A few days ago, newly minted State Superintendent of Education candidate Toni Hasenbeck took to the august halls of the vaunted Oklahoma Conservative PAC, where she boldly and unambiguously declared that by entering the race, she became the only “conservative” seeking that office.
Now, those who have paid the scantest attention to Hasenbeck’s legislative tenure would, of course, know the absurdity of this claim: Hasenbeck is not, in fact, a conservative policymaker.
Her lifetime score from the gold standard of Oklahoma indices since 1979, the Conservative Index, sits at a mere 62. Her score from the just-released Oklahoma Grassroots Index, an in-depth analysis of her votes, as contextualized through the Oklahoma Republican Party platform, shows her voting in accordance with Republican principles just 33% of the time. And the first-ever People’s Audit from The Oklahoma State Capital, grading the 93 worst votes of the 2025 session, in terms of our nation’s foundational principles of traditional American populism, as described by de Tocqueville, shows that out of 93 bad votes, she cast the correct vote, in line with the values of the people, just five times.
In short, she’s gaslighting.
And to see how she would govern as Education Superintendent, we need only look to 2023, when House leaders Charles McCall and Jon Echols green-lit SB 36X, handcuffing then-Superintendent Ryan Walters to the budget of his Democratic predecessor, Joy Hofmeister. Hasenbeck was all on board, voting for the proposal not just on the floor but in committee as well.
Consider for a moment the absurdity: a conservative, Republican superintendent was forcefully required by policy to continue the programs of his Democratic predecessor, specifically in the context of federal funds and federal grant requirements of a Department of Education run under Joe Biden’s U.S. Department of Education.
In short, the legislators, including Hasenbeck, were doing whatever they could to take away the duly elected Walters’ ability to run and reform that agency, to reduce and eliminate wasteful spending and to implement his vision for transforming public education in Oklahoma. Walters, dogged every step of the way by institutional-minded politicians, including Hasenbeck, had little more than one half of one term in office before the institutionalists reclaimed the agency.
Anyone who believes that Hasenbeck is anything other than Hofmeister 2.0 — well, you know the saying: there’s a bridge in Arizona awaiting your purchase.
Now, in this regard — gaslighting the grassroots without the slightest trace of shame — Hasenbeck is hardly alone. In recent weeks, Republican grassroots meetings have been flooded with politicians who have spent years perfecting the art of telling audiences exactly what they want to hear. And for the next few months, their chosen audience is the most vulnerable of all: good-hearted conservatives searching for someone — anyone — to step forward and defend the values that made our nation great. They want to believe. And it’s that desire that is precisely what makes them so very susceptible.
Until recently, that gaslighting was the domain of Charles McCall and Jon Echols, the two statewide candidates who did so much to destroy the culture of conservatism, deliberation, reform, and transparency in the Oklahoma House, but now they are being joined in the tour of grassroots organization circles by a host of their minions — those who, with their votes, enabled the dark curtain of opaqueness and concentrated power, stitch by stitch, to condescend over the Capitol.
But it gets worse: one might believe that at the very least, during this legislative year, we should have the most conservative House ever, because so many House members are running for state office. Sure, they have betrayed our values time and again in the past — but now that they are actually running, claiming the mantle of “conservatism,” they can’t keep betraying us with their voting in the Legislature, at least not during the campaign… right?
Nope. These politicians really do seem to believe that not only can they gaslight us about their past votes, but can continue to do so, even while playing the “I am the conservative in the race” game.
Hasenbeck provides us with Exhibit A.
No sooner had Hasenbeck made her bold claim at OCPAC than she returned to the Capitol world and did what Capitol-world people do: betray conservative values.
In her role as chair of the House Committee on Higher Education — and as so many House chairmen are killing conservative legislation — Hasenbeck green-lit and gave her support to a woke proposal by liberal Democrat Trish Ranson of Stillwater.
That proposal?
It appears to be one of the woke objectives — a mandate on higher-ed institutions and part of a nationwide effort to prevent state universities from determining if their student applicants are, in fact, criminals.
Known as the Fair Chance Admissions effort, Ranson’s House Bill 3379 prohibits the common-sense public safety practice of determining if your college-age student will be sitting next to an axe murderer. And, of course, when the axe murderer does what axe murderers do, the victim will likely have limited recourse to seek civil justice, as the institution that enabled the crime will have the protection of law, having been forced by mandate of law to remain blind to the obvious danger, when deciding if they should in act, admit an ax murder to their campus. And though, after admission, the school might take certain measures to mitigate the danger, Ranson’s mandate places the school on the hook for that cost, so it’s certainly likely that the school will not have the incentive to create a special learning environment for the axe murderer whom they were forced to blindly admit.
It’s the latest demonstration of how the woke worldview is so far removed from common-sense basic observations of human nature, and it’s been supported, advanced, and remains alive and well courtesy of Hasenbeck and her committee in a “conservative” legislature, in the reddest state in the union.
It’s certainly not the first time Hasenbeck has sided with the criminal element. In what was one of last session’s most important votes, Hasenbeck voted to stop the State Board of Education in its effort to determine the impact of the illegal alien invasion on state-funded schools. The board’s request was simple: first and foremost, allow the people of Oklahoma to know just how many illegal aliens are in the system.
It’s a vote that’s taken on new importance as numerous inner-city schools are now in open insurrection, walking out of class and protesting the enforcement of long-settled law: the right of our nation to defend its border from invasion.
But beyond that, the metric serves a far more fundamental purpose: it helps explain Oklahoma’s low test scores and reveals whether metro-area districts are being incentivized to boost enrollment by expanding illegal alien participation in the system — thereby increasing formula funding at the expense of rural districts that primarily serve law-abiding citizens.
Had Hasenbeck appeared at OCPAC and sought support based on her commitment to advancing the interests of the criminal element and the illegal invaders of our nation, then she would at least have the credit of transparency and honesty.
But with her deceptive presentation, she joins the ranks of so many other grifters who have flooded the Republican primary and thrive off toying with the hopes and genuine love of country shared by so many who want to preserve what so many sacrificed to give them.
And that — that is the big grift.
It’s the grift perpetuated by those who don’t think the people are watching them — who believe they can act with impunity no matter their actions, that a day of accountability will never reach them. They act without fear, thriving in the duplicity of a complex process that’s hard to understand and even harder to explain.
These articles, which have regularly decried the deception of the statewide candidates as an illustration allowing the reader to peek through the darkness and get a glimpse of how the system really works, are simply scratching the surface.
One could write each and every day on the time and time again when the politicians who currently campaign for statewide office have betrayed the values they pompously purport to be the guardians of.
And while these articles do not do that injustice full justice, there is much more to come. Stay tuned.
But until then, know that when that candidate for statewide office shows up at your grassroots meeting touting his conservatism, or when your legislative incumbent seeks re-election, flooding your mailbox and Facebook with his declaration of conservative policy, know that nine times out of ten, you are being gaslit — and to embrace this candidate is to put your name and reputation on the line advancing the big grift, contrary to all of your hopes and beliefs and your honest desire to preserve our shared values and beliefs for the next generation.
One more note: Hasenbeck was right about one thing. As of this moment, there is only one conservative in the race for Oklahoma State Superintendent of Education — and his name is James Taylor. He will take the OCPAC stage on Wednesday the 18th at noon. I will also be in attendance and I look forward to addressing attendees and informing them about this work, The Oklahoma State Capital project, enabled by your support.
Gaslighting the Grassroots
Click the title to read the full report at Jason Murphey Blog
February 17, 2026 at 09:56AM - Rooke
RSS Feed
