchasing a home in Owasso, in Election District 4, in 2025. Allen's less-than-a-year stints at two different DA offices make me wonder.

Phillip Peak has served for the last three years as an Associate District Attorney in Rogers County. According to Peak's LinkedIn profile (which does not have pronouns listed), he worked as an ADA in Tulsa County right out of law school for 4 years, 7 months, then worked for a couple of years at law firms before operating his own private practice for 7 years, 5 months. His website states that he has tried over 40 jury trials to verdict. (That's 40 more than a certain candidate for District Attorney.) Peak is a native of Collinsville and has lived his entire time in Judicial Election District 4, except for his undergraduate degree and one year during law school.

Looking back a few years, in June 2022 Radford was a Democrat registered to vote in Owasso, Allen was a Republican registered to vote in south Tulsa, and Peak was a Democrat registered to vote in Collinsville. The same was true in November 2018.

The consensus from friends who have worked with these three candidates is NOT Radford. Temperament and organization have been mentioned as areas of concern, along with the progressive ideological alignment that was on display during her time at OCU, when she was free to be a policy advocate for DEI in the legal profession.

I have heard positive things about both Peak and Allen. Peak gets compliments for his work ethic and character.

For this campaign, Allen got out of the blocks early and has far outraised his opponents, and because of this, it's been suggested that Allen would be better positioned to defeat Radford in a November runoff.

As long as you don't vote for Radford, we're likely to end up with a reasonable outcome: Either Peak or Allen win outright on June 16, or they meet each other in a November runoff, or one or the other faces Radford in November with a strong likelihood of winning in a strongly conservative section of Tulsa County.

City of Bixby voters have two charter amendments on the June 16, 2026, ballot. Proposition No. 1 modifies the qualifications for the City Manager. Proposition No. 2 moves any financial responsibilities from the City Clerk to the City Treasurer.

The Bixby City Council voted unanimously on March 23, 2026, to advance these two charter amendments to the ballot.

Proposition No. 1 is the charter amendment in Ordinance No. 2550:

Section 3.2 Minimum Qualifications

The city manager shall have a bachelor's degree in public administration or related field from an accredited university be appointed by the city council solely on the basis of education and experience and without regard for political affiliation. Actual experience as a city manager or as an assistant city manager is preferred.

Proposition No. 2 is the charter amendment in Ordinance No. 2551:

Section 4.1 - Department of City Clerk: City Clerk

(a) There shall be a department of the city clerk, the head of which shall be the city clerk. The city clerk shall maintain an accounting system for the city government; and shall sign all checks and be responsible for the disbursement of all money; shall determine the regularity and correctness of all bills, invoices, payrolls, and other evidences of claims, demands or charges against the city government and audit and approve them before payment attend all meetings of the City Council, shall keep the journal of its proceedings, and shall enroll in a book kept for such purpose all ordinances and resolutions passed by the City Council. The city clerk shall be custodian of such documents, records, and archives as may be provided by applicable law. The city clerk shall be the custodian of the seal of the City and shall attest, and affix the seal to, documents when required by applicable law.

(b) The city clerk, as such, does not collect revenue for the city except as may be incidental to his duties as city clerk; in all cases where the law or ordinances provide that money shall be paid to the city clerk, it shall be paid instead to the city treasurer as city treasurer. The city clerk shall have no authority over collecting, custody, accounting, auditing, or disbursement of any city funds. All such authority is vested in the city treasurer.

(c) The city clerk shall perform other duties as described in this charter or as the City Council or the city manager may assign.

Section 4.3 - Department Of Finance: City Treasurer

There shall be a department of finance, the head of which shall be the city treasurer. The city manager shall interview and make recommendation to the council for its approval. Subject to and in accordance with this charter, applicable law and such ordinances and other policies as the council may adopt, the city treasurer or personnel under his supervision and control shall collect or receive all revenue and other money for the city; shall be responsible for its custody, safekeeping, deposit, and disbursement; shall maintain a general accounting system for the city government; shall determine the regularity and correctness of all bills, invoices, payrolls, and other evidences of claims, demands or charges against the city government and audit and approve them before payment, and shall have such other powers and duties consistent with this charter as may be prescribed by ordinance or applicable law or as the City Council or the city manager may assign. Reference to city treasurer shall be deemed to mean the director of finance unless the council by ordinance creates a separate office of city treasurer within the department of finance.

Bixby has been in the news lately. City Manager Joey Wiedel was arrested on May 25 and charged with aggravated DUI. According to Fox23, he had previously pled guilty and received a one-year suspended sentence after an August 2025 arrest. He has been suspended from his duties, with Police Chief Todd Blish serving as acting City Manager. A few days later Mayor Brad Girard resigned as both mayor and city councilor.

Wiedel's charges don't show up in OSCN because he was charged by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The lack of unified court records for Oklahoma is just more damage done by the two systems of justice created by the McGirt ruling. KJRH has Joey Wiedel's most recent arrest affidavit.

Proposition No. 1 seems to be doing two things at once. It eliminates a Bachelor's degree in Public Administration as a requirement to serve as City Manager while restricting the discretion of the City Council to include "political affiliation" as a consideration in their decision to hire a City Manager. Wiedel, who previously served as City of Bixby fire chief, does not list a college degree in the "Education" section of his LinkedIn profile, which lists only "National Fire Academy/ OSU/ CLEET." I have no inside information, but I wonder if this proposed charter amendment was tailored to allow Wiedel to continue to serve as City Manager and to insulate him from removal should the composition of the City Council change. "Political affiliation" isn't necessarily limited to political party registration and could be stretched to include alignment with a local political faction.

Proposition No. 2 makes some sense as a way of mitigating financial risk. It's possible that having the City Clerk oversee disbursements was identified by an auditor as a source of potential loss of control. Or perhaps there was an incident. (If you know more, please email me at blog at batesline dot com.)

Still, with the current turmoil at Bixby City Hall which has come to light since the propositions were approved for the ballot, my inclination, were I a Bixby voter, would be to say NO now, elect an outsider to the City Council and revisit these proposals with a full public discussion.

It's notable that the City of Bixby's website conspicuously advertises a General Obligation Bond Issue (property tax increase) vote scheduled for August 25, but there's no mention anywhere on the home page or on the news page.

THE SAGA CONTINUES, 2026/06/08:

Acting Mayor Bobby Schultz shared the following statement at the Bixby City Council meeting on June 8:

"The City Council acknowledges the City Manager Joey Wiedel was arrested on aggravated DUI charges on August 22 2025, and again on May 25, 2026.

"The Council also acknowledges that there was at least one law enforcement response to Mr. Wiedel's residence regarding a reported domestic disturbance. That incident occurred outside the City of Bixby and was overseen by the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office, with Bixby Police Officers responding only in a mutual-aid support capacity.

"The Council has confirmed that then-Mayor Brad Girard was informed of these incidents soon after they occurred and did not share this information with the other members of this Council or the City Attorney.

"Former Mayor Girard has publicly acknowledged that he mishandled these matters and subsequently made the decision to resign from City Council.

"As these incidents are now a matter of public record in public discussion, the Council believes it is important to clarify that no member of the current City Council or the City Attorney was ever informed of these incidents or charges at the time they occurred or anytime afterward until the incidents during the council meeting on May 26th of this year.

"The City Council remains committed to moving forward in a matter that is honest, transparent, and accountable the citizens of Bixby. As the Council evaluate all relevant facts and circumstances surrounding these matter matters, it will continue to act in the best interest of the community and the organization.

"While recognizing the seriousness of these events, the council remains focused on maintaining public trust and ensuring that the Bixby, with the help of the Oklahoma Municipal League, continues it's positive growth, progress, and success. The City Attorney is working on policies to ensure this does not happen again.

"Joey Wiedel is represented by legal counsel therefore we cannot answer specific questions about these incidents, except to affirm that he remains on administrative leave.

"Moreover the City of Bixby has placed Assistant City Manager Kim Coody on Administrative Leave effective immediately to allow the city time to conduct a deeper internal inquiry into the notification of the City Council members regarding events surrounding Joey Wiedel that took place several weeks ago in an prior incident."

Under the Bixby city charter, the remaining four councilors will appoint a replacement for Girard, and then will elect one of the five councilors to serve as mayor.

Mark Tedford leads fundraising, self-lending, and cash-on-hand in the short-fuse scramble for the Republican nomination for Oklahoma's 1st Congressional District, as of the end of the Federal pre-primary reporting period on May 27, 2026. Nathan Butterfield has a slight lead in spending, fueled by his million-dollar loan to his campaign.

The starting gun for the three-month sprint was triggered by Congressman Kevin Hern's announcement on March 11 that he would run for the US Senate seat vacated by Markwayne Mullin, newly appointed as U. S. Secretary of Homeland Security. The primary election is on June 16, 2026.

Thursday, June 4, 2026, was the deadline for candidates for Federal office in Oklahoma to submit their pre-primary contributions and expenditures reports to the Federal Election Commission. While the data is still being ingested into the FEC database, the raw submissions are available through a search. This is the first reporting period to give us a good look at the race, as the previous reporting period ended only 20 days after Hern's announcement; several campaigns had yet to launch by then.

As of the pre-primary report Mark Tedford had over a half-million in cash on hand, almost triple his nearest rival, Jackson Lahmeyer. They were the only candidates with cash on hand in six figures.

Tedford and Lahmeyer led net contributions, followed by Kim David and Jed Cochran, also in six-figure territory.

Because of the short time frame for fundraising, heavy spenders are also heavy borrowers. Tedford has loaned $1.1 million to his campaign, while Nathan Butterfield has loaned his campaign $1 million. Butterfield narrowly leads Tedford in spending, nearing the million mark, both spending five times as much as Lahmeyer. Todd Woods is a surprising fourth in spending, helped by the $150,000 he loaned his campaign. Lahmeyer has loaned himself $105,000.

Cochran is the only candidate listing a tribal government, the Osage Nation, as a contributor, with a maximum $3,500 contribution. Charles McCall of Atoka gave Cochran $1,000; this appears to be the former State House speaker and gubernatorial candidate.

Several people named Mazzei are large donors to Lahmeyer, although none of them are Mike Mazzei, Lahmeyer's fellow Trump endorsee.

Corporation Commissioner David's report is notable for the number of donors connected to public utilities and the oil and gas industry, entities which are regulated by the Corporation Commission. CAMP Political is listed as a significant recipient of David's campaign spending.

Among the minor candidates, donations appear to be coming from friends and family and spending is mainly on printing and online ads.

Since the end of the pre-primary reporting period, a few candidates have filed 48-hour notices of additional contributions: Lahmeyer, $16,587.12; Cochran, $14,859.58; Tedford, $11,001; David, $9,082.03; . Butterfield reports lending himself another $170,000.

Eight of the 11 candidates who filed for the First District GOP primary filed a pre-primary FEC report. Dan Rooney, who dropped out of the race, filed paperwork to register his committee but did not file any other reports. Paul Royce and Nancy Dyson have not registered campaign committees with the FEC. The link on the candidate's name will take you directly to the report:

The lone Democrat running, Tulsa school board member John Croisant, has raised $124,067.81 and spent $83,608.19. He won't be on the ballot until November, while the Republican nominee will have not only a primary but also an almost certain runoff before facing Croisant in the general. No one filed for the seat as a Libertarian or independent.

Screenshot from a December 14, 2021, "Community Conversation" from Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform.

It's pretty cowardly to attack someone on social media with false claims, block the target from seeing or responding to the attack, and include a misleading half-quote from a post without linking to it. But that's Colleen McCarty, who wants to Republican voters to elect her as Tulsa County District Attorney.

Here's what I wrote, the final paragraph of my article about her participation in a protest against a personhood bill. She quoted the last clause (in bold), without the conditional clause, and accused me of attacking her child and thus violating a principle of campaign decency.

But note that Colleen McCarty's signs say nothing about IVF. They exalt her desires above the interests of her unborn child: "WHAT'S BEST FOR ME IS WHAT'S BEST FOR MY BABY." Her T-shirt declares that she should have life-and-death authority over her unborn child, who is merely "A CHOICE": If McCarty chooses one way, that belly bump is a baby, but if McCarty chooses the other way, her unborn child is just biohazard waste to be dismembered, extracted, and either incinerated or sold for parts.

The point, clear enough when quoted in full, is that McCarty's daughter was made in the image of God and endowed by her Creator with certain unalienable rights, and those rights aren't dependent on Colleen McCarty's decision. She was always a child, never just "A CHOICE." The personhood bill was designed to acknowledge and protect the unalienable rights of the unborn; Colleen McCarty's protest sign said "NO TO PERSONHOOD."

(I would link to the attack, but I'm blocked from her Facebook campaign page, so I can't get to it.)

She also claims, falsely, that I paid for an ad in Urban Tulsa Weekly to print a retraction because I couldn't afford an ad in the Tulsa World. The only newspaper ad I ever bought was a Whirled ad when I ran for City Council in 1998; the ad was a waste of money. (Or maybe I just thought about it and decided it would be a waste of money.)

In my 23 years of writing, I've been sued once, over a newspaper column. I posted a retraction (for free) on my website, and the suit was dismissed. I am told that McCarty claims I was utterly disgraced by this one lawsuit in 23 years of writing.

Prior to passage of the Oklahoma Citizens Participation Act in 2014, defending against a SLAPP lawsuit was a costly battle where "the process is the punishment." A defendant, even in the right, would be inclined to settle rather than risk months or years of costly litigation, particularly against a deep-pocketed corporate plaintiff. The Oklahoma Citizens Participation Act, our anti-SLAPP law, was passed unanimously and signed into law in 2014. State Rep. John Trebilcock authored the bill on my suggestion, modeling it after a robust Texas statute.

If you've read this website for any length of time, you know how careful I am to provide links and backup for everything. One of the benefits of a website over print and over many social media platforms is the ability to use as many hyperlinks as needed to provide references for a story. I do my best to be fair and accurate, but readers can click the links and judge for themselves whether or not I've fairly characterized the information. You can be Bereans and "see whether these things are so."

I've gotten grief over the years for being too wordy, too nuanced, and for taking too long to get something published. I see other writers happy to dash something off without doing the research and send it to their mailing lists, only to have to backtrack. I see people using sensationalistic and misleading language, putting quotation marks around paraphrases. That's not my way.

When I began writing this series on Colleen McCarty, documenting aspects of her past that should alarm a conservative Republican primary voter, the initial response, mainly through her supporters online, was post-hoc rationalization. If you're a parent, you'll be familiar with this strategy: When Mom and Dad finds out you did something unacceptable, the kid comes up with a plausible explanation that makes the facts seem less outrageous. Ideally, it's an explanation that isn't easy to disprove, one with no paper trail that might contradict it.

So we were told that her law journal papers and Twitter threads and press releases and commercials weren't really her opinion; she was just a worker bee (with titles like Founding Executive Director, Policy Counsel, and Deputy Director) following the Board of Directors' orders. We were told that she only donated to Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign to try to stop corrupt Hillary Clinton, not because she liked his radical policies. Why, she wasn't even a Democrat in 2016, we were told. (In fact, she was a registered Democrat from 2007 to 2024.) She didn't attend the anti-personhood rally, it's claimed, because she's pro-choice (even though "A CHOICE" was written on a T-shirt covering her unborn child) but because of IVF (even though it wasn't mentioned on her T-shirt or the poster she was carrying).

I was told that if I would only meet with her, she could convince me of her alibis, but I find a candidate's documented and public statements more credible than what he or she may tell me privately in pursuit of my vote.

It appears that the alibis and rationalizations have fallen flat with the voters, so now she's trying to shoot one of the messengers. It won't work. The evidence is all there for anyone to read -- links to articles and videos still available on the live web and captured by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

Many other Tulsans have been independently digging through McCarty's record and posting their finds, X users like attorney Kevin Adams, Joan Lee Pettimore, Snarkio, and OklaHombre. They've covered things I haven't gotten to (yet), like McCarty's name on an Oklahoma Appleseed Center / Oklahoma Equality Law Center lawsuit against Ryan Walters and the State Board of Education, attacking rules that require schools to use a child's name and birth sex in school records, instead of trans-name and trans-gender. Kevin Adams found this quote from McCarty in an Oklahoma Appleseed Center press release about the suit:

"Walters and the State Board have repeatedly denied the existence of transgender students, insisting their genders are merely a fabrication of the 'woke left'," said McCarty. "This signaling from the board makes it clear their intent is gender discrimination against our client under Title IX which is supposed to prevent schools and educational bodies from discriminating on the basis of gender."

There's plenty of other material out there, and you can do your part in helping to educate your neighbors and friends. Instead of linking to me when you post on social media, link directly to the original material and make your own comments. Instead of standing behind one person that she can isolate and attack, Rules for Radicals-style, stand together as a swarm of truth-tellers that she can't stop.

Colleen McCarty's entire campaign is built on deceptive language and misleading words. We can't put someone like that in control of local prosecution.

PREVIOUS ARTICLES on Colleen McCarty:

• Colleen McCarty's short, progressive, soft-on-crime resume
• Colleen McCarty's kind of justice: Putting the criminal first
• Colleen McCarty: Multiple thefts shouldn't be a felony
• Colleen McCarty protests personhood of the unborn
• Colleen McCarty: Democrat for nearly 17 years, Republican for 1.7 years