Low-budget campaigns and Tulsa County candidates won the night in the primary races for state superintendent.
Former Tulsa Public Schools board member Jennettie Marshall beat former El Reno Superintendent Craig McVay Tuesday night — despite raising just a fraction of the campaign contributions. According to unofficial results from the state election board, Marshall rounded out the night with nearly 58% of the votes to McVay’s 42%, with a margin of about 26,000 votes.
“Victory is in sight for our children,” Marshall said to supporters Tuesday night. “Victory is in sight for our teachers.”
McVay declared $54,844 in campaign contributions by June, drawing support from across the state. Marshall declared $4,108.
“You can’t buy the trust of the people,” Marshall told the Flyer. “What you have to do is live the life, walk the walk, talk the talk and include all people.”
State Sen. Regina Goodwin and former Oklahoma Democratic Party chair Alicia Andrews were among Marshall’s supporters at El Patron Cocina Mexicana on 51st Street in Tulsa Tuesday night.
“A grassroots campaign is driven by people power versus dollar power,” Andrews said as votes rolled in. “It’s been grit, and her message has resonated … the message that I want to be made is that you don’t have to be a rich person to run for office.”
On the other side of the aisle, no candidate in the Republican primary secured a majority. Robert Franklin and James Taylor will return to the ballot box Aug. 25 for a runoff election.
Franklin led the Republican pack with 22.6% of votes cast, followed by Taylor with 19.7%. A crowded seven-candidate field left Peggs Superintendent John Cox with 18.4% of the vote and Sen. Adam Pugh with just 11.5%.
“We’re so grateful for all the support — the underdog is gaining momentum,” said Franklin in a video posted to Facebook Tuesday night. “And that’s a great opportunity for us to see how Oklahomans elect, perhaps, a seasoned, tested, experienced, certified education leader.”
The three remaining candidates are fighting for a four-year term as director of the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Upon taking office, they’ll lead the implementation of changes to reading policies passed this year by lawmakers, like bringing back third grade retention and growing a team of literacy coaches at the state department.
Marshall spent more than three decades as a pastor, worked for 17 years as a probation and parole officer at the Department of Corrections and served two terms on the Tulsa Public Schools board.
She was first elected in 2017 to represent north Tulsa schools and built a reputation for pushing back on the district during and after her tenure.
Her joint letter with former board member E’Lena Ashley calling for a special audit of the district helped spur an eventual forensic audit and various legal moves against fraud in the district’s bond program. The pair are currently taking their lawsuit against the district to the state Supreme Court.
Marshall’s campaign promises to reevaluate spending and staffing at the Department of Education following what she calls the Ryan Walters “reign of terror.” She pledges to increase teacher pay to a competitive rate at the national average.
While more than 56% of Democratic voters in Marshall’s home county supported her primary bid for superintendent, some Tulsans are reluctant to support her in the general election. Her time on the TPS board felt like “chaos within,” said Hannah Fernandez, a district educator who stumbled across Marshall’s watch party with former colleague Jenna Krohn.
“We’ve had enough of that. We had Ryan Walters politicizing our jobs, it takes an emotional toll on you as a teacher,” Krohn said. “It just bleeds down into mistrust.”
“I also have a worry that it could become another witch hunt against TPS that we’re already fighting,” Fernandez said. “I think it’s a position that needs to have experience in the school setting, in being a teacher, being an admin.”
Both Fernandez and Krohn plan to vote for Franklin if he wins the Republican nomination.
It’s Franklin’s first bid for elected office after 44 years in education, most recently as an associate superintendent at Tulsa Tech. The Oklahoma Educators Hall of Famer emerged late as a conservative frontrunner after former Bixby Public Schools Superintendent Rob Miller left the race.
In just a few months, Franklin’s campaign reported $55,599.80 of individual donations, ranked third behind Pugh and Cox for Republican campaign finances. His donors include Miller, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and local education leaders like the Owasso Public Schools superintendent and chief financial officer at TPS.
Franklin’s campaign leans on a “back-to-basics” promise, like many of his opponents, but focuses on removing politics from education and workforce development through technical education or apprenticeship programs.
Taylor is a pastor and history teacher at Little Axe High School in Norman, as well as a four-time primary challenger to Congressman Tom Cole in the U.S. 4th District. His most recent campaign for state superintendent brought in $7,680 of campaign contributions, largely from his own donations.
He has a pending lawsuit with five other teachers against Oklahoma City Schools for breach of contract for its mandate to wear a mask during the pandemic. Taylor has suggested consolidating rural schools and signed the Moms for Liberty parent pledge advocating for greater parent involvement in schools.
Taylor’s campaign promises a push for county superintendents, a position abolished across the state in 1993. He also pledges financial incentives for high-performing teachers, “parental empowerment” and emphasis on “American principles” in instruction.
The runoff election will take place Aug. 25. Only registered Republicans will be able to cast a ballot.
Read more stories about Election Day and find a voting toolkit here.
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