The GOP controls every statewide elected position and body of government with level of domination that the state hasn’t seen since conservatives still voted Democrat (before civil rights got in the way) and Oklahoma was part of the Solid South.
Despite the success at the voting booth, the Oklahoma Republican Party is about $25,000 in debt, according to Tulsa World, and the party’s leadership is split on its undying support of our Dear Leader president who is facing an impeachment inquiry.
Party Vice Chairman Mike Turner is accusing President David McLain of using party funds to take trips to Washington, D.C. and the Republican National Committee in North Carolina.
“Our job is to fund raise [sic], take punches so the elected official don’t have to, and strike back at the Democrats,” Turner wrote in an email. “Our state party instead chose to pay for on-the-job training, and brought in individuals with marked histories of being anti-Trump, and also fanatically hostile to elected Republican leaders.”
According to Tulsa World, Turner’s intimation of “hostile” leadership appears to be referencing McLain’s connection to political consultant Holly Gerard, who worked for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign. If working for a candidate that ultimately endorsed and fundraised for Trump during the 2016 election — even though Trump called Cruz’s wife ugly and said that his father assassinated JFK — counts as being “fanatically hostile,” than that pretty much sums up the state of the Republican Party in Oklahoma.
McLain didn’t comment for the story, turning over those duties to the party’s lawyer, A.J. Ferate, who said that the party is hamstrung with its ability to fundraise in large part due to those pesky state ethic rules that ban corporate contributions to fund party operations, even though those can be funneled through a political action committee.
