Latest / The Dry Line Podcast / Is MAGA Dead in Oklahoma? Plus, Westbrook’s Immortality, Brent Venables’ Future, and State Farm’s New Admission in Court

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Is MAGA Dead in Oklahoma? Plus, Westbrook’s Immortality, Brent Venables’ Future, and State Farm’s New Admission in Court · The Dry Line Podcast

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to The Dry Line Podcast,
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: where weekly we analyze Oklahoma's strangely endearing culture,
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: its unbelievable weather, sacred sports, underrated food, and damn fine people.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Ryan Fightmaster, Editor-in-Chief of The Dry Line.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: Before we get into last night's midterm results in Oklahoma
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: and what I believe they mean for Oklahoma's not as conservative politics
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: and if a seismic shift to reasonability may
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: in fact actually maybe might be likely sort of happening,
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'd like to make a request.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: We're a small operation over here at The Dry Line.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: Our whole staff could fit into this mid-century modern chair that I'm sitting in.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: I think you get at what I'm getting at.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: We're lean, feisty, and hungry for a better discussion about everything Oklahoma.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: And to do that, we need you to tell your friends about what we're doing.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: Follow us at DryLineOKC on social media. We're everywhere.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: TikTok, Instagram, YouTube.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Send this show to your buddy that brings up the hardened trade too often.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: Send it also to your friend that thinks Mike Mazie might actually be
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: the first AI chatbot capable of humanoid behavior and interactions.
• 1:25
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• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, shameless begging complete.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: Let's do this.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: The midterms happened.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: And on paper, nothing changed.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: Republicans will continue to hold all seven congressional seats again in Oklahoma.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Who cares, right?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: MAGA reigns supreme.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think so.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: I see a very different story unfolding when you look at the numbers.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: Especially when you compare them to the other results from this century inside of our state.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: What I see now is a state where having MAGA and Donald Trump attached
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: to your platform and your political identity is now a liability even in Oklahoma.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll show you why I feel that way and why I'm optimistic
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: that our state can actually return to something that looks
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: a little more like balance And across the aisle compromise sooner rather than later.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the numbers will show that.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and really, you don't have to look much further
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: than Governor-elect Mike Macy's victory speech last night and how it differed
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: from his runoff speech.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so when he beat Gettner Drummond, he thanked God and then swiftly,
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: he thanked and praised President Donald Trump.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: Listen to Mike Macy last night here.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so very much to all of you and to all of our supporters
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: across the entire wonderful state of Oklahoma.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: I am incredibly grateful to all of you
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: and to all of this great team of workers
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: that my dad and brother Dan introduced earlier and to all you volunteers
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: and everyone out there who put their trust.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: In me for this amazing opportunity
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: to serve you as the 29th governor of Oklahoma.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: Across the entirety of his 15 minute speech, Maisie doesn't mention Donald Trump one time.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_02: Nor does he mention MAGA or any other of the commonly used culture war epithets.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: Part of Trump's absence here in Maisie's speech is probably owed to the fact
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: that Trump said repeatedly That he is the only reason that Maisie got elected.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: And it's also probably owed to how repeatedly Republican strategists kept telling
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: the national press how weak of a candidate Mike Maisie was.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: Maisie was probably pissed.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: After all, he's the one who paid that $65,000 payment to Roger Stone
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: to secure Trump's endorsement.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: And now All of that's over.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: Mazie got elected and Trump is now,
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: with the thorough transfer of power in Congress and Senate into Democratic hands,
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: officially a lame duck president.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know how much he'll be hoping.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I really don't know how much he'll be helping,
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: likely only hurting Mike Mazie's future agenda in Oklahoma as governor.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: And this really, I think, brings into focus now the whole Inola aluminum smelter issue.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: The issue that dragged Maisie into the mud across this entire campaign
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: and essentially highlighted everyone's fears about corruption and foreign money
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: in Oklahoma.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: Is Maisie really going to die on that hill now that he's in office?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like really?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: For Trump?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: The guy who talked poorly of Maisie every chance he had?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know. I mean, we'll see what Maisie decides to do.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: Let's hope that in working with an Oklahoma house,
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: And Senate that more than likely wanted Gintner Drummond to be the next governor.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: That Maisie, or at least 50% of them, probably wanted Gintner Drummond to be the next governor.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, let's hope that Maisie is actually going to be forced now to play ball.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: And that this isn't going to be one-sided, one-identity politics in the state.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: And that these factions of the Republican Party, along with some growing...
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: Democratic faction.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: I think they did win a few seats in the state house.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: Let's hope that this new coalition
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: that represents Oklahoma government will actually work together.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: That, I think, would actually benefit all of us.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: Not just him, Maisie Bing, and Governor Stitt's inner circle of cronies. Yeah.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get into the actual results on the governor's race between Maisie
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: and the Democratic nominee Cindy Monson and what those results mean.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: But first, you tell much of us in Oklahoma breakdown.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's like impossible not to just say that at every single transition at this point.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Gabe.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, first, I want to say and acknowledge and pause here just how excellent
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: of a campaign Cindy Monson ran.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: We'll review the numbers thoroughly, which tell that story like it's spades.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, damn, she pulled this race to within the polling margin of error.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: The Cook Report
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: may have actually underplayed her chances in this election,
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_02: which is crazy, given how all of us doubted that Cook Report so much.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: Nationally, the Democratic Party felt and communicated that Monson was
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: an above average to great candidate for governor.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: And those feelings were proved entirely accurate last night.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: She pushed Mike Maisie.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: She lost statewide by just 6%.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: Joy Hoffmeister, four years ago, lost to Stitt by 13%.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: Jerry Askins lost to Fallon by over 20%.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: This was a tight race.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get to some of her remarks from last night's concession speech.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: We, this campaign...
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: Has received the largest percentage from a Democratic candidate for governor
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: in an open seat in over 30 years.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: It says a lot.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: It says a lot about getting on the ground and traveling to all 77 counties
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: and talking to everyday Oklahomans about who you are as a leader.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: What your vision is for the state of Oklahoma.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: And most importantly, listening,
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: listening to everyday working Oklahomans who need a leader,
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: who need a leader who is going to stand up and fight for them.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: Munson was an excellent candidate, but here's why I think she didn't win.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: Democratic national politics.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: All that woke stuff from before and around 2020, the pandemic lockdowns,
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: the forced COVID boosters, the obsession with culture war subjects,
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: And changing the language.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: Changing the language that we call mothers.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: Calling them birthing persons.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: All that stuff.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: Has really damaged the Democratic brand, especially in more conservative leaning areas.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: There has literally been nothing for rural Oklahomans to believe
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: in in the Democratic Party now for like almost 20 years.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: The people that the Democratic National Party elects in other areas,
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm thinking about like AOC, Bernie, Dr.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: El-Sayed in the Michigan race who won his Senate seat.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: Mom Donnie in New York City.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: These personalities, they garner no favor to Democrats trying to run for office
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: in Oklahoma because as was the case with Munson
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: and Democratic Attorney General candidate Nick Coffey,
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: they are not like the National Democrats.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: They are Oklahoma Democrats.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: They tried in this race to put Oklahoma first and they are willing to work across the aisle.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: Munson has shown that inside of her Her career inside the Oklahoma Legislature.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: But in this area, where everyone's social media feed is blitzed
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: with these national personalities,
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: And people anymore just don't spend time learning and reading
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: and actually getting exposed, even on local TV, to who the local candidates are.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: It sets up the average Oklahoman to actually believe all the stuff that Maisie said
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: about months in those attack ads.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: I think until the National Democratic Party changes directions,
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: I do not see a statewide office going blue.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: For a while, but I don't know.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, last night was close.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I do think the National Democratic Party is trying to change.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: If you listen to some of their leaders, like Hakeem Jeffries,
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: the New Jersey House of Representatives member who will likely be the next Speaker
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: of the House now that the Democrats took back over control of the House,
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: he mentioned in his speech last night that his win was for America, not the right,
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: not the left, Okay? That's messaging.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: This is coming from the top down.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: I heard Tallarico on NPR earlier today saying something very similar to that.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: And let me read you Mayor Holt's comments that he put out today on Instagram and social media.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: Quote, this is from Mayor David Holt, Mayor of Oklahoma City.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: A political party that is morally and intellectually bankrupt deserves the rebuke
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: of the American people.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: It is now time to make America good again.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: That is an endeavor to which all Americans can contribute, for we are not Democrats,
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: Republicans, or Independents.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: We are humans, and the things that unite us far and wide exceed the things that divide us.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: We are the caretakers of the American experiment,
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: and the experiment has been rejuvenated tonight.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: End of the quote.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: These are very similar talking points to Hakeem Jeffries' talking points,
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: but these talking points are not so similar to AOCs, Mamdani's, El-Sayed's,
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: the Democratic Socialists.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: Whichever faction eventually holds sway, which for my liking,
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: I pray it's the centrists so we can get off this populism to socialism pendulum
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: and try to just be reasonable again as a country.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: That faction, whoever wins that on the Democratic Party will determine
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: if Oklahoma ever goes Democratic again.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: We shall see.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: It was closer this year and voters were not happy with Trump and Maggie's vision for America.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: And on that note...
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: Who is the Republican Party going to submit now as their nominee for president?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, far and wide, I think the rebuke,
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: as it's being called, of MAGA politics is happening. So is J.D.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: Vance a viable candidate? I mean, what's going to happen? I don't know.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: I vote for Mark Wayne Mullin.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: Last few numbers from the governor's race.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: So in 2022, in Oklahoma County,
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: Democrat, Joy Hoffmeister beat Kevin Stitt by 13% of the vote.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: This is in just Oklahoma County.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: Last night, Munson beat Mazie in Oklahoma County by 25%.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's a massive margin.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: In Tulsa County, in 2022, Hoffmeister edged Stitt by 0.2%.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, Hoffmeister barely beat Stitt up in Tulsa County, like barely.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: Last night, Munson won Tulsa County by 11%.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: These are massive shifts in Oklahoma's big cities.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: And ultimately, it did not overcome Macy's absolute rural county dominance.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's so impressive what he did in southeastern Oklahoma.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: Still confusing to me how he was able to do that.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: We're going to get to that in a second and some hypotheses on that.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: But Macy, okay, let's pause for a second.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: Macy ran an awesome campaign too.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: Let's be real.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: What they did after the end of that drum and runoff,
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: when they basically pulled Maisie off of these public facing debates,
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: they also said, hey man, don't get into these conflicts with people.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: Don't make fun of people who are asking you questions at debates.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: Don't get any more clips like that circulated onto the internet.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: Try to come off as a reasonable, nice person and just don't say anything really offensively.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: And he didn't do that.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: And he kind of disappeared out of the public eye for the last two months.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: And it worked. Yeah, it was a really smart political move.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: Didn't give Munson any ammunition.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: More thoughts on the governor's race.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_02: President Donald Trump's choice of Durant
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: for that midterm campaign stop may have actually ended up paying dividends
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: for Maisie. I think at the time it was assumed...
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: His choice of a southeastern Oklahoma small town had more to do with garnering
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: the attention of undecided voters in DFW's media market, which,
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: while we're on that subject,
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: let us just pause and acknowledge what a disaster last night Republicans had
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: in Texas. I mean, they lost not just the governor's race and the Senate election,
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: both by double digits, despite dumping hundreds of millions into those races,
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: but they also lost the state's attorney general race, the railroad race,
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: or the railroad commissioner's race, I mean, Texas went blue.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: I think they lost the state house too.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: I never thought we were going to see that.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: I think that was the shock and the story of the midterms last night.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: And we'll talk about maybe how Democrats will try to use
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: that recipe moving forward here in a little bit.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: We'll get to that in a second.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I think...
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: We didn't think that Trump was actually campaigning for Oklahoma's candidates
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: or that Oklahoma's candidates even needed it. But you know what?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe the Republicans had some data that did show that this was going to be
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: within the margin of error and they were actually a little bit worried about Maisie.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: And you know what?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: Trump coming to Southeastern Oklahoma,
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: it preserved that margin that Maisie needed out there in Southeastern Oklahoma.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: He carried over 70% of the vote in all those counties except for Bryan County
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: and I think even in Bryan County where Durant is.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: He still got over 65% of the vote.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it wasn't like 80%, the 80% that Trump got back
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: a couple years ago whenever he carried everything in that part of the state,
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: but it also wasn't Stitt's only like 60% of the vote
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: that Stitt got back four years ago.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: Southeastern Corner held major sway again in a consequential statewide election,
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: and I think Trump actually ended up helping out Maisie pretty significantly there.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: The big fear amongst Republicans coming into this midterm election was
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: that the base wouldn't turn out for the midterms because of, quote, Trump fatigue,
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: according to Bice, or diesel prices or the Iran conflict.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yesterday, Oklahomans cast 97% of their votes from 2022's governor elections.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's a slight dip of 3%, but it's not a drastic disappearance in participation.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think the problem was that the Republican base didn't show up.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: I think the problem was that the Republican base decided to change bases.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: Mary Fallin's tenure as governor, while embarrassing, feels to me...
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: Now, kind of like a quaint, naive memory from the golden pre-pandemic days of life.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: Non-algorithmic social media.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: There's no AI slop.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: No Brent Swadley.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: He was just serving barbecue at that point.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: And as I watched a relatively competitive governor's race play out last night on TV,
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: by the way, News 9 did an awesome job with the race.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: That's who I watched for most of last night.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: I wondered if this feeling I was having,
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: this feeling that Republicans were no longer invincible,
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: And that you could actually have competitive races.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: I wondered, I was like, is this what it felt like to be a citizen in Oklahoma?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: Back like in the Fallon years?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: So I looked up Fallon's 2010 margin of victory over Askins.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like I said earlier, Fallon won that race by 20% in 2010.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: Which got me thinking.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: After Munson lost by six last night, that maybe we're a little bit closer.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: To reasonable government in Oklahoma again than we think.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: We're getting there.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: Alright, moving into the much discussed
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: and pontificated Congressional District 5
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: in Oklahoma for its House of Representatives seat. Somehow.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: Somehow.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: Into the stiffest of possible headwinds.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: Some of those were self-created and others of those were Trump-created.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: Stephanie Bice, the Republican incumbent, prevailed over Gina Nelson in CD5,
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: the district that contains most of Oklahoma City.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: So in 2022, Bice, the incumbent, again,
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: she beat Josh Harris-Till by 22% to win CD5.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: Last night, she beat Nelson by 1%.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: If there was one race that got away from Democrats, this was it.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_02: Because it was gettable.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: An unpopular incumbent was running with no support from the current president.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: Remember, she either chose not to go down to Durant because she thought it was going
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: to hurt her campaign, or she was not invited to participate in Durant.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: At all, because Trump took offense to those leaked comments that came
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: from her appearance at Oklahoma State.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: So, Bice was exiled from the Republican Party, and it still didn't matter.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: She still got that CD5 seat.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: Gina Nelson, she ran a great campaign, I think,
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: but at times I thought her messaging was a little brash, a little forceful.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think if she played it a little more down the middle,
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: maybe embraced a little less conflict, maybe leaned into more reasonability,
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: less overt alignment with national democratic messaging.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: I know that's a vast oversimplification of her campaign. She almost won the race.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: 3,000 votes she wins.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: So this is all probably stupid commentary.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: But I do think if she leaned more into that reasonability,
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: I wonder if she could have just let Bice's voting history with Trump just rise
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: to the front of CD5 voters' minds a little more.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: Instead, I think some of the divisiveness and some of her critiques and some
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: of the attack ads and that kind of stuff, I think it kind of clouded things some.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, or maybe it helped. I don't know.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have the data.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: Or maybe if the National Democrats would have thrown in some
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: of that funding they gave her in the last month a little bit earlier, I don't know.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: Regardless, I do think Bice has the potential, as our representative here,
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: as a CD5 citizen,
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: to become more moderate and more responsive to shifts in her electorate.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: And frankly, she should become more responsive because she's lucky
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: to She's lucky she got elected given her voting record
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: and given how strongly aligned she was with Trump.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, she got lucky last night.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: Running side by side last night with the Bison-Nelson race, surprisingly,
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: was the Tedford and Croissant race.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if it's...
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: I really hope it's Croissant.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: Croissant.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think it is. I think it's just croissant, but yeah.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: And CD won in Tulsa.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: The Republican Tedford ended up winning that race in the end by 5%, but still,
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: this was thought beforehand to be a race that was going to be
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: an easy double-digit win for a Republican running to replace Kevin Hearn
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: as he vacated that seat to run for Senate.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: And man, Tedford, he was behind for a good portion of the night.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: And honestly, this could have ended up being possibly the most surprising result of the night.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: The fact that this was even a competitive race wasn't on most people's radars.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: As expected, Kevin Hearn cruised to victory over Nikila Jasmine Thomas
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: for Oklahoma's open Senate seat.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yet, as the first ever balloted Democratic Socialist candidate
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: in Oklahoma history,
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: Thomas beat Hearn in Oklahoma County and Cleveland County,
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: winning Oklahoma County by 15%.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: A socialist candidate, let me repeat that,
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: dominated Oklahoma City in a Senate race
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: against an establishment Trump-aligned candidate tells you all you need to know
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: about how moderates and independents felt about Oklahoma's Republican leadership.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: Also, in Oklahoma County, Republicans Larry Stein, an incumbent, and Christy Miller,
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: a longtime state official in the treasurer's office under Butch Freeman,
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: both lost their runs for Oklahoma County assessor and treasurer last night.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_02: And by a margin, this was surprising too.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: Practically, what that means is the next time That we log in, in a month,
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: pretty much, to look up our property taxes, to pay them yearly,
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: on the assessor's page, and then get transferred over to paying
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: the treasurer's page, which I've never understood why we can't just do
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: that in one place.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: Those two photos that we've seen for nearly a decade, okay, of Stein and Freeman,
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_02: they're going to be different.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: And they're going to be Democrats.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: The people of Oklahoma County apparently did not think that Stein did enough
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: to limit the exponential rise of property taxes in the county.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I think both of these offices got swept up by the MAGA undertow effect,
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_02: as people are calling it, owing to Trump's 30% approval rating.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: Either way, just a few more pieces of evidence that change is happening right here
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: in Oklahoma County, no doubt.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: The state questions got obliterated last night.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: There's really not much else to say here.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think voters saw that the executive branch, Kevin Stitt, not Mike Masey,
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: were trying to consolidate more power with the judiciary selections.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think that was state question 845.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: And without any official markings
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_02: that Insinuated that question was supported by Republicans.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: Oklahomans read the question, read what it was trying to do,
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_02: which was give more power in that selection process to the governor.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: And they said, you know what?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: I think we're good.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: We like our checks and balances.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: The jail tax also got voted down with 65% of voters voting no.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: People, pundits, are saying this is because of poor management by the city
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: and the county assessor.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: Some are saying this vote might be linked to why Larry Stein got ousted.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think so.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: I just think life is expensive right now and people didn't want
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: to make life more expensive on behalf of their government's inability
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: to figure this out with other tax dollars.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, overall,
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: I do believe Oklahomans voted more on issue in this election
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: than any election in the recent past.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe going back to 2016 when Trump got elected.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: Think about the issues that dominated the news in the lead up.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: Artificial intelligence, data centers, war.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: Corruption.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: These are the same issues that put the MAGA movement and Donald Trump into power
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: in the first place.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: Distrust of politicians, the swamp's corruption in D.C.,
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: the Democratic Party's alignment with big tech and big tech taking advantage
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: of its power, increased surveillance, blah, blah, blah.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: Those are the same issues that basically just got MAGA voted out in the midterms.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's really interesting to see how this swung And how the alignment and how
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: the Democratic Party successfully aligned itself with the people again and how
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: the populist movement, the MAGA movement lost that and they lost touch
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: with how people felt about things.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: I think it was most apparent in the data centers.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: I think bipartisan support went everywhere
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: with people literally hating the idea
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: of data centers, right?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: And here you go, you have all these Republican leaders, including Trump,
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: who just kept pushing and pushing and pushing data centers.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: And Democrats just stepped in and basically just listened to the people and took up the torch.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: It was really that simple, I think.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: I'm intrigued to see what impact all of this might have on MAGA's push for AI in general.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: And as we talked about earlier, the future of the Inola Aluminum Smelter Project.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_02: People do not want that project.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: Politicians are not going to get elected if they continue pursuing it.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oklahomans proved that, and maybe didn't prove,
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: but lended some accountability to the whole process of electing officials
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: in Oklahoma.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, a couple more words about Texas, because...
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's our neighbor.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, this was the story of the election.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: So the Democratic sweep was basically because Tallarico
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: and everybody else down there focused on Texas issues.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: He said verbatim, I am not going to jeopardize the future of Texas oil and gas
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: and lose those high paying jobs for our state.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: I will not play national political games.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: I will focus on Texas's issues and I will deliver for Texans.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: Now, will, now that they're in power, will they be swayed by the Democratic National Party?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: Will they actually do what they said they're going to do?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: Will they push a more liberal agenda? I don't know.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: But I think Oklahoma Democrats have to figure out who an Oklahoma Democrat is
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_02: and which issues they're willing to identify as important to Oklahomans.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: In addition to healthcare and education, they can speak to moderates.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_02: And if they can do that, like they did in Texas,
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: and they can find some people who have the ability to just seem like
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: a normal person, sky's the limit.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: If it happened in Texas, it can happen in Oklahoma, that's for sure.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: Big picture, what does it mean?
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: How do these results actually impact our lives?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: Are we going to be waiting again on the next Ryan Walters to just show up out
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_02: of nowhere and embarrass all of us in the national media?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: Across the board, in all the statewide elections,
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: you saw Republican candidates distance themselves from Trump.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's going to make things seem a lot more normal here in Oklahoma.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: We now have an insurance commissioner also interested
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: in lowering home insurance prices We have a superintendent interested
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: in actually improving education and reading scores.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: These are all positives, right?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: We have a legislature that isn't purely interested in just pursuing MAGA policy now.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, our congressmen nationally are, yeah,
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: like all of our elected congressmen from Oklahoma going to DC are gonna be
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: in the minority now.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: They will likely not be featured on television near as much as they used to.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: They will not have the power anymore.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_02: They will have to go to the people for answers.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: Again, all of this, I believe, is a win for reasonability in our state.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's a win for the people of Oklahoma.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: And let's hope Maisie, not mentioning Trump last night,
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: is the beginning of something more normal around here.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, let us pray for that.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_02: Not hope.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_02: Into the Oklahoma world.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: News, Roundup.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: On Monday, at the Oklahoma City National Memorial
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: and Museum's annual Day One Luncheon,
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: Russell Westbrook was given the Oklahoma Standard Award.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: I cannot imagine a more gratifying award to get from any community than that award,
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: nor can I think of a more deserving guy to get it.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: When Russ was in OKC, I remember all those tour stops he did
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: on the Thunders reading bus at all those elementary schools. That was amazing.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know how many times he did that,
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: but it seemed like hundreds and not to even get into Russ's legacy.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_02: Within the Thunder franchise,
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: it's been said a thousand times and will be said a million more times.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_02: But when Russ chose to stay after KD chose to join the Warriors,
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: that decision changed the destiny of Oklahoma City.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not kidding.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: That is not hyperbole.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: If he leaves and asks for a trade and doesn't recruit Paul George to sign that extension...
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: Or throw that party for Paul George, unlike Arcadia,
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_02: which convinced Paul George to sign the extension.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: Which doesn't end up translating into SGA and all those picks,
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_02: not to mention Russ's trade to Houston that yielded Chris Paul,
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: who ended up mentoring Shea in the dark arts.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: Who knows where this franchise would be.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I doubt it would be here with the championship under its belt.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: With even after this horrific slew of injuries,
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: a chance to go win a couple more championships across the next few years.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_02: I know, Russ was a flawed basketball player.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_02: He had, at times, an inability to understand what the best decision was
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: for the basketball team at any given moment, especially late in games.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: But, Russell Westbrook also had Superhuman grit
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_02: and determination and drive.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why we love that dude so much around here.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: He chose us.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_02: He chose the hard way.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: He chose the Oklahoma way.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: And that guy is going to be an Okie forever.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm excited as Sam Presti announced Monday that his jersey is getting retired
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: on February 7th and will hang in the rafters.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: Makes me emotional just thinking about seeing that zero up there.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: Gotta love Russ.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: Monday was a really cool day for the city and our state.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: I will link the video in the show notes to Presti's introduction and Russ's speech.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's worth watching.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: I think it'd be really cool.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know how Russ would do that thing whenever he played here?
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like where he would get through with his warmups and right before the tip,
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: he would sprint to that one corner of the floor and basically just like pump
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: the crowd up, which I've never seen another player do anything like that.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: That was so cool.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: And it was like a full sprint every single game.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, the gym could be like empty, like it was in that first year after KD left, right?
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: And he would still do it. He brought the juice every night.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_02: I think it'd be really cool if we planted a zero or something over there
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: in that corner on the floor.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: We owe Russ a ton.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: He is the reason why we got that championship, in my mind.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: Him and Presti.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: Presti's comments were amazing, also, inside of his speech.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: Go listen to it just to hear Presti talk.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: You guys know how I feel about Presti.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: Sticking to sports.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: On a sadder note, Brent Venables and Oklahoma football parted ways
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: with offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle this week.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to say anything that hasn't already been said here,
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: but did anyone else feel absolutely nothing when this got announced?
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_02: I hear people talking about the choice to promote Jason Witten and what that means
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: and if Witten could get the permanent offensive coordinator role.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: When I hear those people talking about this, I still feel nothing.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: We know what we know about the OU football program.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: It appears to be broken, as the same issues are continually happening,
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: but the root cause, Brent Venables,
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: cannot be addressed because he cannot be fired because of his buyout.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: On that buyout, related to the contract extension that OU gave Venables last summer,
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: to me, that really feels like OU was the person in a relationship that knows they're
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: in a doomed relationship with a person they don't want to be with,
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_02: But they just had a good vacation with that person.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_02: They went to the playoffs together.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_02: And instead of ripping the band-aid off and crying for a few days
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_02: over the lost vision of what could have been,
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: but ultimately moving on into a happier existence,
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_02: OU doubled down and tried to convince themselves that just by renewing the vows,
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_02: maybe they could actually fix the relationship and fix the problem.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: And that Bryn Venables would be like Mr.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: If they just doubled down and tried to control the future,
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: make BV the coach they wanted instead of admitting who the guy actually is.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thanks Phil Hollow down in Norman right now. It's sad. I love Brent.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_02: As a kid, I went to OU football camps and got yelled at by him during linebacker drills.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: It was amazing. It's a core memory for me.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: But it feels like this thing just keeps driving deeper and deeper into darker and darker places.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_02: And if OU doesn't win another game this year, which is possible,
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: if not definite at this point, how does OU keep him without a revolt?
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: Witten and Burridge's class action suit against State Farm keeps yielding more
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: and more damaging information to State Farm, unsurprisingly.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome, comprehensive reporting by Jeff Elkins, by the way, this week in the Oklahoman.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: An internal State Farm executive summary warned corporate leadership
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: that the insurer's handling of wind and hail claims created the impression
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_02: that it's intentionally reducing payouts and celebrating greater numbers
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: of claims closed without payment.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, that language came from an actual document from State Farm that got admitted
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_02: into court this week in Oklahoma County.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: That document and those words Would insinuate directly, allegedly,
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_02: that State Farm was not only aware and actively trying to incentivize the number
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_02: of denied claims, but that at least one person was concerned by how it looked,
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_02: concerned enough to send it up the chain in memo form.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_02: And that nothing was done about it.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: This case, the Hearst case, is set to begin trial on December 7th and will be
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_02: the first case to open up State Farm to any liability in Oklahoma for possibly,
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_02: allegedly, reducing claims for storm damage systematically in Oklahoma
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: to save money.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: Whitney and Bird said in Elkins reporting
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_02: that they expect State Farm will use delay tactics
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_02: to push this thing out even further past December 7th.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_02: Reading between the lines here.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: Looks like State Farm is scared.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: To the tune of possibly dishing out hundreds of millions of dollars in exposure
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_02: if this ends up being true.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_02: Man, this case is going to be a blockbuster once it starts
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: and I expect it will begin to receive some national coverage pretty soon.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: Finally, as promised, for the second time,
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_02: I've read the Frontier's reporting.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: On the Diamondback ICE Detention
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_02: Center in Watonga.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, excellent reporting by Ari Fyfe and Jeff Constantine. Give it a read.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_02: I will link it in the show notes.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_02: It helps you understand the inner workings of our state government
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: and how they work together with the federal government.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_02: Here's a brief summary. Please go read this.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of interesting details and quotes concerning details and quotes.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_02: ICE and Trump Needed a place essentially
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: to hold their detained until they could be deported.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_02: And they needed to find those facilities quickly
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_02: so he could uphold his deportation quotas and try to deliver on campaign promises.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_02: So the Trump administration reached out to Oklahoma and coordinated,
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_02: this is allegedly right, coordinated a contract for the Watonga facility owned
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: by CoreCivic, a prison management company.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: And they essentially bypass the normal governmental contract process by doing
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_02: an intergovernmental deal.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: Apparently this may have violated some ethical dealings, patterns, I don't know.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_02: Oklahoma Department of Corrections, after this deal,
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_02: gets $10 million per year just to oversee core civics management of the facility
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_02: in their 2,000 detainees.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_02: The Diamondback Center in Watonga is currently one of the biggest holding centers
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_02: for detainees who are awaiting to be deported in the country.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_02: And that's happening in Watonga.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_02: Not very many people know that.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_02: The Department of Corrections will not provide their contract to the public
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_02: for review to see what the state is responsible for and for what
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: the state is getting compensated for.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_02: Already the conditions inside are raising alarms.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_02: Multiple alleged reports of patients being withheld vital medications.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_02: Multiple alleged reports of detainees being forced to sleep on mats
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: on concrete floors for like three days.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: The Frontier and Oklahoma Watch are now suing.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_02: The Oklahoma Department of Corrections for the records.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_02: ICE says they won't give them up because they're a federal contract
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_02: and they don't have to give them up.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: So really, no one has any idea what's going on in there and what the state
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_02: of Oklahoma is actually doing inside there or what they're being paid to do
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: with Oklahoma employees, state employees.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_02: For those still looking for any clues As to why the midterms went
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_02: the way they did last night, shall I suggest you review what's going on in Watonga.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_02: Again, I'll link the Frontier's article in the show notes.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate you listening to our show, and if you love Oklahoma as much as we do,
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_02: tell another Oklahoman about The Dry Line Podcast.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: If you'd like to help out our mission to deepen Oklahoma's culture,
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_02: follow us on TikTok and Instagram at drylineokc,
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: and maybe Like our stuff if you like getting local analysis
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_02: and not AI-made algorithmic slop into your feed.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_02: But most importantly, if you have five seconds,
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_02: leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or just subscribe to our show
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: on YouTube.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_02: Until next week, you'll know where to find us. Powerhouse.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plains.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: Oh God.