Gentner Drummond. Ryan Walters. Matt Pinnell. A year out from the 2026 primary elections, those three names have emerged as leaders to be Oklahoma’s next Republican candidate for governor. The catch? Only one of them has officially declared their candidacy. Drummond, Oklahoma’s Attorney General, has a large — though not insurmountable lead — according to […]
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Lawmakers fire Oklahoma mental health commissioner against governor’s wishes
Lawmakers overnight Thursday voted to fire the state’s embattled mental health commissioner. Saying that they had “lost confidence” in Allie Friesen’s ability to lead the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, legislators voted overwhelmingly to remove her effective immediately. It marked the first time in recent history that lawmakers had taken such […]
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Your Voice Matters as Congress Considers Major Policy Changes
Prior to the Memorial Day weekend, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 1, commonly called the “Big, Beautiful Bill” Act. The vote of 215-214 fell almost exactly on a party-line vote. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration. It is expected that a vote will occur within the next few weeks. Much […]
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Stitt Quietly Signs Bill to Kill Oklahoma’s Citizen Petitions…
On Saturday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend – always a good time to sign incredibly unpopular legislation to roll back the rights and freedoms of the people and derail their ability to self-govern – Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt happily and quietly signed SB 1027 into law. Known around here as the Oklahoma Citizen Petition Oppression […]
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SCOTUS tie ends Oklahoma plan to open nation’s first publicly funded Catholic charter school
An Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling striking down a religious charter school will stand after the nation’s highest court deadlocked on the issue. The U.S. Supreme Court announced Thursday its justices voted 4-4 with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused. A tied vote affirms the lower court’s ruling. The Oklahoma Supreme Court decided last year that the concept […]
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Oklahoma GOP: Goons on parade
The Oklahoma Republican Party’s recent annual meeting marked a pivotal moment for the state’s political landscape, cementing a leadership slate and policy agenda that signal a hard-right lurch. The newly elected leadership, under the banner of unwavering conservatism, unveiled a platform that prioritizes ideological purity over pragmatism, drawing sharp criticism for its exclusionary tactics and […]
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Walters plays politics and the Legislature fiddles
I’m just a simple guy, but it doesn’t take a Harvard degree to see what’s going on here. Ryan Walters is spending our hard-earned education dollars not on kids, not on classrooms, but on building his own political army. And what’s worse? The Oklahoma Legislature is sitting on its hands, watching it happen like they’re […]
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County circus
The City of Norman is having a rough year, and not just because of the University of Oklahoma’s inaugural season in the SEC (Southeastern Conference). Rather, 2025’s forecast has been as bad as one could expect when trying to weather the storm when federal funding for national weather services is being cut. With the two […]
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Oklahoma Trailblazers: Perrin Duncan
Perrin Duncan is a program officer for Arnall Family Foundation, where she primarily focuses on criminal justice reform. She recently spoke with Oklahoma Gazette about her career and work at AFF. Oklahoma Gazette: What was your childhood like? Perrin Duncan: I grew up in Edmond, and that’s where my parents, Walt and Ann-Clore Duncan, still […]
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Prognosis negative
While the month of May has been Mental Health Awareness Month for nearly 75 years, things could not be in more disarray at the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS). As the Oklahoma House of Representatives continues to investigate the department’s massive shortfalls on top of a nearly $610 million budget, […]