CANDIDATE PROFILE: Rep. Ranson believes most voters tired of extreme politics

Oct. 21—Seeking a third term in the House of Representatives, Democrat Trish Ranson will face a new challenger from the Republican party on election day. With no primary challenger, voters will see Ranson's name on their ballot for only the third time since 2018.

In a Studio Stillwater Grassroots podcast interview, News Press editors sat down with each HD 34 candidate to learn more about them and discuss the issues. To hear the full interview, go to www.studiostillwater.net and subscribe for free.

Ranson grew up in Ponca City. After graduating from Ponca High School, she left Oklahoma to attend Wichita State, where she earned her undergraduate degree in music education. Unsure of what to do with her life post-graduation, Ranson moved to Connecticut to be near her sister's family. While there, she met her husband, and they married and had two kids.

Family health issues in 2003 motivated Ranson to move her family back to Oklahoma to take care of her parents. Stillwater was an accommodating location that kept them close to her parents in Ponca City. Stillwater was also within driving range of multiple airports to accommodate her husband's travel needs as an operatic tenor.

Not only did Ranson find employment as a teacher at Westwood Elementary, but the cultural benefits of living in a college town were very appealing to her family.

"We wanted to live in a college town because one of the things about college towns is, you know, education is first and foremost the focus," Ranson said.

After a 15-year career as a teacher, Ranson could not ignore the struggles teachers had when advocating for their classrooms and the level of education they wanted for their students. The Oklahoma teacher walkout in 2018 was a galvanizing moment for Ranson.

"I was very, very nervous about the teacher walkout and I was hesitant to go to the Capitol," she said. "The state legislature is the enemy ... I don't like huge crowds. Most of my experience was with sporting events with a lot of testosterone, things can be said and tempers flare high."

After arriving, Ranson found this wouldn't be like any other crowd she had experienced.

"That's what I learned when I got there. It was not an anger type of thing. There was frustration, absolutely, but there was solidarity," she said. "To be there with teachers from across the state ... the things that I was suffering and the things that we are suffering at Stillwater Public Schools in Westwood, that's not unique. It's happening all across the state."

When encouraged to run for representative by various friends and teachers, Ranson had to ensure her family was on board with a disruptive career change.

"If I ran for office, what is that gonna look like, sound like, and feel like," Ranson said. "So I made a couple of calls to former HD 34 Representative — Cory Williams, Stillwater Mayor Will Joyce and former Mayor John Bartley. I asked them to tell me what running for office looks like and what things they didn't know about the process that they wish you knew before."

After working through the realities of what becoming a public office holder would be like with her family. She had one friend who had the power to pull her from the brink.

"I was at the Capitol (in line to file her candidacy) and I called my best friend who lives in Edmond," she recalled. "I told her, I said, 'I'm running for a state representative for House District 34. Talk me out of it.' She tried to throw some of like these really outlandish softball ideas and I told her, 'OK, that's not good enough. I'm doing it.' She was like, 'Oh good, cause you'd be really good.'"

Ten educators won seats in the House of Representatives in 2018, a mix of Republicans and Democrats. Although Democrats have a super minority of only 19 members, Ranson says they can ask questions and shape legislation.

"The majority does not like to question each other on the microphone," Ranson said. "The minority has no problem asking questions. I've told representatives this myself. I'm like, 'Hey, questions are my love language. If I'm not asking questions, I don't think your legislation is worth my time.'"

During this year's campaign season, Ranson says the No. 1 thing she hears from constituents while knocking on doors is the desire to ignore extreme politics. Voters believe things are not getting done at the Capitol because of the far-left and far-right ideologies. The second-most voiced concern she hears about is abortion.

"The interesting thing about abortion coming up at the doorsteps right now is that it is not what I heard in 2020 or 2018. Now it is, 'We need to make sure that we overturn these bans on abortion in Oklahoma that this has gone too far.'" Ranson claims. "When I knock on doors of Republican men who tell me their No. 1 concern is women's reproductive rights, that's quite telling."

As groups challenge anti-abortion bills in the court system, Ranson also hopes the courts will overturn House Bill 1775. A vaguely worded law about prohibiting teachers from subjects that might shame students has teachers and school systems scrambling to understand and to stay compliant.

"I believe, honestly, that House Bill 1775 needs to be overturned because it's just causing way too much havoc," she said. "The idea that CRT (critical race theory) is corrupting our schools, that our schools are places of indoctrination for our students, is just rubbish."

Ranson also believes the conversation we are hearing on national news is misleading people to think that public schools across the nation are failing the students and their parents.

"If you ask them (parents) about their student's teacher, 'Oh, I love her. She's wonderful. You know, my school is great,'" Ranson said. "How is that possible? If public schools are failing, how can your school be the one gem?"

Ranson sees the state legislature as part of the current public school performance problem and a place for solutions.

"I think that the legislature has decided that they are going to be in the curriculum development business and honestly, that is not the place of the legislature," Ranson said. "We increased higher ed spending by about 7%. But still, that is minuscule to the need. Anytime I talk about funding, I always have the voice that says, 'We can't just throw money at it, Trish.' and my glib answer is, 'Really, have we tried that yet?'"

One idea to incentivize teachers to stay in Oklahoma, which Ranson admits will have a high cost, is providing whole-family insurance coverage.

"I taught for a year in Connecticut, I did not pay a dime for health insurance," Ranson noted. "It was all covered by my district. My whole family was covered."

When Ranson became a teacher in Oklahoma, she discovered she would only have $150-200 per month of her paycheck left over after insuring her entire family.

"So things have improved since then. The teacher gets their insurance paid," Ranson said. "Insuring a teacher's family would go a long way towards retention."

According to Ranson, because of the lack of investment in teachers and school systems, Oklahoma will not produce educated adults that meet future job requirements.

"That is the No. 1 thing that employers are looking for is, 'Can this person that I want to hire, do they have critical thinking skills?,'" Ranson said. "Because of our focus on standardized tests, we're not meeting the need for our jobs in the future."