Oklahoma Watch

Here is the audio of Oklahoma Watch’s published stories for the week of May 11, 2026.

– Full Week Playlist: Listen to all the stories back-to-back, without interruption.
– Individual Stories: Select and play any story you’d like to hear, at your convenience.

---

Full Week Playlist:

Individual Stories:

Fact Briefs:

Oklahoma Watch Is Looking for an Audio Story Sponsor
We’re currently seeking a sponsor for our audio stories. Thanks to our friends at Everlit for helping make this sponsorship feature highly customizable.

Interested in becoming a sponsor or would like to learn more? Contact Shaun Witt at switt@oklahomawatch.org or 405-824-1469.

The post Audio Stories: May 11, 2026 appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

A campaign donation to Oklahoma Treasurer Todd Russ from the owner of an investment firm that won a state bid further complicated the state’s Invest in Oklahoma program and may have led to the firm pulling out of the process. 

A letter from 311 Capital Management LLC sent Friday to the five-member Invest in Oklahoma board said the company could no longer pursue a potentially lucrative investment advisory role to invest a portion of the state’s $45 billion in pension, trust and endowment assets in Oklahoma-based private equity and venture capital funds.  

The letter came just days after Oklahoma Watch asked about a $2,500 campaign donation in February 2025 to Russ from Bond Payne, the owner of Citizen Capital LLC and the parent company of 311 Capital. 

Federal securities rules prohibit investment firms from seeking state pension advisory roles if an employee or other associate donated to an elected official with a role in approving a contract. The so-called pay-to-play rule has a two-year lockout period on receiving compensation under such investment advisory contracts. 

The Invest in Oklahoma board voted Feb. 17 to award the investment advisory contract to 311 Capital over two other bidders, MEMCO and GCM Grosvenor. Russ’ office ran the bidding process, and he recommended 311 Capital be awarded the bid.  

The campaign contribution is the latest twist in a bidding process that has been marred by undisclosed business relationships and shared lobbyists uncovered by an Oklahoma Watch investigation. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond expressed his concerns about the bidding process in a letter to Russ sent this month after the Oklahoma Watch articles. 

Drummond, a Republican who is running for governor, said the bidding process was tainted by collusion and undisclosed conflicts of interest. The attorney general said May 6 he’d sue over any contract based on the bid award to 311 Capital Management. 

Neither Payne nor Russ responded to detailed questions about the connections among the campaign contribution, the federal pay-to-play rule and 311 Capital Management. Instead, their representatives provided general statements about the bidding process. Payne served as Stitt’s chief of staff from 2020 to 2022. 

“311 Capital Management complied with the requirements of the Treasurer’s RFP and conducted ourselves appropriately as part of our efforts to help organize capital for investment in Oklahoma,” Payne said in a written statement. “We believe we did and have followed all applicable statutes, rules and bid procedures.” 

Russ’ statement said his campaign receives hundreds of donations and he doesn’t check his donor list when considering state business. He said the proposal from 311 Capital was signed by its managing partner, Steve McDonnold. 

“Any contract that would be entered into between the Invest in Oklahoma Program and 311 Capital Management would be signed by Steve McDonnold,” Russ said in his May 13 written statement. “Remember, there are (zero dollars) in the program, 311 Capital Management will receive no income directly from the program as bid in their proposal and my office would be working with Steve McDonnold.” 

But Russ, in a 23-minute interview with KWTV about the Invest in Oklahoma program on May 12, said there was little difference between Citizen Capital and 311 Capital. 

“They knew Oklahoma,” Russ said in the interview. “They met the criteria on trades in Oklahoma. I don’t know a lot of background on these people. I dealt with their principal, Steve McDonnold. Great guy, highly professional, long history, probably 40 years in the industry, highly seasoned. 311 was umbrellaed under Citizen Capital, which has been around a long time.”  

The 311 Capital response to the Invest in Oklahoma bid, obtained under the Open Records Act, listed Payne as founder of Citizen Capital and 311 Capital. The RFP required any successful bidders to have an investment track record, but records show that Citizen Capital founded 311 Capital in September, just months before the treasurer’s office issued an initial RFP. 

“Based in Oklahoma City, Mr. Payne is responsible for the vision of the firm, establishing key

relationships for fundraising and for sourcing investments for the (fund of funds) and direct investments of the 311 Fund,” the RFP response said.  

Payne was the sole name on a state form on Dec. 5, noting non-collusion as part of 311 Capital’s response packet to the RFP. 

311 Capital Management said it wouldn’t charge any upfront fees to the Invest in Oklahoma board. That was a key part of Russ’ recommendation to the board to hire the firm. Instead, 311 Capital would get paid by the entities it brought to the board and after any investments approved by the separate pension or state investment boards. 

The federal pay-to-play rule has been in place since 2010 and has survived several legal challenges. Its existence is well-known in the securities industry. The rule has been an issue in recent presidential campaigns, in which a candidate was a governor whose role included chairing state investment boards or appointing members to a pension board of directors. 

Gov. Kevin Stitt chairs the Invest in Oklahoma board, whose members include Russ, Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell and legislative appointees Brady Sidwell and Zack Hall. 

State campaign filings show Payne also donated to the Stitt and Pinnell campaigns. But those donations came outside of the two-year lockout period for pursuing state investment advisory contracts. 

In 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Minnesota investment advisory firm Wayzata Investment Partners LLC over a single campaign contribution. Without admitting wrongdoing, the firm settled the enforcement action and paid a $60,000 civil penalty. 

“Advisers Act Rule 206(4)-5 does not require a showing of quid pro quo or actual intent to

influence an elected official or candidate,” the SEC said in its order.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, an appointee of President Trump in 2018, has consistently dissented from enforcement actions involving the pay-to-play rule. She said the rule is a blunt instrument that chills political speech. 

“To avoid questions from commission examiners, the easiest course is not to contribute to political campaigns,” Peirce said in a recent dissent. “So, the cost of working for an investment adviser is that you have to give up your right to contribute to certain political campaigns.”

Paul Monies has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2017 and covers state agencies and public health. Contact him at (571) 319-3289 or pmonies@oklahomawatch.org. Follow him on Twitter @pmonies. 

The post Campaign Contribution May Have Scuttled Investment Advisory Bid appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Yes.

According to a 2026 Oklahoma Tax Commission report, less than 10% of the 39,722 recipients of tax credits issued through the Parental Choice Tax Credit program were previously enrolled in public schools. Three hundred forty-nine recipients were homeless or financially disadvantaged.

The Oklahoma State Department of Education determines economically disadvantaged status using the USDA metric of 185% the poverty level; for households of three, that means an annual income of $49,303 or less.  

The PCTC program allows households with children in private schools to claim between $5,000 and $7,500 each year, depending on their income bracket. 

Eight percent of recipients were families receiving income-based government benefits, qualifying them for the maximum amount. 

Twenty-one percent of recipients were in the lowest adjusted gross income category of $75,000 or less, and 25% were in the highest category of over $250,000, accounting for 22% and 19% of the total funds, respectively.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

Sources

• Oklahoma Tax Commission PARENTAL CHOICE TAX CREDIT (PCTC) REPORT – 70 O.S. § 28-101(K)
• State of Oklahoma INCOME-ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR SCHOOL YEAR 2025-2026
• Oklahoma Tax Commission PARENTAL CHOICE TAX CREDIT TAXPAYER RESOURCES

The post Were 90% of private school tax voucher recipients already enrolled in private schools and less than 1% financially disadvantaged? appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Oklahoma Watch · Abolitionists, Assets, and the Minimum Wage

Ben Fenwick breaks down how an ultra-ideological faction is quietly capturing control of the state Republican Party and targeting incumbent lawmakers. Plus, Paul Monies reports on the fallout after the governor’s former chief of staff wins a bid to manage key state pension assets, and Keaton Ross examines an upcoming state question proposing a gradual minimum wage increase to $15 per hour. Catch these stories and more on the latest Long Story Short with Shaun Witt.

The post Long Story Short: Abolitionists, Assets, and the Minimum Wage appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Decisions made at 23rd and Lincoln brought a cascade of changes to Coyle Public Schools, about 40 miles north. 

This year, students in Coyle attended class in person Monday through Thursday, and studied online every Friday until spring break, when Fridays became part of the weekend. Teachers still met at school for professional development and collaboration on some Fridays. Student athletes attended games and track meets without missing lessons. 

Ninety-three percent of the families surveyed supported the schedule, Superintendent Colby Cagle said. But to comply with new laws from the state legislature, Coyle schools’ calendar for next year includes 173 school days, all in person. It’ll cost about $128,000 more to operate the district, and necessitate a number of other adjustments, Cagle said. 

“We’re not happy about the change, but we’re going to embrace it and we’re going to make the best out of it,” he said. 

Hundreds of school districts across the state will find similar changes necessary as a 2025 law cracking down on virtual days and a 2026 law lengthening the minimum school year take effect. 

As the Legislature prepares to adjourn for the year, Oklahoma Watch looked at some of the most consequential changes coming to public schools. 

Pay, Funding and Choices

Senate Bill 201 raised minimum teacher compensation by $2,000 at each level of experience and education. It goes into effect in the 2026-27 school year. Starting teachers with a bachelor’s degree would earn at least $41,601 in combined salary and benefits, up from $39,601.  

Legislators increased the cap for the Parental Choice Tax Credit by $25 million with House Bill 3705. Starting in fiscal year 2027, the total amount of available credits is $275 million. The program, a major initiative for the Legislature and Governor Kevin Stitt in 2023, offers families a refundable tax credit of $5,000 to $7,500 for private school tuition and fees. Though it’s called a refundable tax credit, it functions like a voucher because families can advance the funds from the Oklahoma Tax Commission in a process that’s separate from income tax filing. One in five recipients, or 21%, reported household income of more than $250,000 a year, significantly higher than the state’s median income of $65,039, and many had students already attending private schools.

Early Childhood Literacy 

The legislature and the governor prioritized reading reforms this session, and the result was Senate Bill 1778, which amends the Strong Readers Act. The provisions begin in the 2027-28 school year. The bill requires third graders to score basic or above on the statewide reading test, or earn an acceptable score on an alternative test, or qualify for a good-cause exemption, to move on to fourth grade. Those who can’t will repeat third grade.

The retention provision could have a significant impact on students, families and schools. Oklahoma Department of Education data shows 21,300 third graders, or 43% of those tested, in 2024-25 failed to meet the test score required and would have been retained unless they qualified for a limited exception. 

The legislation also requires schools to give second graders the third-grade reading test, but parents can opt out. And it codifies additional reading interventions schools must employ in state law. 

The bill is a mixed bag, with some good components and some that are worrisome, said Erin Brewer, chair of the Democratic Party.

“I really do like the early intervention work and the extra funding for training around literacy and literacy tutoring,” she said. “I’m really concerned around strictness on retention. I think that can really be damaging to kids over the long run.” 

Longer School Recess

Under Senate Bill 1481, schools must provide students in kindergarten through 5th grades 40 minutes of recess per day. Recess can be divided into two 20-minute periods, but it must be supervised, unstructured time for play. Schools can’t withhold recess for discipline. The policy takes effect in the 2026-27 school year. A related proposal to increase the minimum time for P.E. in schools, from 60 minutes to 150 minutes per week, stalled in the Senate and did not become law.

School Calendars

The Legislature took a step toward lengthening the school year in most districts with House Bill 3151. State law requires schools to be in session at least 181 days each year, but schools that adopt a longer school day can utilize a shorter year and count class time by hours. The new law requires those school districts to be in session a minimum of 173 days, up from 166. The minimum of 1,086 hours remained the same. It takes effect in 2027 but only if the Legislature that year appropriates at least an additional $175 million to the Oklahoma Department of Education. 

“The more time our students can get in front of a high-quality teacher, the better,” said Shawn Hime, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, which supported the bill.

Schools’ ability to count hours, instead of days, came after a powerful ice storm in 2010 that shuttered schools for over a week. By 2025, nearly all school districts used the provision to meet fewer than 181 days, Department of Education data shows. 

Related legislation approved in 2025 virtually eliminates online school days in traditional school districts. Only two are allowed per year, and only if the governor declares a state of emergency or proclamation and the school district already has an approved plan to provide virtual instruction. That bill goes into effect in the 2026-27 school year. Statewide virtual charter schools and full-time virtual education programs operated by school districts are exempt.

Student Cell Phones
House Bill 1276 extends the bell-to-bell student cellphone ban implemented last year. The 2025 legislation required only a one-year ban, but lawmakers this year made it permanent. The law bars students from using cellphones or smartwatches during school hours except in an emergency. Students who use smart devices to monitor health conditions also have an exception.

Jennifer Palmer has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2016 and covers education. Contact her at (405) 761-0093 or jpalmer@oklahomawatch.org. Follow her on Twitter @jpalmerOKC.

The post Oklahoma’s Education Overhaul: What’s Changing in Schools Next Year appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Yes.

A 2025 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development report found that the U.S. was the highest spender on health per capita, spending 2.5 times the OECD average, while having below-average outcomes across several metrics. 

U.S. health expenditure was $14,880 per person, about 133% the expenditures of Switzerland, Norway and Germany, the next three highest spenders. All three countries exceed the OECD average life expectancy of 81.1 years, while the U.S. life expectancy is 78.4 years. 

The U.S. had notably worse statistics compared to the OECD averages in terms of cancer incidence rates, percentage of people living with multiple chronic conditions, and share of population eligible for coverage. 

Higher payments to hospitals and physicians accounted for 80% of the difference in spending between the U.S. and comparable countries, though administrative and drug spending also contributed.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

Sources

• OECD Health at a Glance 2025
• OECD Life expectancy at birth (2023 or nearest year) and changes over time (2010‑2019 and 2019‑2023)
• OECD Cancer incidence and mortality
• OECD Chronic conditions
• OECD Health status
• Health System Tracker What drives health spending in the U.S. compared to other countries?

The post Does America spend nearly double per individual with worse health outcomes when compared to similarly developed countries, as Rep. Josh Breechen claimed? appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

State lawmakers are touting historic education spending levels, but Oklahoma’s per-pupil spending rate is still dead last among surrounding states. 

New state-by-state comparisons show that recent investments have boosted Oklahoma’s spending to about $12,519 per student, with additional increases expected for Fiscal Year 2027 from $232 million in new education funding in the new state budget. 

But when you rank 49th out of 51, playing catch-up is an astronomically expensive proposition.

While Oklahoma has increased per-pupil spending by about $1,100, neighboring states have made similar hikes. 

That means Oklahoma is still about $1 billion short of meeting the regional average spending rate of $14,975 per student, and only Idaho and Utah spent less per student than Oklahoma, according to annual data reported by the federal National Center for Education Statistics at the end of April. 

The average Oklahoma public school teacher will earn an estimated $62,055 in gross pay and benefits in 2025-26, ranking 41st in the nation, according to the newly released Rankings and Estimates report by the National Education Association, the most comprehensive comparison available.

That lags behind the regional average of $66,152 by about $4,100.

Oklahoma Speaker of the House Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, recently hailed a new historical high in state public school funding. 

“This is not an opinion. It is an undeniable fact,” Hilbert posted on Facebook in late April. “Next year the budget for common education in Oklahoma will increase by over 225 million, setting a new record for the 9th time in 11 years.”

One of the state’s most influential public education advocacy groups said Hilbert’s statement is correct – and cause for celebration.

 “They talk about it being almost half the budget, but that is a byproduct of how our state was founded,” said Shawn Hime, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association. “It does put more pressure on lawmakers. Most of the states in our region have far more local, dedicated revenue sources to cover costs. According to NCES, we are now (spending) within $700 dollars per student than Texas, so we are making up some ground. My message to our members is, ‘Tell them thank you for what they’ve done starting with the 2018 session.’”

Catching up and Balancing Budgets

The recently passed $12.8 billion state budget for Fiscal Year 2027 includes $2,000 raises for classroom teachers and millions of new dollars for line items aimed at improving students’ literacy and math results.

While per-pupil spending doesn’t necessarily determine academic outcomes, it is still worth tracking because Oklahoma’s constitution made public schools here more reliant on state funding than many surrounding states. 

That makes it a key indicator of educational equity and of the basic resources available to schools that receive state aid to hire qualified teachers and determine class sizes. 

Why Oklahoma lags behind almost all other states in this category is not well understood, even at the Capitol.

“I was wondering the same thing!” said State Sen. Dave Rader, R-Tulsa, a member of the Senate appropriations and education committees and chair of the revenue and taxation committee. “What’s going on? How can we always be dinged on this?”

Rader said he recently worked with state senate research staffers to compare common education spending between 2005, the last time Democrats had control of all three branches of state government, and 2025. 

All calculated in 2025 dollars, they found $5,443 per student was spent in 2005 for 629,000 students, and $5,801 per student was spent in 2025 for 687,000 students. 

“We grew in numbers and dollars per student, so that’s a huge investment,” said Rader.

Hime previously worked as the superintendent at Enid Public Schools and assistant state superintendent of finance at the Oklahoma State Department of Education, so he has managed annual education budgets at both the local and state levels. 

“That $700 difference between Oklahoma and Texas is $14,000 per classroom if you have 20 kids,” he said. “So, it’s just hard when we started being behind basically forever. The last few years, the legislature has sprinkled in more operational dollars,  but this year (referring to FY27), zero operational dollars were added in there.”

Just one example of skyrocketing operational costs for Oklahoma public schools is property and casualty insurance, which went from $53.5 million in FY20 to $164.5 million in FY25, according to the state’s Oklahoma Cost Accounting System transparency website. 

Hime said at the top of teachers’ and administrators’ wish lists are strategic investments to boost starting teacher pay, which last year lagged behind the regional average by $6,000. They also want more to cover operational costs, including rising utility and insurance expenses, and new funding for what educators call school-based wraparound services for students.

“In most of our schools, teachers have to do multiple jobs; they’re handing out medicine, they’re handling discipline,” Hime said. “More nurses, and more counselors and deans of students who can come in and can take that student having an issue out of the classroom and address what’s going on are the things that would be most meaningful to add.”

---

---

Trish Williams, chief financial officer at Union Public Schools in Tulsa, is getting ready to retire at the end of June after balancing school district budgets year in and year out for nearly three decades.

She said what many outsiders don’t understand is that when per-pupil spending doesn’t keep pace with rising operational costs, school districts have to make budget cuts. 

“We have to run buses, we have to keep the lights on, we have to clean the classrooms,” Williams said. “Instead of looking at our budget each year and launching new programs or taking on new initiatives for kids, we are consistently put in the position to find areas where we have to cut back in order to maintain operations – because the prices of everything have gone up. If we consistently underspend, as we have for many years in Oklahoma, it does become harder and harder to catch up.”

One new category Williams is trying to balance out in Union’s new budget is certified employee pay. 

The $2,000 pay raise legislators just approved for classroom teachers for FY27 doesn’t appear to apply to about 150 of Union’s 1,000 certified employees. Because state law requires that they be paid according to the certified school employee pay scale, local school districts are on the hook to make up the $2,000 difference for those school-based employees, such as counselors and librarians.

“It’s never been done that way in the 28 years I’ve been a school district CFO in Oklahoma,” she said. “I suspect it was to get the total cost (of the raise) down. Something that is of special concern to me right now is the lack of a cohesive, articulated plan for long-term improvement in schools.”

To hear Rader explain it, lawmakers are closely tracking how Oklahoma teacher pay compares to surrounding states. 

He found one comparison, showing Oklahoma trails only New Mexico in the region when teacher salaries are adjusted for cost of living, very valuable this session. 

“You gotta start somewhere,” he said. “What goes through my mind is it’s a free-market decision. We have to have competitive wages to have good people. If we have taxpayers paying taxes, expect good governance, then we have to have good teachers.”

Andrea Eger covers a variety of topics for Oklahoma Watch. Contact her at aeger@oklahomawatch.org.

The post Record Highs, Bottom Rankings: Oklahoma’s Education Spending Gap Explained appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Here is the audio of Oklahoma Watch’s published stories for the week of May 4, 2026.

– Full Week Playlist: Listen to all the stories back-to-back, without interruption.
– Individual Stories: Select and play any story you’d like to hear, at your convenience.

---

Full Week Playlist:

Individual Stories:

Fact Briefs:

Oklahoma Watch Is Looking for an Audio Story Sponsor
We’re currently seeking a sponsor for our audio stories. Thanks to our friends at Everlit for helping make this sponsorship feature highly customizable.

Interested in becoming a sponsor or would like to learn more? Contact Shaun Witt at switt@oklahomawatch.org or 405-824-1469.

The post Audio Stories: May 4, 2026 appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Brent Rendel grabbed an ink pen, signed the back of the check he received from the Farmer Bridge Assistance program and took it straight to the bank to put the payment toward loans.

The third-generation family-farm owner from Miami, Oklahoma, said all the farmers he knows who received a check did the same.

The $12 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance program, announced by the Trump administration in December, was a one-time payment to help farmers recover from high input costs and global trade disruptions, including the trade war with China, during the 2025 crop year.

The Farm Service Agency under the United States Department of Agriculture provided up to $155,000 to each producer. Rendel was one of the farmers who applied and received aid.

“Whenever you get an influx of cash like that, it really just replaces income that I was expecting,” Rendel said. “(It) was applied to the loans that were needed to cover the expenses or the lack of income. In that aspect, it helped me keep going. You’ll see some media reports of farmers getting six-figure incomes from government checks. Well, I can assure you, it’s not like we get these checks and are like ‘OK, let’s go to Tahiti.”

The assistance program helped farmers like Rendel stay afloat, but profits remained low as farmers continuously faced mounting financial pressures from trade disruptions with China, rising production costs, restrictive tariffs and instability from the Iran conflict.

Since 2022, soybean farmers in the Prairie Gateway, a United States Department of Agriculture region that includes Oklahoma, have consistently seen negative returns. In 2024, returns were about -$70 per planted acre.

Dire economic conditions caused farmers to cut back on essential supplies or sell their land altogether, said Edmond Bonjour, a senior extension specialist for stored products at Oklahoma State University.

“There are some farms that have had to sell out,” Bonjour said. “There are some farms, I think, that are struggling and trying to make that determination of ‘Do we still keep going?’ Some farms also have been sold just because they can’t make it pencil out to be profitable anymore.”

When farms and ranches go bankrupt, fewer products can be sold or bought, which negatively affects the U.S. economy as a whole.

“They (bankruptcies) have already elevated over the past couple of years,” Rendel said. “So you can imagine, without the level of assistance that we’ve gotten from the government, they would be even higher.”

Rendel is selling soybeans at $11 per bushel, which is how much he sold them for at certain times 30 years ago, he said. While the price of grain has remained relatively the same, production costs continue to climb.

“All of our inputs keep up with inflation, but what we sell doesn’t,” Rendel said.

Producers lost a major buyer for their soybean crop in April 2025. U.S. President Donald Trump put a 34% tax on imports coming from China, the top buyer of U.S. soybeans, according to AP News. China boycotted U.S. soybean purchases and turned to Brazil and Argentina, where soybean production has steadily increased, driving prices even lower in the U.S.

A vast majority of soybeans are purchased from the U.S. after harvest, which begins in September and runs through spring, before China turns to other countries, said Todd Hubbs, an agricultural economist and professor at OSU. A deal between the U.S. and China was made later to remedy the economic disruption, but Hubbs said the damage was already done as the window to buy was missed.

“For a good chunk of our normal export window, before the deal was made, they weren’t buying anything from us,” Hubbs said. “And so when they finally started buying, it was a little bit of a lag time to move all the beans. Our export number for this year (2025 growing season) was down quite a bit.”

In 2024, China purchased 985 million bushels of soybeans from the U.S., accounting for about half of the total U.S. soybean exports, according to the American Farm Bureau. In 2025, soybean exports to China fell to 218 million bushels.

The deal reached between the U.S. and China in late 2025 committed China to buying 12 million metric tons of soybeans by January 2026, and at least 25 million metric tons annually for the next three years. The agreement, rather than increasing the amount sold, simply committed China to purchasing the same amount as before.

“The amount they agreed to buy, 25 million metric tons, that’s really what they normally bought from us,” Hubbs said. “It isn’t above and beyond what they normally did. Twenty-five million metric tons is about  920 million bushels, but it’s nice if they do it.”

The cost of fertilizer has remained a concern for soybean producers since the market changed drastically in 2021, following tariffs imposed on Moroccan and Russian fertilizer companies. The closing of a crucial waterway in response to the United States and Israel launching an attack on Iran’s defensive capabilities early this year has only further complicated the fertilizer market.

The closing of the Strait of Hormuz affects the overall demand of the fertilizer market, said Brian Arnall, a precision nutrient management extension specialist at OSU. Liquefied natural gas trade, which is required to create nitrogen-based fertilizers, previously passed through the strait at almost 20% globally, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. 

Anhydrous ammonia and urea, both nitrogen-based fertilizers, are the fertilizers used most in Oklahoma, Arnall said. Nitrogen-based fertilizers are not used on soybeans; however, a majority of soybean farmers also plant corn, wheat or other grains that benefit from nitrogen-based fertilizers. Rendel plants soybeans, winter wheat and corn.

“The rotation of crops in a system makes the system more healthy, more viable and more sustainable,” Arnall said. “Even though maybe I’m a soybean grower, I’m still going to have corn or wheat or sorghum at some point in the system, which needs nitrogen. So, a soybean farmer, they’ve still got nitrogen on their mind.”

Prices for nitrogen-based fertilizers began to rise after Iran declared the strait closed in early March, threatening to attack ships attempting to transport goods through the area, according to reports from the U.S. Congressional Research Service. 

Although a ceasefire was reached between the U.S. and Iran in April, which outlined plans to halt military action and reopen the strait, conflict has continued into May between the military forces. Weeks worth of oil, gas, fertilizer and other globally needed goods remain backed up in the strait, the Associated Press reported.

Grain farmers are also affected by the price of phosphorus- and potassium-based fertilizers, which are commonly used for soybean production. Prices began rising after the U.S. Department of Commerce made a decision to enforce countervailing duty orders, or tariffs, on unliquidated entries of phosphate-based fertilizers imported from Morocco and Russia in 2021, according to the Federal Register. The countervailing duty orders — costs imposed on foreign industries in the amount of foreign government subsidy rates — were enforced to level the playing field for U.S. businesses.

Now, the Oklahoma Soybean Association, along with several other farming associations, is urging the International Trade Commission, which is under the Department of Commerce, to revoke the duty orders. A letter sent to the chair of the ITC in March stated the U.S. doesn’t have sufficient domestic phosphate resources to meet the demand. The limit on supply options has resulted in lower yields and negative economic returns, the letter claimed.

“CVDs (countervailing duty orders) have placed additional strain on farmers already navigating volatile commodity markets, weather uncertainty, and rising expenses across nearly every category of farm operations, and have impacted the affordability crisis that is so critical today,” the letter stated.

U.S. fertilizer companies have also started selling fertilizer overseas, which has created a reduced supply for American farmers, Arnall said.

“The factories can only produce so much at a time,” Arnall said. “And a lot of the phosphorus needs other products. Specifically, the phosphorus needs the sulfuric acids and the things that are byproducts of the oil and gas industry. The whole system is very cyclical and it’s all tied together.”

The duty orders simultaneously constrained international supply options, driving up fertilizer prices. A Texas A&M study estimated the duty orders increased costs for U.S. producers by about $6.9 billion from the 2021 to 2025 growing seasons.

“Fertilizer is a global trade, so everything that happens around the world significantly influences us and our fertilizer price,” Arnall said. “In the right marketplace, if our fertilizer was costing more, hopefully our grain and what we’re producing has greater value. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, and our grain isn’t worth more, even though our inputs are costing more.”

The strait is crucial in global trade routes beyond fertilizer, accounting for the transportation of about 20 million barrels per day of petroleum products and crude oil in 2024 alone.

The largest input costs affecting Rendel’s farm operation are fertilizer and fuel, he said. Fuel prices, as well as fertilizer prices, are directly impacted by the closing of the strait, Hubbs said.

Crude oil, which is often transported through the strait, is the main ingredient in both diesel fuel and gasoline. Since the Iran war began and the strait closed, the price of regular gasoline has risen 52%, according to AP. 

“We haven’t been hit as badly as some places, because we have a decent oil and gas industry,” Hubbs said. “We haven’t gotten into shortages, but the price is up, and it’s probably going to stay that way for a while. I’m not sure we’ve seen the worst of it because planting and driving those tractors, it’s an expense, and it just tightens the margins.”

Rendel said some farmers can prepay for fuel and fertilizer, but farms must have storage space and the luxury of available cash reserves, which are less common as input costs rise. Most are forced to buy fuel at current market prices, which are more than 1.5 times the normal price.

“If you drive, you are aware of what’s happened to the prices of fuel lately, and that hits farms, and it hits us double,” Rendel said. “It affects everybody, but with farms, the equipment that we use uses a significant amount of fuel. And then everything we obtain comes in large quantities, large trucks; they have to charge us more.”

Rising fuel costs added another expense to already thin profit margins, forcing farmers to find other ways to make ends meet.

Some farmers, like Rendel, received assistance from the Farmer Bridge Assistance program, which was primarily created to recover lost profits from the trade war with China. Other Oklahoma farmers turned toward the growing livestock market to offset losses from the grain industry.

The cattle industry generated about $5 billion in gross income for Oklahoma producers in 2024. Hogs and broilers brought in about $1 billion each. As a result, livestock purchases and feed were the main production costs in Oklahoma, according to USDA, which in turn helps crop farmers looking to sell their grains as feed.

“Oklahoma is blessed in that we’re a beef and crop state,” Arnall said. “For our Oklahoma producers, the cattle industry is really helping support the crop side, because we still need grains to grow beef. We still need grains to grow protein. We’ve seen a lot of the emphasis of the crop farmers putting more resources into the livestock side of the operations to offset those costs.”

Rendel remains a purely grain farm operation and said selling grains as feed to other farms in Oklahoma has helped him stay on his feet. But the cost of production for his grain will always affect his operation as it fluctuates.

Sooner rather than later, fertilizer costs may once again change. The enforcement of the duty orders on imports from Russia and Morocco is up for sunset review, as it has been five years since their implementation. The final decision from the ITC on whether the duty orders will remain is expected in spring 2027.

As a longtime farmer, Rendel said uncertainty has always existed in the agricultural industry and remaining flexible is the only way he has been able to survive.

“It’s all about things that I didn’t plan and responding to them,” Rendel said. “Things like wars, things like economic distress in other regions of the world, those are things I can’t control. All I can do is look at how is the best way to respond to them.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Raynee Howell is a Stillwater-based journalist and contributor to Oklahoma Watch. Contact her at raynee.howell@okstate.edu.

The post Trade War, Fertilizer Tariffs, Strait of Hormuz: How Global Events Are Crushing Oklahoma Farm Margins appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

The July meeting of the Cleveland County Republican Party grew heated. The topic was abortion.

Kari Rayl, a nutritionist and health practitioner who served as chair of Precinct 345, had returned to address the executive committee after being removed. That event grew out of a personal conflict between her and longtime member Gary Barksdale, an instructor in the University of Oklahoma’s math department.

In addition to an intense and personal argument taking place during the meeting, Rayl’s position on abortion became front and center. She found herself pitted against The abolitionists, a fast-growing splinter group now assuming control of Oklahoma’s Republican Party.

Rayl acknowledged the personal issues being aired but also underscored her beliefs about abortion; Plan B, a contraceptive, also called the morning-after pill, is not an abortion pill.

“We have a couple people in our group that are adamant,” she told them. “Women must be incarcerated if they use the morning-after pill at 15 because they were raped or if their baby dies inside of them. They’ve just gone way too far and as a Republican and a conservative that acts in grace, I won’t be swayed to act this way.”

Barksdale, now a committeeman in the statewide party, could not hide his outrage over the personal remarks, nor the abortion stance. He decried a post in which he said Rayl was pressuring other Republicans to back off on the abortion issue.

“Abortion is fundamentally the pillar upon which we have to build all of our values because it is the value of life and those values are reflected in our first value and our last platform plank,” Barksdale said. ”We even passed the resolution unanimously as an abolition vow.”

The debate went on, but Rayl was out. The abolitionist movement was in. In that belief, women who have an abortion are to be prosecuted for murder. Targets could include those who take contraceptives, including birth control pills and Plan B. 

The faction is growing successfully in local and state races, and is pushing anti-abortion legislation to further extremes. 

“Well, it has become a force,” Barksdale told Oklahoma Watch later. “In fact, our state chairwoman and our state vice chairman are both members of the abolitionist movement.”

Republican State Chairwoman Charity Linch did not return repeated requests for an interview.

“It’s like The Handmaid’s Tale,” Rayl told Oklahoma Watch. “It’s getting scary.”

Murder and Retribution

Barksdale explained why contraceptives like Plan B are in the crosshairs of his group. 

“Because that is a thing that obstructs the development of a fertilized egg, the development of a human being from the moment of fertilization,” Barksdale said. “We don’t even want anything like that made available.”

The group, which started in Oklahoma, goes beyond the traditional pro-life movement, seeking to punish any woman who ends her pregnancy as a murderer, according to State Senator Dusty Deevers, R-Elgin.

“It is the death of a child,” Deevers said. “So an abortion is prenatal homicide. The intent is for the mother to kill her own preborn child and whatever other actors were involved, there was an intent to kill a preborn child.”

In 2025, Deevers presented a bill in the state legislature to declare that pregnancy should be considered with the same lens as someone who is born, and that any procedure, pill, or substance that interferes with a woman’s fertilized egg would be a form of murder. Anything to prevent that fertilized egg from being carried to term would require investigation by law enforcement.

“Enforcement where the victim is an unborn child is subject to the same presumptions, defenses, justifications, laws of parties, immunities, and clemencies as would apply when the victim is a person who had been born alive,” the bill stated. “Even where the charge is murder, the provisions of this section shall apply if the victim is an unborn child and the defendant is the child’s mother.”

Deevers’ bill did not pass out of the Senate’s judiciary committee, failing with a bipartisan vote of 6-2.

“I don’t see Christ in your bill,” state Senator Todd Gollihare, R-Kellyville, said before the vote. “I heard the Old Testament loud and clear, an eye for an eye, but I do not see Christ in your bill.”

Deevers defended the bill.

 ”It would’ve given equal protection under the law for preborn children from the moment of conception, which is fertilization,” said Deevers, who is the pastor of Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Elgin. “It would’ve fulfilled the golden rule towards them.”

He said his bill would mean a murder investigation for any woman suspected of stopping her pregnancy by any means, whether leaving the state for an abortion in a state where it is legal, which he called abortion tourism, or by a pill, or from any other means.

“Life begins at conception, which is fertilization,” Deevers said. “There are going to be cases just like any other case. Where there’s an alleged crime, there will be an investigation, and fact-finding evidence and have to determine whether that’s happened or not. And they will use labs and whatever evidence available to them, DNA evidence.”

As for those Republicans who voted against Deevers’ bill, they will also face retribution, according to Barksdale.

 ”We’ve already coined them as the Unfavorable Four, the four committee members that blocked Deevers’ abolition bill,” Barksdale said. “The state GOP actually censured the Unfavorable Four.”

The Oklahoma Republican Party’s resolution states that opposing the abolitionist’s view is “so great an injustice and so great a violation of the Word of God and the OKGOP platform that the Oklahoma Republican Party encourages Republicans in Oklahoma to withhold all support from their political careers,” naming those who voted against Deevers, including Gollihare.

Activist Rachel Burkey, who has been active in the movement in Oklahoma, said that was part of the abolitionists’ strategy.

“You’re putting a target on your back to oppose abolition, and so we’re going to try to primary you, we’re going to end your political career as much as we can,” Burkey said. “That is where our efforts lie.”

Following his senate confrontation with Deevers, activists in Sapulpa showed up at Sen. Gollihare’s church, reportedly disrupting the congregation before a service and demanding that the pastor decry Gollihare’s vote against Deevers’ bill. According to Gollihare’s account in Oklahoma Voice, the protestors told the pastor he and the church were demonic and called a woman a witch. They also harassed people entering the service, the report states.

This session Gollihare presented Senate Bill 743, which outlaws disrupting religious services. The bill passed in February.

The Mechanism of Movement

Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, Burkey said the most distinct leg of the movement started in Norman, which has led to growth both statewide and nationally. She said the group strongly pushes the Republican Party to go beyond pro-life. She said the 2018 candidacy of Dan Fisher for governor was a catalyst for the movement as Fisher adopted their stance, even though he finished fourth in a 10-candidate primary.

“And ever since then the Lord used his run for office to open up a lot of eyes about the difference between pro-life and abolition,” she said.

Burkey said the movement differentiates itself from those who identify as pro-life because that movement has lost its way and ends up advocating for abortion by having exceptions, she said, adding that 100% of abortions are murder. She decried the use of lobbyists and politics to bring about a complete end to abortions, which she called scheming. Being pro-life is not enough.

“Abolitionists look at the pro-life quote-unquote bans; we would do air quotes around them and say you actually haven’t abolished it yet, because the practice of child sacrifice is happening rampantly as long as it’s the mother doing it,” she said. “The reason for that is all these pro-life bills are just a never ending cycle of doing nothing because they’re never achieving justice, they’re never treating abortion, they’re never criminalizing abortion as murder.”

Burkey said the estimated 4,000 women who left Oklahoma in 2023 to get an abortion are all guilty of murder but are protected under the law. Under an abolitionist state law, women could face an investigation, trial, and possibly life in prison or the death penalty for getting an abortion out of state, or for taking Plan B. However, she said, such a law would not be retroactive, and there would not be a sweep of women who in the past had gotten abortions.

“No law can be enacted retroactively,’ Burkey said. “There are no ex-post-facto laws. So if you’re asking me, are abolitionists trying to have Nuremberg trials? The answer is no.”

She said the movement is far too busy right now targeting those politicians who are trying to hold back such laws from going forward.
 
“We’re all about actually making politicians fear,” she said. “Ultimately what they need to do is they need to fear God. But if you’re gonna fear men, you should fear the abolitionist movement because we are growing. We’re growing because the abolitionist movement is led by Jesus Christ.”

They Were Always There

Rachel Blum, an associate professor in the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center at the University of Oklahoma, said she had not yet heard of Oklahoma’s abolitionist movement, but that those with such beliefs have always been part of the pro-life movement.

“I grew up in the Evangelical church,” Blum said. “There was always this group in there.”

In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. that the company could claim religious exemption and not provide certain forms of birth control under the requirements for the Affordable Care Act. Such a decision made the abolitionist movement much more likely, she said, possibly giving a starting point. But another major turning point was overturning Roe v. Wade, she said.

Strict ideological movements often split when they become successful, she said. After decades of battling Roe v. Wade in state after state, in presidential elections, in U.S. Senate battles over candidates for the U.S. Supreme Court, the pro-life movement finally succeeded in overturning the precedent. The 1973 decision that gave women the right to have an abortion was overturned in 2022.

 ”This really only happens when a coalition starts to win,” Blum said. “This is when all this gets exposed, the difference between the people who are trying to figure out how to legislate in the real world and the people who view this as a, like, all-or-nothing moral cause.”

Blum’s book, “How the Tea Party Captured the GOP: Insurgent Factions in American Politics,” mapped how such a splinter group gained considerable traction in the GOP, such that it pushed the party further to the right. The faction can bring the rest of the party in line by attacking their own, rather than running against Democrats.

 ”It does not surprise me that this is their strategy, although they didn’t come up with it,” Blum said. “The Tea Party did this constantly. These ideological primary challenges were not very common until 2010 or so; before then the only reason you would primary an incumbent was a scandal. The Tea Party pioneered this strategy of partisan infighting …. They were perfectly fine losing a seat in a general election if it meant pushing the Republican party in a different direction.”

Boots on the Ground

State Senator Mary Boren, D-Norman, was one of two senators who seconded Deevers’ bill before the judiciary committee in 2025. She later said it was because she wanted to pin the Republicans to the task, to make them vote for it, up or down. And it failed to pass.

But she said she has no illusions that the abolitionists are going away. In fact, she said, they are growing in strength at the Capitol.

“They can succeed at criminalizing abortion, Plan B, and birth control pills,” Boren said. “They are running candidates to defeat incumbent Republicans. If enough of their candidates win, and their incumbents aren’t defeated, then they can take over leadership in the Senate and the House. The margin is thin.”

It’s happening nationally, too. Abolitionists were handed a victory Friday when a federal appeals court in New Orleans blocked the mailing of prescriptions of mifepristone, one of the drugs used for ending pregnancy. The court ruled that the abortion pill be distributed only in person at clinics. That was overturned on Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court restored broad access to the abortion pill mifepristone. The order signed by Justice Samuel Alito temporarily allows women seeking abortions to obtain the pill at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor.

The Oklahoma State Senate passed House Bill 1168, which outlaws the distribution of abortion-inducing drugs, naming misoprostol (Cytotec) and methotrexate. The bill had been making its way through the legislature since at least 2024, and calls for anyone providing the drugs to women to be guilty of a felony, fined $100,000, and face a prison sentence of 10 years. The bill states that it does not prohibit the use of preventive contraceptives when used in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. The measure now goes to Governor Kevin Stitt’s desk.

For Burkey, such a bill does not go far enough, because it does not hold the pregnant woman responsible for trying to end her pregnancy.

“I would lobby against a bill that bans all abortion pills or abortion pill sales,” she said. “You don’t ban guns to stop school shooters. You criminalize the act of murder. And so no one in the pro-life movement, no pro-life legislation, is actually criminalizing the act of murder as homicide.”

Blum said the abolitionist movement, in the end, is about who has control.

“The real thing with these abortion measures isn’t about babies,” Blum said. “It’s about controlling women because certain types of women are, you know, feminist career women.”

The Partisan’s Tale

Opponents of the abolitionists in Norman celebrated a recent victory over an abolitionist-backed candidate for city council.

Trey Kirby, who was a precinct chair until the row over Rayl’s departure, faced off against Dianna Hutzel. Hutzel was backed strongly by the abolitionists, according to Barksdale. Although Hutzel’s campaign outspent Kirby’s by as much as 7-1 by his estimate, Kirby won the ostensibly non-partisan seat on the council. He said he was astonished by how virulent members of the movement were against Rayl.

“If they could have strung her up from a tree, they would have,” he said. “That’s how much hate you could just see in it. And how are you calling yourself pro-life when you’re literally willing to take a mom’s life and put them in prison or something if they don’t do exactly what you want?”

Kirby said he felt like the movement was targeting women, not just trying to protect unborn children.

“It’s almost like ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ with this group,” he said. “They have no respect for women. Multiple ones I’ve heard saying how we should have taken away the constitutional amendment that even gave women the right to vote. I have a wife and a daughter and a granddaughter and a mom and friends and you, you don’t ever talk to women that way.”

Barksdale said they supported Kirby’s opponent because she agreed with their platform, that abortion is murder and that women seeking one should face the justice system.

 ”What we will do is we will endorse those that support our platform,” he said. “And that’s why at the state level as well as the county level we ask all, anybody that runs as a Republican, to go and mark up our platform, right?”

Ben Fenwick is a Norman-based journalist and contributor to Oklahoma Watch. Contact him at ben.fenwick@gmail.com.

The post From Norman to the State GOP: How the Abolitionist Movement is Capturing Oklahoma’s Republican Party appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Yes.

In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled President Trump’s April 2025 imposition of a slate of tariffs, imposed under the invocation of the Emergency Economic Powers Act, unconstitutional. 

In March, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled in favor of a Tennessee filler company claiming the right to a tariff refund, stating that all importers of record are entitled to benefit. 

Estimated IEEPA tariffs paid through December 2025 total nearly $130 billion, including $787.6 million in Oklahoma, according to Axios.

Customs and Border Patrol could pay out an estimated $175 billion in refunds, though its recently launched refund portal is available only to importers using CBP’s electronic payment system, leaving more than 80% of importers ineligible. 

Businesses are not obligated to issue refunds to American consumers, though delivery companies such as UPS and FedEx have promised to pass refunds on to consumers who paid direct tariff fees.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

Sources

• Holland and Knight Court of International Trade Orders Nationwide Tariff Refunds, But Expect Government to Appeal
• The Supreme Court of the United States 24-1287 Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump (02/20/2026)
• AP News Judge rules companies are entitled to refunds for Trump tariffs overturned by the Supreme Court
• Axios Which states paid the most of Trump's overturned tariffs?
• Penn Wharton Budget Model Supreme Court Tariff Ruling: IEEPA Revenue and Potential Refunds
• CATO Institute IEEPA Tariff Refunds Are Far from Ideal—and Could Get Farther
• NPR The tariff refund process has begun for businesses. What about customers?

The post Did a judge rule that Oklahoma’s corporations are entitled to a refund for the overturned Trump tariffs? appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond refused to approve a contract for an investment advisor in the Invest in Oklahoma program, citing collusion and undisclosed conflicts of interest that tainted the bidding process. 

Drummond sent a five-page letter to Treasurer Todd Russ on Wednesday outlining his concerns about the bidding process and the Invest in Oklahoma board vote to award a contract to 311 Capital Management LLC, a firm owned by Gov. Kevin Stitt’s former chief of staff. Stitt and the rest of the five-member board voted Feb. 17 to approve the bid. 

“The award is invalid as a matter of law, the procurement that produced it was tainted by collusion and undisclosed conflicts of interest, and a contract executing the award would be void by operation of statute,” the letter to Russ said. 

The attorney general’s letter comes after Oklahoma Watch published stories in April outlining the bidding process and the previously undisclosed business links between Stitt and Bond Payne, whose Citizen Capital LLC owns 311 Capital Management. Oklahoma Watch obtained a copy of the letter Wednesday morning. 

Russ, who is also on the Invest in Oklahoma board, ran the bidding process to find an investment advisor to recommend potential deals for state pension and trust funds to invest in. 

In a written statement, Stitt said he had severed business ties to Payne before the Invest in Oklahoma board voted on the request for proposal. 

“As available in the governor’s transparent annual financial disclosures, Gov. Kevin Stitt held no financial interest in entities related to 311 Capitol nor in any entity owned by Bond Payne when he voted as a member of the Invest in Oklahoma board,” said the statement from Tevis Hillis, the governor’s spokesperson.

Russ’ office said Wednesday the attorney general’s claims were without merit and said the timing of the letter was suspicious. 

“There has not been a contract provided from the Attorney General’s office with 311 Capital and the state, nor have we drafted one,” said the written statement from Deputy Treasurer and Chief of Staff Jordan Harvey. “No funds have been transferred to 311 Capitol and there are zero dollars in the fund for any type of investments to be made. Therefore, the details of this letter are factually incorrect.” 

Payne had not responded to an interview request at the time this story was published.

Lawmakers passed the Invest in Oklahoma Act in 2021. It encourages state pensions and endowment trusts to invest up to 5% of their assets in Oklahoma-based private equity, venture capital and growth funds. The RFP documents stated that the possible universe of investment funds available under the Invest in Oklahoma program could exceed $2.37 billion. 

The winning bid by 311 Capital Management said it wouldn’t charge any upfront fees to the Invest in Oklahoma board. That was a key part of Russ’ recommendation of the board to hire the firm. Instead, 311 Capital would get paid by the entities it brought before the board and after any investments approved by the separate pension boards or boards for the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust or the Commissioners of the Land Office. 

Two other bidders, GCM Grosvenor and MEMCO, also responded to a second request for proposal in January after the first RFP in November only attracted one response – from 311 Capital Management. 

MEMCO’s bid had a minimum fee of $875,000 per year, Russ said at the Feb. 17 meeting. GCM Grosvenor’s response on fees charged a quarterly fee of $75,000, or $300,000 per year. 

Nobody at the Feb. 17 meeting mentioned the links between Stitt and Payne, who formed 311 Capital in September. Stitt was an early investor in The Citizen building, a downtown Oklahoma City development backed by one of Payne’s companies. 

After questions from Oklahoma Watch in early April, Stitt filed updated personal financial disclosure documents with the Ethics Commission. He divested from The Citizen investment in June 2024, the governor’s office said. 

Russ’ office and Payne’s Citizen Capital also employed the same lobbying firm, according to records filed with the state Ethics Commission. 

“During the active procurement period, the same registered lobbyist, Jason Dunnington, simultaneously represented 311 Capital’s parent (Citizen Capital) and the procuring office (the State Treasurer),” Drummond’s letter said. “Governor Stitt – a member of the Invest in Oklahoma Board who serves as its chair and who voted on the award – was, at the time of the vote, identified in his 2024 personal financial disclosures as an investor in JRB Citizen LLC, an entity connected to Stephen Bond Payne and to Citizen Capital.” 

As part of the budget deal between Stitt and Republican leaders in the Legislature, House Bill 4072 takes $200 million from an existing savings fund and creates the Taxpayer Endowment Trust Fund. The sovereign wealth fund was added to the list of pension funds and trust funds that may invest up to 5% of their assets in Oklahoma-based private equity, venture capital, or growth funds. Stitt signed the bill on April 22. 

Drummond’s letter said the treasurer’s office might try to claim a section of HB 4072 exempted the Invest in Oklahoma program and the new Taxpayer Endowment Trust Fund from provisions of the Central Purchasing Act. Drummond said his analysis of the law wouldn’t allow that exemption.  

“The negative inference cuts the other way: had the Legislature understood the Invest in Oklahoma program to be already exempt, there would have been no reason to enact a separate, fund-specific exemption for the Taxpayer Endowment Trust Fund,” the letter said. 

Drummond’s letter said he wants Russ and the board to rescind the Feb. 17 contract award to 311 Capital Management and to conduct a new request-for-proposal process for investment advisors to the Invest in Oklahoma program. 

“This office stands ready to confer with you on a lawful path forward,” the letter concludes. “We are not prepared to provide legal cover for the path you have chosen.”

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to clarify the provisions of HB 4072 and state purchasing laws. 

Paul Monies has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2017 and covers state agencies and public health. Contact him at (571) 319-3289 or pmonies@oklahomawatch.org. Follow him on Twitter @pmonies. 

The post Drummond Blocks Contract for Governor’s Former Business Partner appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Oklahoma Watch · Red Flags and Silent Journals

Investigative leads from Jennifer Palmer reveal the missed warning signs behind the tragic dog mauling of an Oklahoma City toddler, while J.C. Hallman explores the high-stakes mystery surrounding a deputy’s death and the journals he left behind. Plus, Jake Ramsey examines new data exposing how Oklahoma’s eviction process is being used as a tool for rent collection. Catch these stories and more on the latest Long Story Short with Shaun Witt.

The post Long Story Short: Red Flags and Silent Journals appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

A long-overdue raise for low-income workers struggling to make ends meet? Or a burdensome mandate on small businesses that will lead to reduced hours for workers and higher consumer prices?

Since it qualified for the ballot in 2024, there’s been no shortage of discourse regarding State Question 832, an initiative petition that proposes gradually raising Oklahoma’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour by the end of the decade. Voters will have the final say when SQ 832 appears on the June 16 primary election ballot. 

Proponents argue that raising the minimum wage would help hundreds of thousands of households pay for rising food, housing and healthcare costs. They say the change would benefit Oklahoma’s economy, prompting an increase in consumer spending and more tax revenue for the state and local governments. 

“If someone in our state works full-time, they shouldn’t be in poverty,” Shiloh Kantz, executive director of the Oklahoma Policy Institute, said at an April forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Oklahoma. “That’s not a strong economy. That’s a broken one.” 

Opponents contend that such an increase would hurt business owners, especially small business owners in rural areas, who would be forced to raise prices, cut employee hours and eliminate positions. They are also critical of the ballot initiative’s formula for calculating increases beyond 2029, which is tied to federal consumer price data, arguing that the methodology is overly weighted toward large metropolitan areas. 

“The cost of milk in Miami [Florida] is different than Miami [Oklahoma],” said Adam Maxey, vice president of government affairs for the Oklahoma State Chamber, at the April forum. “Those two places are very different culturally and economically.” 

Oklahoma Watch compiled the following information through interviews, research and public records: 

When was Oklahoma’s last minimum wage increase? 

Oklahoma’s minimum wage last increased in July 2009 as part of the federal Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. The $7.25 minimum wage in 2009 would be worth approximately $11.12 in 2026, according to the federal government’s Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers report. 

If SQ 832 passes, when would the minimum wage increase take effect?

The minimum wage would increase on Jan. 1, 2027, in the following increments: 

• Jan. 1, 2027: $12 per hour.
• Jan. 1, 2028: $13.50 per hour.
• Jan. 1, 2029: $15 per hour. 

SQ 832 initially proposed a $9 per hour minimum wage in 2025 and $10.50 in 2026, which were effectively eliminated when Gov. Kevin Stitt set the election date for June 16, 2026.

Does SQ 832 mandate future increases? 

Yes. Increases to Oklahoma’s minimum wage in 2030 and beyond would be tied to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W report. The federal government uses the same report to calculate annual cost-of-living increases for Social Security beneficiaries and Supplemental Security Income recipients. 

For instance, the October 2025 CPI-W report set a 2.8% cost-of-living increase for 2026. If the same 2.8% cost-of-living increase was reported at the end of 2029, Oklahoma’s minimum wage would automatically increase from $15 to $15.42 per hour in 2030, with no legislative or executive branch approval necessary. At least 21 states use a similar form of automatic indexing to raise their minimum wage. 

How is the CPI-W Report Calculated? 

The CPI-W report is based on expenditures of households in metropolitan areas where one half or more of the household’s income came from non-salaried wage or clerical work. About 30% of the U.S. population is covered under this group. 

Data is collected from several dozen urban areas, including Oklahoma City, to track the cost of common goods and services and how households spend their money. Critics contend that this methodology does not adequately evaluate economic trends in rural areas. 

Are some workers exempt from SQ 832? 

Yes. The following employees are not covered under SQ 832: 

• Federal and state employees 

• Reserve sheriff’s deputies 
• Outside salesmen
• Workers at companies that gross $100,000 or less per year and have 10 or fewer employees

SQ 832 also eliminates some existing exemptions, including farm and agricultural workers, feedstore employees and positions filled by individuals younger than 18. 

How many workers would see their pay increase under SQ 832?

About 216,000 Oklahoma workers, or one-eighth of the state’s workforce, would benefit directly from SQ 832, according to an analysis from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Another 141,700 workers could benefit indirectly through a ripple effect of wages at or just above the minimum wage.

Workers in the restaurant, retail and hotel industries would benefit the most from the policy change, according to the think tank’s analysis.

How much is being raised to advocate for or against SQ 832? 

Yes on 832-Raise the Wage Oklahoma, a state question committee formed to advocate for the initiative petition, raised more than $900,000 from Jan. 1 through March 31. Top donors include $400,000 from the Tulsa Community Foundation, a tax-exempt charity founded by billionaire George Kaiser, and $400,000 from Tulsa-based philanthropist Lynn Schusterman. 

As of March 31, the last campaign finance reporting deadline, Raise the Wage Oklahoma had $1.1 million on hand. The organization began purchasing television ad time in several Oklahoma media markets in late April, according to records from the Federal Communications Commission. 

No political action committee has been formed to oppose SQ 832. However, the Oklahoma City-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit People for Opportunity has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on television advertisements opposing the ballot initiative. 

Per state and federal regulations, People for Opportunity can raise and spend an unlimited amount of money on state question campaigns. They are not required to disclose their donors. 

People for Opportunity has strong organizational ties to the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, a conservative public policy think tank based in Oklahoma City. OCPA has published dozens of articles critical of SQ 832 in recent months. 

How have similar initiatives fared in other states? 

Voters in 12 states, including neighboring Arkansas, Missouri and Colorado, have decided minimum wage ballot initiatives since 2016. Only two failed, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. 

What groups support SQ 832, and why? 

Backers of SQ 832 include the Oklahoma Policy Institute, Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and the Oklahoma AFL-CIO labor union. Raise the Wage Oklahoma organizers said dozens of small business owners have also pledged support for the ballot initiative. 

They argued that raising the minimum wage would spur increased economic activity, reduce employee turnover and help reduce childhood poverty. They also cited a study from the nonpartisan This Land Research and Communications Collaborative predicting a reduction in property crime if SQ 832 is enacted. 

What groups oppose SQ 832, and why? 

The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, State Chamber of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Farm Bureau and Oklahoma Restaurant Association are among the groups opposing SQ 832.

They argue that free-market competition among businesses for employees is the most effective mechanism to increase wages. They say increasing the minimum wage would have unintended consequences, including higher consumer prices and fewer job opportunities for entry-level employees trying to gain work experience. Large corporations would shift to automation while small businesses would be forced to reduce hours or eliminate positions. 

Have states that raised their minimum wage seen job reductions and higher prices?

It varies. Unemployment rates in Nebraska and Missouri, where a $15-per-hour minimum wage took effect at the beginning of 2025 and 2026, respectively, have remained flat in recent years. Consumer prices in St. Louis, the largest urban area in the two states, have also remained in line with national averages. Opponents of SQ 832 argue more time is needed to study the long-term economic impact in these states. 

Researchers have noted adverse effects of a 2024 California law setting a $20 minimum wage for fast food workers, including consumer price increases and increased workplace automation. A 2024 minimum wage increase to $20 per hour in the Seattle area had some trade-offs, including fewer job openings for entry-level workers. 

Proponents of SQ 832 say that Oklahoma’s economy is much different than west coast states like California and Washington, and the staggered approach to raising the minimum wage would give businesses sufficient time to adjust. 

If enacted, could the Legislature attempt to modify or roll back SQ 832? 

Yes. As an initiated state statute, the Legislature would have the authority to amend parts of SQ 832 without voter approval. That scenario played out in Missouri last year. 

Who can vote on SQ 832?

All registered voters in Oklahoma, regardless of political party affiliation, are eligible to vote on SQ 832. The voter registration deadline for the June 16 election is Friday, May 22 at 5 p.m. 
To start the voter registration process, confirm your registration status, find your polling place or view sample ballot, visit the OK Voter Portal.

Keaton Ross covers democracy and criminal justice for Oklahoma Watch. Contact him at (405) 831-9753 or Kross@Oklahomawatch.org. Follow him on Twitter at @_KeatonRoss.

The post What to Know About State Question 832 and Gradually Raising Oklahoma’s Minimum Wage to $15 per Hour appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

No.

As of 2023, life expectancy in America is 78.4 years, 2.7 years less than the average in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, and ranks No. 30 of 38. 

One report attributed the 2.7-year gap to policy regarding health care access and delivery, while another comparing the U.S. to the U.K. pointed to cardiovascular disease, overdose deaths, gun-related deaths, and motor vehicle crashes.

Average life expectancies for OECD countries and the United States, and the gap between the two, have increased significantly since their 2003 numbers of 77.4 and 77.2 years, respectively.

More than 70% of OECD countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada, have life expectancies exceeding 80 years. The top three countries, Switzerland, Japan, and Spain,each have life expectancies of more than 84 years. 

Among the states, Oklahoma ranks No. 45 with a life expectancy of 73.8 years.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

Sources

• America's Health Rankings 2025 Annual Report – International Comparison
• The Commonwealth Fund Americans, No Matter the State They Live In, Die Younger Than People in Many Other Countries
• John Hopkins – Bloomberg School of Public Health New Report: Life Expectancy Years Shorter in the United States Compared to the United Kingdom
• OECD Health at a Glance 2025
• CDC – National Center for Health Statistics 2025 Schedule of NCHS Statistical Products and Reports

The post Is the life expectancy for Americans 5-10 years less than that of similarly developed countries, as Rep. Breechen claimed? appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

When Lynaea McGee left college, she didn’t leave behind her dream of being a registered nurse. 

At the time, she was juggling school, a full-time job, two young children, and a husband whose career required frequent travel away from home.

The hiatus she began in 2004 went on for nearly two decades, but it was just that – a hiatus. 

The Ada woman was among the 8,645 college “stopouts” in Oklahoma who reenrolled in 2023-24.

But according to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, Oklahoma is falling short of more than 40 other states in getting more stopouts – who push pause on college with the intention of returning – back on track toward graduation.

This population of working-age adults with some college credit but no credential to boost their earnings now numbers 38 million people across the U.S.

That is nearly 800,000 more than the count a year earlier, with the number of stopouts up in every state, according to data analyzed and shared by the Associated Press from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s latest “Some College, No Credential Student Outcomes” report.

In recent years, however, colleges, universities, and state and local governments have stepped up efforts to help stopouts get back in class, with measurable success. 

In 2023-24, more than 1 million stopouts reenrolled, an increase of 7% from the year before, according to the AP’s data analysis. 

Reenrollment of college stopouts was up in 42 states and Washington, D.C.

In Oklahoma, there are 413,576 stopouts aged 18-65. But the 8,645 who returned to college in 2023-24 represented a decrease of nearly 14% compared to the year before.

That fact is not lost on the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, which has made serving this population a priority for nearly two decades. 

State initiatives already in place include:

• Promotion of re-enrollment to encourage degree completion.
• Scholarship programs for these adult students.
• Making available learning assessments to help people weigh their options
• Provision of more than 500 career-focused microcredentials to help adults adapt and succeed in the workplace.

“Targeting these students is an important strategy to increase our state’s overall educational attainment,” said Angela Caddell, associate vice chancellor for communications at Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.

The most common barriers that keep college on the back burner for stopouts, she said, are work responsibilities, family obligations, including childcare or caregiving, and competing financial demands within the household budget.

The state has a special website, ShowWhatYouKnowOK.org, to help people determine how previously earned college and CareerTech credits, licenses, certifications, military training, Advanced Placement, College-Level Examination Program scores, and other learning experiences can be applied toward a college degree.

OSRHE’s main effort to serve working adults who already have some college credits is the Reach Higher program, which has helped more than 13,000 adult students earn degrees since it was established in 2007.

Twenty-seven public and private institutions across Oklahoma participate, ensuring reenrolling stopouts get customized advising and flexibility while balancing family and work obligations.

“Allocations for public higher education’s adult degree completion initiatives have nearly doubled in the last five years, and the State Regents have funded over $1.1 million in adult degree completion and workforce re-entry scholarships in each of the last four fiscal years,” Caddell said.

Among those scholarship recipients over the last three semesters was McGee, who in 2023 realized that, with her two kids grown and gone, she could finally return to school.

Now 49, the Ada woman is about to graduate from Seminole State College with not one, but two associate‘s degrees.

She did all of her coursework online while juggling full-time work as a hospice case manager, which requires her to drive between private homes, assisted living and skilled nursing centers to see each of her 20 patients with terminal diagnoses 2-3 times a week.

McGee is still deciding whether to enroll next in a standalone university bachelor’s degree program or a different school that offers concurrent enrollment in bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in registered nursing.

“I want to teach because I want to be able to help shape and mold the next generation of nurses,” McGee said. “I don’t know if it’s because my mom was a teacher and my aunt was a teacher, but I’ve just always loved to show and educate and train. 

“There’s also this saying that nurses eat their own,” McGee said. “I actually experienced it not terribly long ago. That is something I also want to teach the younger generation – that we’ve got to get away from clique-like mentality and mean girl behavior. That’s why nurses are leaving the bedside or walking away from nursing as a profession.”

Stopouts, not Dropouts

Seminole State College, about an hour east of Oklahoma City, hosted its latest Reach Higher recruiting event targeting stopouts on Sunday.

“These events are really hit and miss; maybe five people show up, but concurrent enrollment of students in high school and adult learners returning to school are our two biggest student groups served here,” said Josh Hutton, director of communications. “A lot of us are switching gears and tactics to appeal to people who have some credit. For us, too, we push harder on marketing high-demand, critical occupations, like nursing and medical lab technicians. We are really trying to focus on those more than, say, language arts.” 

Out of 1,843 students who attended that community college between 2020 and 2023 but departed early, 643, or 35%, reenrolled in classes between 2024 and 2026, Hutton said.

Tracking college stopouts who enroll at a different school is difficult, but in 2024, 5% of the 1,926 students who enrolled at Seminole State were more than 25 years old and already had credits from other colleges.

Tulsa Community College, the state’s third-largest higher education institution, is a Reach Higher participant but also has begun its own initiative called “Back on Track” to aid adult learners amid a sudden enrollment uptick in that segment. 

“TCC has experienced an increase in returning students — those students who started their program, stopped out, and now are coming back,” said Eileen Kenney, associate vice president of enrollment and retention at TCC. “We started to see an increase in spring of 2024. At that point we saw a 25% increase in returning students enrolling. We’ve had several additional semesters of increases since then.”

TCC’s academic programs have been aligned with occupations the state of Oklahoma has deemed most critical, with dedicated scholarships, admissions counseling and outreach events specific to adult learners, many of whom already have some college experience but no credential.

One former stopout was motivated to relocate to Tulsa a year ago from the rural area where he grew up in California’s Central Valley because of TCC’s offerings.

Just before he graduated from high school in 2008, John Alves’ dream of playing NCAA baseball crashed and burned when his too-low SAT score cost him admission to the university where a coach had offered him a baseball scholarship. 

Alves went on to take classes at three junior colleges over the next four years, but said he struggled with motivation and still had no sense of direction. 

“I think there’s a bit of a problem with kids coming out of high school who don’t know what they want to do being pressured to go to college,” Alves said. “Now, I’m a lot more driven and focused.”

Alves put school on the back burner and worked for years at a large shipping company, which afforded him a comfortable life, including home ownership. 

But sustaining a serious injury on the job a few years ago that required extensive recuperation time led Alves to conclude that physical labor was, well, unsustainable. 

“I knew I needed to pivot,” said Alves, now 35.

In 2024, he landed a spot in a cybersecurity bootcamp at California State University–Long Beach that promised entry-level skills by the end of the nine-month program. 

By the end, Alves said he discovered the vast majority of the cybersecurity job market requires more advanced skills. 

He had taken out a student loan and mortgage payments were coming due, so he began considering selling his house and going all-in on completing a college degree.

“My grandfather was originally from Oklahoma, but the family moved to California during the cotton boom in the 1960s. My grandmother moved back to the family farm in 2022 and my mother moved from California to Choteau in 2023, so it’s been a bit of a reverse migration,” said Alves.

He’s still establishing residency in Oklahoma, with the goal of completing his bachelor’s degree at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. That has limited him to two courses each semester since he enrolled in the fall of 2025. 

But Alves now sees that as fortuitous. 

“I was terrified coming back to school last August,” he said. “Fortunately, TCC has a really good amount of returning students. I’ve done really well here, and it has given me a lot of confidence going forward. I was able to get two part-time student jobs. It has been a nice way to assimilate and figure out what works and to start to have a social life. I’m really just trying to build a whole life.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Andrea Eger covers a variety of topics for Oklahoma Watch. Contact her at aeger@oklahomawatch.org.

The post Oklahoma Falling Behind 40 States in Getting College Stopouts Back to Class appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Here is the audio of Oklahoma Watch’s published stories for the week of April 27, 2026.

– Full Week Playlist: Listen to all the stories back-to-back, without interruption.
– Individual Stories: Select and play any story you’d like to hear, at your convenience.

---

Full Week Playlist:

Individual Stories:

Fact Briefs:

Oklahoma Watch Is Looking for an Audio Story Sponsor
We’re currently seeking a sponsor for our audio stories. Thanks to our friends at Everlit for helping make this sponsorship feature highly customizable.

Interested in becoming a sponsor or would like to learn more? Contact Shaun Witt at switt@oklahomawatch.org or 405-824-1469.

The post Audio Stories: April 27, 2026 appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.