Monumental seats

In 2011, Erin Brewer’s son returned home from his Edmond school with a request for each family to donate two reams of paper. Budget cuts had left the affluent school district without enough funds to keep the printers full and issue student worksheets. 

It was a moment of frustration that launched Brewer into a more than decadelong advocacy push, which included serving multiple pro-education nonprofits and launching a parent legislative committee. 

This year, that advocacy has culminated in the local business owner and mother of two running as a Democrat for the Oklahoma State Senate. As school funding has remained lower than in neighboring states, teachers continue to flee classrooms and State Superintendent Ryan Walters  has been spouting his culture war rhetoric for two years, Brewer believes enough voters in her district — including Republicans — are ready for a change. 

“We are watching extremism and division really hold us back as a state, and I think Ryan Walters is kind of an indicator of that challenge,” said Brewer, who is seeking the open seat in Senate District 47 against Republican Kelly Hines.

After losing control of the Legislature twenty years ago, Oklahoma Democrats have recently flipped a handful of seats in Oklahoma City, taking advantage of demographic shifts as the state’s largest city has become more politically mixed. 

The Democrats’ slow march has reached the city’s northern suburbs and Senate District 47, which will test the limits of the minority party’s urban expansion.

Control of the Republican-controlled state Legislature isn’t up for grabs this November, but flipping even one seat can feel monumental for Oklahoma Democrats, said Richard Johnson, a professor of political science at Oklahoma City University. 

“For Democrats, it’s one seated at a time. I don’t know that there’s any way around that,” Johnson said. “Especially when you consider that the majority party is drawing lines (through redistricting) pretty effectively.”

For the past 12 years, Senate District 47 has been held by Republican Senator Greg Treat. Treat, who is term-limited this year, has easily held off Democratic challengers and ran unopposed some years. 

But the district has seen an influx of younger and more diverse families, demographics that typically poll better for Democrats. 

Several precincts in the district voted for President Joe Biden four years ago, and Joy Hofmeister, the Democratic candidate for governor in 2022, performed better in the district than her statewide average. 

Brewer, who once worked at United Way of Central Oklahoma City and opened RedPin Bowling Lounge, worked for Hofmeister’s gubernatorial campaign. 

Hines, the Republican candidate, is a retired U.S. Army colonel and currently works for Aviation Training Consulting in Edmond. He’s campaigned on attracting more aerospace companies to the state and increasing U.S.-Mexico border security. 

He also said education needs a holistic approach that brings different groups together.

“We need a longer-term plan, which starts with getting all the stakeholders together, the parents, the Legislature, the school board, the teachers and even the teachers’ union,” Hines said. “In this district (some) really like the (private school) tax credit, but a lot of them are concerned about public school, and a lot want to home-school their kids, and I think there is room for all of it.”

Both candidates have sizable war chests heading into the election’s stretch run — Brewer has raised more than $182,000, while Hines has raised more than $128,000. 

“We’re losing 5,000 teachers a year right now, and kids can’t learn if they don’t have a quality instructor and the material they need,” Brewer said.

Other races to watch

While Senate District 47 might be competitive, most races across central Oklahoma don’t appear that way. 

Of the 34 state House and Senate districts that include parts of Oklahoma County, just 14 had multiple candidates on the 2022 general election ballot. Of those races, the average margin of victory for the winner was 25 percentage points. 

House District 83 was one of the closest races in 2022, as Rep. Eric Roberts, a Republican, won by just 4 points. The next year, his district was redrawn to include more traditionally Republican precincts. This November, Roberts faces Jimmy Lawson, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for Oklahoma City mayor in 2022.

House District 95, which includes Tinker Air Force Base, was also a closer race in 2022 than most as incumbent Rep. Max Wolfley, a Republican, beat Democrat Tegan Malone by just eight percentage points. 

This year’s District 95 election is a rematch between the same two candidates. 

“If we don’t have balance in the state Legislature, then we are not going to get good government for anyone; people are really responding to that (message),” said Malone, who has been a teacher in the Mid-Del district. 

Wolfley spent part of the last session pushing for a higher income threshold for the property tax freeze on senior citizen homes. 

“Seniors are particularly vulnerable to the effects of inflation,” Wolfley said. “We must take action to ensure they can continue to live in their homes without any undue financial burden.”

House District 100, which includes parts of northwest Oklahoma City and Bethany, was a 10-point race in 2022 as Republican Rep. Marilyn Stark beat Democrat Chaunté Gilmore. This year’s election features the same two candidates. 

Gilmore is campaigning on increased school funding, abortion rights and improving a “broken” criminal justice system. 

Stark, a former nurse, is opposed to abortion and has been endorsed by OK2A, a state gun rights organization. 

However, the 2024 election will still bring change no matter the outcome, as 14 incumbents in the House and eight in the Senate are not seeking reelection. Seven incumbents also lost primary elections earlier this year. 

Some of those districts, many in rural communities, saw Republican incumbents fall to more conservative challengers who have embraced Donald Trump and his culture war messaging. 

But in Senate District 47, Brewer said she believes those culture war messages, especially around schools, are a turnoff for more moderate voters in the suburbs. 

“If we can put ego and party aside and work together to find solutions … I think (voters) are willing to consider those kinds of ideas and approaches over a particular party. Even Republicans regularly tell me that,” Brewer said. “Obviously, that’s a theory that we are going to test on Nov. 5.”  

This article appears in Bigger than basketball.