Walters storms to superintendent victory in Oklahoma in fight against 'radical Biden agenda'

With a vocal embrace of rebuffing "left-wing ideology," expanding school choice and empowering parents, one of Oklahoma's most polarizing political figures this year, Ryan Walters, captured the state's top education office Tuesday, collecting even more votes than Gov. Kevin Stitt's reelection campaign.

Oklahoma voters chose Stitt and Walters over a tandem of moderate education-focused Democrats, Joy Hofmeister and Jena Nelson.

Walters, 37, led Nelson 57% to 43% to win a four-year term as state schools superintendent, winning with just shy of 650,000 votes. He will lead the Oklahoma State Department of Education and the Oklahoma State Board of Education.

Stitt defeated Hofmeister, the state's current schools superintendent, in the governor's race 55% to 42% with nearly 639,000 votes cast in favor of the incumbent governor.

"It feels great to see Oklahomans stand up for Oklahoma values and fight back against the radical Biden agenda," Walters said as he took a commanding lead at the polls. "I've heard it all over the state. Oklahomans want parent empowerment in education. They want radical left-wing ideology from the Biden administration out, and they want accountability and transparency. That's exactly what I'm going to bring to state government."

Superintendent race: What will history say about Ryan Walters? He aims to find out.

Several polls predicted the superintendent contest to be a tight race, some even suggesting Nelson could take the lead. But almost twice as many Oklahomans are registered as Republicans than Democrats, a fact that ensured Walters entered the race as the frontrunner.

Walters, a McAlester native now living in Edmond, is the education secretary on Stitt’s Cabinet and the executive director of the pro-school choice organization Every Kid Counts Oklahoma. He and his wife, Katie, have four children, two of whom attend public schools.

His platform focusing on culture-war issues echoed national Republican messaging. He was a leading voice in Oklahoma against “liberal indoctrination,” critical race theory and transgender identities.

"We have to continue to stay vigilant as the far left has decided that they’re going to launch a war for our kids’ minds and convince our young people that they are racist," Walters said in an Oct. 25 debate. "They’re going to inject this division into the classroom. They’re going to inject this hatred of the Constitution and the values this country was founded on."

Del City resident Suzanne Job, 49, said she voted for Walters because she wanted to ensure "gender issues," critical race theory and sexually explicit books are kept out of schools.

"I believe that Ryan Walters is a conservative Christian for our education, which is important to me," Job said while attending an Oklahoma Republican Party election night event.

Walters' views starkly contrasted those of Nelson, who suggested Oklahomans put aside us-versus-them rhetoric and focus on better financial support for schools and teachers.

Nelson, 44, teaches English at Classen Middle School of Advanced Studies in Oklahoma City. She was the 2020 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year.

"We came closer than anyone thought was possible," Nelson said to the audience at her election night watch party in Oklahoma City. "I think that that speaks a lot about the kind of people we have in Oklahomans. While we didn't get the result that we were hoping for tonight, we sent a message loud and clear that teachers belong anywhere decisions are being made about education."

More: Public education saved Jena Nelson's life, now she vows to protect Oklahoma schools

Walters, a former high school history teacher and 2016 state Teacher of the Year finalist, became widely unpopular among many educators, who said they felt his rhetoric inappropriately painted them as indoctrinators and misconstrued what they teach in public schools.

The Republican’s reluctance to accept federal funding, his suggestion that all history teachers take patriotic education training and his call to revoke a former Norman teacher’s certification only deepened the chasm between him and the education establishment.

The divide showed in campaign finance reports. Both Nelson and April Grace, Walters’ Republican runoff opponent, counted dozens of teachers and school leaders among their donors.

Teacher unions and pro-public education political action committees contributed thousands of dollars to Nelson’s campaign, along with hundreds of individual citizens and three tribal nations.

Walters said he has support from teachers all over Oklahoma and called the notion he is anti-teacher an “outrageous lie” that unions and his political opponents perpetuated.

“They’re going to spend all this money to lie about me across the state,” he previously told The Oklahoman. “But you know what? If they’re threatened by someone who’s going to go out and defend parents and defend kids, so be it. I’m not going to back down because they see me pushing for kids instead of their power structure.”

Donations to Nelson exploded after Walters secured the Republican nomination in the Aug. 23 runoff. The Edmond mother of two outraised her opponent by $201,400 from August through October, collecting over $473,200 in that period. She raised only $75,000 before August.

Walters raised over $690,000 since he announced his bid for office last year, but he spent much of that on a competitive Republican primary. He raised about $271,000, mostly from Oklahoma’s business community, in the run-up to the general election.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of dollars poured into the race from dark money groups, which don’t have to disclose their donors, supporting and opposing both superintendent candidates.

Walters overcame not only opposition from educators and dark money groups but also controversy over his handling of federal pandemic relief funds.

A U.S. Department of Education audit found recipients of an $8 million grant program misspent $652,700 on non-educational expenses because Walters and the Stitt administration declined to put proper guardrails on spending. The program had distributed $1,500 grants directly to families to put toward children’s education needs.

Walters and Stitt said blame for the misspent funds lies with the company Oklahoma contracted to operate the grant program.

On top of choosing Walters for superintendent, voters also reelected Stitt on Tuesday, clearing the way for the governor’s and Walters’ education policies. Those policies could include school vouchers, a concept both of their Democratic opponents attacked as a “rural school killer.”

Stitt and Walters advocated for a voucher bill this year that would have spent $128.5 million in state funds to send more students to private schools. The proposal failed earlier this year in the state Legislature, but the bill’s author, Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, indicated a Stitt victory in the general election could give voucher legislation new life at the Capitol.

"In Oklahoma, we're going to do more than any state in the country to empower parents," Walters said to an election night watch party crowd.

Contributing: Reporters Carmen Forman, Jack Money and Aspen Ford

Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nuria’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Ryan Walters beats Jena Nelson in Oklahoma superintendent race