About 70 people showed up at the Prairie Building at the Comanche County Fairgrounds Oct. 21 for a Lawton Town Hall meeting hosted by the Oklahoma Democratic Party. The gathering, led by state Vice Chair Erin Brewer and Rep. Andy Fugate, was organized in response to the lack of such town halls by U.S. Rep. Tom Cole – home on a House vacation and still drawing his salary and benefits despite the GOP-orchestrated government shutdown that jeopardizes the well-being of government employees, all who depend upon it and regular citizens.
In fact, the dire impact of Republican actions and inaction on individual finances was a recurring theme among participants. One person reported that her credit card interest rate had gone from 18% to 35%. A retired teacher noted that her monthly payments stayed the same from 2008 to 2020, when she received a $100 raise, but nothing additional since then.
Others mentioned the impending loss of SNAP benefits on Oct. 31, the 300,000 Oklahomans due to lose health care benefits – and the potential closing of state rural hospitals with the loss of those funds.
People also expressed concern about rising living costs and stagnant wages. Among the accused culprits were the location incentives promised to corporations, an Oklahoma Corporation Commission that repeatedly sides with rate-raising utilities instead of consumers and the growing threat of artificial intelligence data centers on the electrical grid, water supplies and local tax bases [since the breaks promised data centers would have to be covered by individual customers].
Democratic Party policies and messages also received attention. One young man questioned why liberals should continue to support a “diet Republican” agenda when the party leadership repeatedly does not support progressive candidates – citing New York Democratic Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, whom other New York Democrats refuse to endorse.
Fugate, who said he was a former Republican, said the party’s goal was “to try to make government work,” and tried to deflect the criticism by asking whether Mamdani could get elected governor of Oklahoma. The young liberal responded that Mamdani would have gotten more for votes than Joy Hofmeister, who was a Republican just months prior to her gubernatorial run.
Brewer said the party needs new ideas from younger members, but the audience was primarily retired or nearing that milestone.
Asked what the party could do to win back union support, Fugate [Could he be using such forums to set the stage for a future statewide campaign?] said he was “disappointed” that so many union leaders backed Donald Trump, but it was up to union members to bring their leaders in step with the members’ needs.
A woman identifying herself as an independent said she admired three things about Republican campaign tactics – two of which were bogus. Two points that could have been one were that Republicans are inclusive and back their candidates. With Trump threatening anyone not following the MAGA playbook and encouraging and funding candidates to run against honest Republicans, those notions explode upon expression.
Her third point was that the GOP manages to keep its messages simple, citing the recent “No Kings” protests as a good example of how Democrats can employ the same strategy and suggesting a “We the People” nomenclature for future anti-oligarchy rallies.
There was a brief discussion of the open primary state question, with most in attendance seeming to favor the idea. [I don’t.]
Fugate, who kept insisting that he should listen more while dominating the conversation, called the Republicans – and Oklahoma’s congressional delegation – “morally bankrupt.” He cited a “completely complicit Congress and a Supreme Court that is corrupt. There’s no other way to put it” as collaborators in Trump’s desire for one-man rule.
Brewer emphasized the reality that the GOP works for corporations while Democrats work for families.
Congressional District 4 Chair Carroll Asseo reminded those in attendance that everyone could do “little things” on a daily basis to get the Democratic message into the public forum. Normalizing the Democratic presence among very red neighbors would show that “little things can get big things done.”
Brewer said that there were already more Democrats signed up for next year’s elections than in the past six years.
Former Comanche County state House candidate Tom Sutherlin promised, “We are blue roots in red dirt, and we will grow.”
Both Democratic candidates who have filed to challenge THE VACATIONING Tom Cole were in attendance.
Jeff Pixley advocated a return to constitutional law, where Congress appropriates money and the executive branch “executes” its wishes, instead of the current executive-dominated state of affairs, which sees Trump withholding designated funds from congressionally-approved recipients. Among efforts to curb presidential overreach was his pledge to end rescission politics. And he said that Republicans, claiming cuts to Medicaid were aimed at undocumented aliens and not the 300,000 Oklahomans who would be affected, are “lying to say so.”
Mitchell Jacob called the Republicans’ “Big Beautiful Bill” a pork barrel boondoggle, with special riders included to secure individual votes. He said he would like to see Congress enact a single-subject rule similar to the Oklahoma Legislature, where each bill would contain only one issue. That 900-page BBB makes it impossible for representatives to know all that they are voting for, he said.
Fugate followed up on that point by saying that Cole had admitted he did not know what all was included. “He’s the chair of the Appropriations Committee. If he doesn’t know what’s in it – holy hell – he needs to go.”
