Early voting begins Thursday for June 16th election

Early Voting Begins Thursday for June 16 Election

(Limited-Edition “I Voted” Sticker Available) 

(June 8th, Oklahoma City) – In-person absentee voting (also known as “early voting”) for the June 16 Election begins Thursday across the state. Early voting locations will be open Thursday, June 11 and Friday, June 12 (8 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and Saturday, June 13 (8 a.m. – 2 p.m.).

State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax announced that, “In honor of America’s 250th birthday, limited-edition ‘I Voted’ stickers will be available at early voting locations and polling place locations across the state, while supplies last.” There are two different designs. A preview of the designs can be found on the State Election Board website.

Tonight: Muskogee's Symphony in the Park

This evening is one of my favorite community events of the year in Muskogee, the 36th annual Symphony in the Park. Featuring the excellent musicians of the Muskogee Community Band, a fireworks finale to Stars and Stripes Forever, concessions, and an art auction, this family-friendly event at Honor Heights Park is well worth attending. They have a special patriotic program planned for America's 250th birthday, and you won't want to miss it!

The weather last weekend forced a postponement, but things look great for this evening.

My Picks for the 2026 Oklahoma GOP Primary

Tuesday, June 16th is the Oklahoma Primary Election, and voters all across the state will be heading to the polls to decide nominees in many different races. Some are already voting via absentee ballot. Hopefully the information in this post will be helpful with your voting plans. If you don't know where to vote, or want to see your sample ballot, use this helpful link from the Oklahoma State Election Board to find out.

Below are a few of my voting picks. Work and other commitments prevented me from getting into more detail on most of these races, but here are some basic thoughts. If I have any additions or changes as we approach election day, I will clearly note them. I have included links to additional helpful resources, endorsements, and voter guides at the bottom:

New post-Trump endorsement poll: Mazzei on top of Gov race, Merrick into 3rd

The first publicly-released opinion poll since President Donald Trump endorsed Republican candidate Mike Mazzei finds the former state senator (unsurprisingly) taking the lead, with Attorney General Gentner Drummond falling into second, and perhaps more surprisingly, former state senator Jake Merrick jumping into third over significantly more well-funded candidates, albeit a somewhat distant third. The same poll finds U.S. Rep. Kevin Hern with a massive lead in the race for U.S. Senate.

Here are the results from JMC Analytics:

Cong. Brecheen endorses Marty Quinn for Insurance Commissioner

Oklahoma's best, most conservative member of Congress endorses Marty Quinn for Insurance Commissioner. I concur. Marty Quinn is a great guy, and has the best private and public sector experience to do this job well.

Congressman Josh Brecheen: 

“I am proud to endorse Marty Quinn for Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner. I had the privilege of serving alongside Marty in the Oklahoma Legislature for eight years, where he consistently proved himself to be a principled conservative, a man of integrity, and someone who always kept his word. Marty never wavered in his commitment to doing what was right, even when it wasn’t the easiest path.

Small: Thomas’ warning should be heeded

Thomas’ warning should be heeded

By Jonathan Small

 

In April 15 remarks at the University of Texas at Austin, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas warned that progressivism threatens a core element of the United States’ founding—the belief that it is “self-evident” that “all men are created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” as described in the Declaration of Independence.

 

Americans need to take Thomas’ warning seriously.

Hilliary political machine dumps major money into SD32, backs Curtis Erwin over conservative Sen. Dusty Deevers

Candidate Curtis Erwin flanked by major donors Dustin (l) and Michael Hilliary (r)

There's a new big-time player on the Oklahoma political scene. The Hilliary family of southwest Oklahoma, known best for their broadband company (Hilliary Communications) and a growing statewide media network (Hilliary Media Group), rose in recent years from relative obscurity to being among the biggest political donors in Oklahoma and garnering appointments to key governmental roles and boards. 

Now, they are setting their sights on Lawton area's State Senate District 32, backing political blank-slate newcomer Curtis Erwin against one of the most conservative Republicans in the Oklahoma State Senate, Dusty Deevers. This is the second election in a row that they have heavily backed a candidate in this Senate seat, having flushed tens of thousands of dollars into a candidate who lost to Deevers in the 2023 special election.

Voters in Senate District 32 need to recognize this for what it is: a brazen attempt by powerful special interests to oust a vocal conservative reformer.

They voted to make it easier to raise your taxes. Vote accordingly.

In 1992, Oklahoma voters revolted against higher taxes and passed State Question 640, a constitutional amendment that attacked the ease with which tax increases had historically been passed. SQ640 required revenue-raising measures to either be passed by a majority vote of the people (50%+1) or a 75% vote in both houses of the Legislature, rather than a simple legislative majority as had been the practice.

Big government advocates and tax hogs have complained about it ever since.

During the last major state budget crisis (2016-2018), most legislative Republicans abandoned their conservative principles in the face of tough fiscal choices. Additionally, they increasingly started to talk about gutting SQ640 and lowering the standard for revenue-raising measures.

Until the 2017-18 special sessions, no outright tax increase had achieved that 75% hurdle, although hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes had been raised through other means (votes of the people, fees, and other sleight-of-hand loopholes). To be fair, very few outright tax increases had been previously attempted. Nevertheless, the 75% hurdle did not prove to be "impossible" as tax fans had decried.

At the beginning of the 2018 legislative session, efforts began in earnest to actually reduce the revenue-raising threshold and gut SQ640's constitutional language. House leadership filed a measure (HJR1032) to drop the threshold to 3/5ths (60%), and then a new measure (HJR 1050) to change it to 2/3rds was brought to the floor.

All of this continued to ignore the fact that a statewide vote of the people only requires a bare majority of 50%+1 vote. Legislators continue to fear placing tax increase measures before the voters, counting instead on short memories to cover up their legislative voting records.

HJR 1050 made it to a vote. An amendment was submitted to reduce the tax-hike vote threshold from the proposed 2/3rds back down to 60% (like HJR 1032). That amendment failed, although a shameful 39 Republicans voted for it. The next vote saw 44 Republicans join 7 Democrats in passing the bill.

That brings us to this election. Three Republicans on the June primary ballot for statewide office and one running for Congress voted to gut SQ640 and make it easier for the Legislature to raise your taxes.

Former House Speaker Charles McCall, and former Rep. Jon Echols, current Rep. John Pfeiffer, and then-Sen. Kim David all voted to reduce the tax-raising requirement from 3/4ths to 2/3rds. Speaker McCall and Reps. Echols and Pfeiffer voted to move it even lower to 3/5ths.

Trump endorses Mike Mazzei for OK Governor

With a tightly-crowded Republican field of candidates, this just might call the race. This afternoon, President Donald Trump gave his "Complete and Total Endorsement" to Mike Mazzei for Governor of Oklahoma:

Remember: Kim David killed abortion ban — with a smirk

artwork by T. Russell Hunter

Current Corporation Commissioner and former State Senator Kim David is one of the 11 Republican candidates running for the 1st Congressional District. Her record on tax and fiscal policy is abysmal (bodes well for being in DC, right?).

There's one other thing to know about Kim David.

When push came to shove, when it actually mattered, when Oklahoma could have taken the lead in ending abortion in our state and protecting the preborn... instead, with an actual movie-villain smirk, Kim David KILLED the bill that would have abolished abortion in Oklahoma in 2020. 

Angry senator drops accidental truth bomb in debate tirade

This week, two state senators from different ends of the Republican caucus plainly told the truth about the stakes of this year's Republican primary election: it's about who gets to control the Oklahoma State Senate going forward. Will principled conservatives hold the reins for the first time, or will the establishment moderates continue their reign of power?

Senate Majority Whip Bill Coleman (R-Ponca City) absolutely erupted in anger at a Senate District 10 candidate forum in Ponca City this week, dropping an accidental truth bomb in the middle of a tirade against Senate conservatives.

Coleman said: "This election is about who is gonna control the Oklahoma State Senate, and I do not want it to be the Freedom Caucus."

Just The Facts: Candidate Voting Records on 2016-2018 Tax Hikes

There are a number of current or former Republican state legislators running for higher office, and I wanted to do a post on their voting records during the 2016-2018 tax hike spree that Governor Mary Fallin and the GOP-led legislature went on (I ran the first version of this post during the 2022 election). 

During good economic times, Republicans like to run on tax cuts and no-new-taxes pledges, but the real test of their espoused principles comes during economic downturns and belt-tightening eras. Will their rhetoric match their governing, when push comes to shove and budgets have to be balanced? Will their instinct be to raise taxes, or to cut government?

So, without further ado, Just The Facts: 2026 Candidate Voting Records on Major Tax and Fee Increases in the Oklahoma Legislature, 2016-2018. We will specifically be looking at the voting record of 12 current or former Republican legislators who are on the June 16th GOP primary election ballot for statewide or congressional offices.

The colors I used in the following graphics are not 'green for good, red for bad'. Green means they voted for the tax increase measure, Red means they voted against the tax increase measure, Gray means they missed the vote, and blank means they were not eligible to vote (for example, Sen. Mazzei left office in 2016, and was only around to vote on three of these bills; Humphrey, Pugh, and West didn't enter office until the 2016 election, and thus their votes start in 2017. In other cases the bill either did not receive a hearing in that legislative chamber or the member was not on the committee where a vote took place). 

The very last measure in each graphic, HJR1050, is perhaps the most important of these recorded votes, as a green/yes vote there indicates that the legislator voted to make it much easier for the Legislature to raise your taxes.

Let's dive in. The following five former state legislators are running for Governor or U.S. Congress (with former state senators Brecheen and Bice being current members of Congress):

(click to view larger)

Of these five former legislators, only Brecheen was in the small group of legislative conservatives who valiantly fought a losing effort against the onslaught of tax hikes. Speaker Charles McCall, in particular, ignominiously supported and promoted every tax increase proposal during this time period.

The next graphic examines seven other current or former Republican state legislators from that time period who are on the ballot for other statewide offices: