Oklahoma (February 28, 2022) - Oklahoma Senator and US Senate candidate Nathan Dahm announces he will be running for United States Senate in the upcoming special election resulting from Senator Jim Inhofe's early retirement. 

Nathan Dahm released the following statement:

"I am officially running for the US Senate in the special election to be the Proven Republican Fighter to replace Senator Inhofe. We will win this seat and we will put America First again.

Preserving privately funded education in Oklahoma is vital to education freedom

by Nathan Teague (originally published in The Oklahoma)

We Okies have a strong heritage of working hard, providing for ourselves and minding our own affairs. Freedom, which emanates from doing so, is at risk with the advancement of public funding into the remaining remnants of privately funded education in Oklahoma. Senate Bill (SB) 1647, SB 1509, House Bill 3482, SB 1583, SB 1420, and SB 1135 (current bills I am aware of which advance such) are harmful to all Oklahomans. 

From FreeTheStates, an urgent call for support to abolish abortion in Oklahoma via House Bill 4111:

This week, our State Legislature will have the opportunity to pass a bill that would abolish abortion in Oklahoma. However, the Speaker of the House and the Rules Committee Chairman are not committed to ensuring the bill receives a vote. It is assigned to the House Rules Committee and their final meeting at which this bill can be heard is this Tuesday. It is imperative that we call and email them to encourage them to bring this bill before the committee for a vote.

The bill is HB4111 authored by Representative Vancuren. Please take a moment to call AND email Speaker McCall, Chairman Osburn, and the members of the committee, to ask them to make sure HB4111 receives a vote this week and to vote yes on the bill. Calls need to be made and emails sent today.

Below and in the comments we have included a sample message that you can simply copy and paste.

Finally, join us today, Monday the 28th at 12:15pm on the 4th floor of the Capitol to lobby in support of HB4111. Abortion must be abolished, to the glory of God and the joy of our preborn neighbors. 

TULSA, OK (Feb. 25th) – Representative Kevin Hern (OK-01) released the following statement after this morning’s announcement of Ketanji Brown Jackson as Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States.

“Our nation is on the precipice of disaster,” said Rep. Hern. “It has never been more important to empower the checks and balances on the federal government. Our Supreme Court is meant to uphold our Constitution and preserve the values our founding fathers fought to instill in our nation. Ketanji Brown Jackson undermines that directive.

Jim Inhofe’s expected retirement announcement today after an almost 40 year career in DC mark’s an end of an era in Oklahoma politics. I am grateful for his support of the American military, his fight against radical environmental extremism and for those times when he did stand for the America First Agenda.

As we look to the next generation of leadership, like most Oklahomans, my family and I recognize that Washington politicians have failed America. They’ve failed on debt and spending, failed to contain China and Russia, failed to secure our border, failed on election integrity and they have failed on the other great pandemic that’s infected our culture: wokeism.

If Donald Trump taught us anything, it’s that if we are going to Make America Great Again and implement the America First Agenda, we must first acknowledge that the swamp is never going to reform the swamp.

In order to win this fight against Joe Biden and the ruling political class’ globalist BLM agenda, it’s going to require a bold, articulate, decisive leader who can speak truth to power, and not bend to the pressure of the Woke mob- even against the leadership of your own party.

This country and this state have been far too good to me to sit back and become the generation who allows our republic to retreat from its proper role in history. Despite Washington’s best effort, America still stands as Ronald Reagan so aptly described, a “shining city upon a hill.”

Putting people in office to join the good ole boys’ club who will just manage the decay is no longer good enough for a small state with big dreams. I’ve never shied away from a fight just because I’m the underdog, especially a fight that impacts the future of my children—your children—our children are worth the fight.

In such a time as this my family and I are seeking God’s guidance on how our gifts and talents can best be of service to the people of Oklahoma in the fight to defend the 3 C’s that made this country great in the first place: the Constitution, Capitalism, and Christianity for religious liberty.

Please keep us in your prayers.

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Former State Rep. Paul Wesselhöft announced this afternoon that he is exploring running for the U.S. Senate following news of Jim Inhofe's pending retirement. 

Wesselhöft spent 12 years in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, representing House District 54 in Moore and southeast Oklahoma City. A U.S. Army veteran of nearly two decades, he has also served in the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Legislature since 2007.

Here is the exploratory announcement he sent me to publish:

Here starts the domino effect of U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe's retirement: 2nd District Congressman Markwayne Mullin is launching his campaign for the United States Senate seat being vacated by Inhofe:

I’m in! We need an America First conservative fighting for Oklahoma in the Senate. Join us at https://t.co/RW82dEbXPr. pic.twitter.com/LoIQp1bS2X

— Markwayne Mullin (@MarkwayneMullin) February 26, 2022

[For more articles and perspectives on SB 1647 and school choice
this legislative session, click here]

Bureaucrats, not families, retain power under open-transfer law

When lawmakers voted last year to expand open-transfer opportunity, allowing families to more easily send children to school districts other than the one in which they reside, supporters thought the change would empower parents.

But bureaucrats still hold the upper hand and many parents’ open-transfer choices are limited to Oklahoma’s worst schools.

That fact highlights the need for lawmakers to pass robust, expansive school-choice legislation that allows state funding to follow a child to any school, including private schools. The opportunities created by open transfer simply do not meet the needs of families.

An ongoing review of public data conducted by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs has covered 13 counties whose schools serve more than 60 percent of Oklahoma students. So far, OCPA has found school districts in those counties have reported more than 10,000 total spots available for open-transfer students, a vacancy rate of less than 3 percent.

A Bartlesville native, Holland has served as Inhofe's top aide since 2017. His first introduction to Sen. Inhofe came, apparently, from Jim Inhofe's daughter, who was one of Holland's professors at the University of Arkansas. He first joined Inhofe's staff in 2009.

Inhofe was unable to attend Holland's press conference due to testing positive for COVID-19, but lent his endorsement over the phone at the event.