September 22, 2025 • 58 mins
Democracy thrives when citizens participate, yet America faces a troubling reality: even in presidential elections, only 65% of eligible voters cast ballots, with participation plummeting in local and primary elections. This democratic deficit has serious consequences, especially for women and historically marginalized communities who continue to face systemic barriers to political participation.
At the heart of this problem lies a structural issue: closed primary systems that restrict voting to registered party members. These closed primaries shrink the voter pool, fuel polarization, and produce candidates who cater to partisan extremes rather than representing the broader population. The result? Elected officials less willing to compromise and increasingly dysfunctional governance.
In this compelling conversation, Margaret Kobos, founder of Oklahoma United, and political consultant Sarah Blaney explore how open primaries could transform our democratic landscape. They make a powerful case for State Question 836, which would implement an open primary system in Oklahoma where all candidates appear on a single ballot accessible to every voter. The top two finishers would advance to the general election, ensuring meaningful choice in November.
The statistics are striking: Oklahoma has ranked last in voter turnout nationally, with only 51% of voters registered as Republican despite complete Republican control of state government. With 80-90% of election decisions effectively made during primary elections, the current system silences independent voters and moderates from both parties. This directly correlates with Oklahoma's poor rankings in education, women's quality of life, and other critical metrics.
What makes this reform particularly powerful is its simplicity and familiarity, it mirrors the system already used successfully in Oklahoma's municipal elections. By expanding this model to all elections, voters would gain real choice while elected officials would become accountable to the entire electorate, not just partisan extremes.
Ready to support democratic reform? Learn more about open primaries and how you can get involved in this movement to revitalize American democracy through meaningful electoral reform. The future of our representative government depends on ensuring every voice can truly be heard.
If you enjoy the episode share it with a friend, leave us a review and don't forget to hit the subscribe button.
If you are ready to take your career and business to the next level, apply to join our community of professional women, all eager to help you get there and stay there. Learn more at www.VESTHer.co
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Voter.
Participation is one of theclearest measures of a healthy
democracy.
Yet in the United States, weconsistently fall short.
In the last presidentialelection, only about 65% of
eligible voters cast a ballot,and participation in local and
primary elections is often farlower.
Women, in particular, havehistorically been excluded from
(00:23):
the political process.
Women, in particular, havehistorically been excluded from
the political process.
While white women won theconstitutional right to vote
just over 100 years ago, blackwomen, along with many other
women of color, continue to facesystemic barriers that kept
them from the ballot box fordecades afterwards, and even
today we continue to strugglewith voter suppression,
(00:43):
gerrymandering and policies thatmake it harder for many
communities to fully participatein our democracy.
One of the structural issuesthat continues to limit
participation today is closedprimaries.
When only registered partymembers can vote, we shrink the
voter pool and fuel polarization.
The result Candidates who caterto the extremes instead of
(01:07):
representing the broaderpopulation.
Research shows that states withclosed primaries often produce
leaders less willing tocompromise, which ultimately
weakens governance.
This is a concern for all of us, no matter where we live,
because when participation islimited and when the choices on
the ballot don't reflect thediversity and the complexity of
(01:29):
our communities.
We all pay the price in policy,in representation and in trust
in our democracy.
That's why, in today's episode,we're exploring open primaries.
Joining us is Margaret Kobos,founder and CEO of Oklahoma
United, a nonpartisan grassrootsorganization advocating for
reform through State Question836, along with Sarah Blaney, a
(01:53):
political consultant andnonprofit executive with over 20
years of experience inelectoral politics nationwide.
For our guest's full bios andshow notes, go to wwwvestherco
forward slash podcast.
If you enjoyed this episode,share with a friend and don't
forget to leave us a review.
(02:14):
And if you're ready to takeyour career to the next level,
consider applying to become aVest member and join our
community of women professionalseager to help you get there and
stay there.
Go to wwwvestherco to learnmore.
Join our community of womenprofessionals eager to help you
get there and stay there.
Go to wwwvestherco to learnmore.
This conversation was part of amore intimate coaching session
(02:34):
with Vest members and has beenrepurposed to accommodate this
episode.
What is an open primary and howdoes it differ from the system
that's currently used in ourstate and in other states?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
The United States is made up, obviously the state.
You know, the laboratories ofdemocracy are different.
In you know, every stateoperates a little differently.
Oklahoma is one of 11 stateswith a statutory, a statutory
(03:10):
scheme that closes primaries sothat only a member of a party
may vote in a single partyprimary election.
So in Oklahoma that means thatindependents are not able to
vote in all the primaryelections.
They don't really have a voiceto vote in all the primary
elections.
They don't really have a voice.
(03:30):
They are excluded by theRepublican Party.
The Democrat Party hasvoluntarily opened their
primaries to independents.
The Libertarians, just thissummer, decided to follow suit.
They are also going to allowindependents to vote in
libertarian primaries.
But the real problem is thateven if each party were to open
(03:52):
their primary to independents,it still we would go up to the
table and we announce what ourregistration is and we're given
only that menu, only that ballot.
(04:14):
So your next door neighbormight be running for a state
office and she may be a Democratand you may want to vote for
her because you know herpersonally.
But then the governor is overhere on this ballot and you have
to literally choose whichmatters the most to you and I
(04:36):
think that you know.
Our research shows that thesedays there's less and less
definition by party label.
So people really want to votewith their hearts.
They want to vote for the rightperson, no matter where that
person comes from, and so ourOklahoma system is a little
(04:56):
outdated.
Other states have what we calla semi-open primary, in which
independents are allowed to votein primaries, but again they
still have to pick only one ofthose ballots and they're
confined in their choices.
So our findings are throughextensive research and polling,
(05:19):
oklahomans are ready to have anopen system where we all have
one ballot and one primaryelection.
All of the candidates arelisted on it and we pick the one
person that we think is bestfor the job, and the top two
finishers in a contestedelection would go on to a
(05:41):
general election.
So you would have twoopportunities to look at
candidates, become familiar, andthen you have two choices in
November.
Our research shows that inOklahoma that's what the
majority of people want andthat's what our state question
is based on.
So that is in a nutshell.
That is state question 836.
(06:02):
And, like I said, everyone isdifferent around the country.
Texas has a semi-open, missourihas had a semi-open, we happen
to be going fully open and thereason why we're doing that is
because that's what our peoplewant and that's what they think
makes sense and it is the systemthat we're using in every
(06:23):
Oklahoma city and town today.
So I think maybe it resonateswith people and it's simple and
it avoids runoffs in primaryelections.
So I think we're all happy toeliminate one more trip to go
vote.
So we think it's reallyappealing to a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Can you talk to us about the importance of
primaries, Because I think thatyou know often, especially when
I travel, people talk or referto us in other states as a red
state, but I remind people thatit's not that we're so, not so
(07:06):
much that we're red, but ratherthat we are a non-voting state,
right Like we have a lot ofpeople that don't show up to
vote, particularly in theprimaries where you tend to see
the most radical voices appear.
So can you talk a little bitabout that and then how that
leads to extreme candidatesoften?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yes.
So I was drawn to thisnonpartisan reform idea because
Oklahoma has been last in the USin voter turnout for 2020 and
again in 24.
And I find that personallytroubling when we know that we
have all this discord in stategovernment here.
Our state government, our statelegislature, pulls consistently
(07:46):
in the 30 percent favorabilityrange.
So while we don't love ourstate government, we seem to be
unable to do anything about it.
I also learned early on thatonly 51 percent of Oklahomans
are registered Republican.
Percent of Oklahomans areregistered Republican and, as
(08:08):
you pointed out, we arecharacterized as a red state,
and rightfully so for a lot ofreasons.
I think that our value systemdoes tend to be more
conservative in nature.
However, we can see thatthere's a real disconnection
between voter registration andthe people who have been elected
to office.
We are a trifecta red state andwe're finding some of the
(08:32):
dysfunction in our stategovernment the unwillingness to
talk about real problems, theunwillingness to address
fundamentals are political andthey're politically motivated in
nature, and so what the peopleof Oklahoma want, what I want,
what all the moms and the dadsnext to me on the bleachers want
(08:53):
we just want the thing doneright.
We know what the problems areright in front of us.
We just want them done.
We want transparency, we wantto eliminate waste and fraud
where we can, but we areexhausted by failure to take
care of what we think is commonsense.
(09:14):
You know, solution solving,problem solving that we really,
really crave.
The only way to do that is tostart electing people
differently and to make themaccountable to all of us.
And that is actually the magicof an open primary like what
we're talking about.
It puts all the candidates infront of all the voters and then
(09:37):
, on the flip side, it makes allof the elected officials
accountable to all of us,elected officials accountable to
all of us.
And I'm glad that OklahomaState Labor Commissioner is on
this call Leslie Osborne, andyou, erica, and all of these
business leaders, because ifthere's anything we learn in
business, one of the firstthings we learn is the
performance review.
(09:58):
And in Oklahoma and in a closedprimary state, you have no
valid performance review ofelected officials.
And again, that's what statequestion 836 will do.
It's going to make these peoplehave to account for their
failures and successes with thepeople, all the people that they
(10:21):
serve people that they serveAbsolutely.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
And speaking of performance reviews, you know,
Sarah, you joined us.
Thank you for joining us at ourStitch Group and Best Community
event that we hosted last weekwith Mayor Holt, where we spoke
about.
You know, it's just unfortunatethat Oklahoma City and Tulsa
have so much going for them, butit's that growth and exciting
things is often overshadowed bythe state performance.
We rank last in education.
(10:54):
We rank last in the quality oflife for women.
You know we're a best group,all about women, and that's what
I tell people.
You know we can do all of theprofessional development that we
want, we can invest in allwomen led businesses that we
want, but if we don't fix thepolicies that continue to
compound inequality, then itdoesn't matter, right?
(11:16):
So that's why it's so importantto engage civically.
But, Sarah, I want to talk toyou about that.
You know, since you attendedthat conversation.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Because we do rank at the bottom.
What do you see as theconnection between voter
participation, primary electionsand the policies that?
But also you know, first, fordomestic violence, most likely
to be killed by a partner,highest for child abuse.
And so I think the way that weadvise as political consultants,
the way that we advisecandidates right is we're trying
(12:02):
to help them win and so we'readvising them to win within the
system that they're currentlyplaying in right.
And so if you're a candidateand you come to me and you're in
a blue district, there'll becertain things that I'll advise
you to take a stance on one wayor another that might appeal to
a primary voter that maybewouldn't appeal to a general
(12:24):
voter.
And that's because theobjective right is to win, to
get elected and to stay elected.
And so what you have is you havebecause not everybody can vote
in these primary elections andbecause they typically attract
those that are the most partisan, that's who participates.
They skew older as well, theyskew more white as well, they
(12:50):
skew, you know, more.
That's just how it is.
You get people that are may ormay not personally agree with
the policies that they promote,but they put their personal kind
of politics aside and they voteand introduce legislation that
will help them win in thatprimary election.
(13:11):
And so what we have to do is wehave to change the incentive
system to give politicians areason why it is best for them
to introduce legislation andpolicies that benefit the
greater good and not just thatsegment of very partisan voters.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Margaret, anything you want to add on that?
I mean, I think it goes back toyour performance review.
I think one of the mostimportant things is that if we
did have an open primary, we canactually hold people
accountable right, and theywould know that it's not just
based on what politicalconsultants will tell you on how
to run and what policies youshould run, but also people are
going to be watching you right,Regardless of affiliation.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Right.
The primary elections.
Back to your original question,I think, is you know why
primaries?
Why do they matter?
Why do we care?
In Oklahoma and in every otherstate, the important elections
are happening in the primaries.
In Oklahoma we have so manyuncontested general elections
(14:18):
that 80 to 90 percent of ourdecisions are made in a primary
election.
Our voter turnout is very low.
Even if you have a contestedprimary election race, if you do
not vote, if you do not investyourself at some level in the
(14:39):
primary, either because you havea candidate you like or because
you dragged yourself out of bedand went and did it against
your better judgment, one way orthe other, if you have not
participated in a primaryelection, statistically you're
unlikely to jump up andparticipate in November, jump up
(15:06):
and participate in November.
And so, even if you have acompetitive election, if you
don't have that habit and youdon't have a, you know, a dog in
the hunt or whatever, you'renot going to have that, that
habit and that inclination to go.
We find that in Oklahoma, ourresearch shows that too many of
us, a majority of Oklahomans,say that they do not vote
(15:27):
because they don't think theirvoices matter.
And we have a system.
We have an election system thatreinforces it, and so we need
to break that open, and we needto do that in every state.
We need people to register tovote, but then we have to give
them someone to vote for.
We've had a lot of great groupstrying to do voter registration
(15:49):
, but it's like banging yourhead against the wall because
we're missing the other half ofthe equation.
So that's what we're trying todo with this open primary
election.
That's what I would like to seeeverybody look into in their own
state and in their own city.
There are a lot of groupstrying to do this work, and we
would love to see everyonesucceed, because, unlike some
(16:11):
people, we actually believe thata rising tide lifts all boats,
and I want everyone to win.
I want Vest to win.
I know that if you win, I'mgoing to be better off, oklahoma
will be a better place for me,and so I think we have to
support each other.
I think that is something thatwomen do well, that we just need
(16:35):
to have more of, and oh, by theway, we probably need more
women in office, and so if wecan find a way to engage and
mobilize women not just forwomen, but for candidates who
produce common sense and thatidentify with us and that are
(16:58):
accountable to us, then I thinkwe're all going to be a lot
better off.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Absolutely, and one of the main reasons I love this
initiative and, by the way, Iwrote an opinion piece.
If anybody's interested in it,it's in the journal Record.
It went out, I think, yesterdayand I just posted it on
LinkedIn.
But one of the reasons I'llnever forget Leslie, in addition
to being a labor commissioner,is a dear friend and probably
(17:23):
one of the few Republicans thatI still have direct connections
with and relationships with andthat I still respect.
But Leslie said to me, you know, in a previous Vest session
which she was a speaker, shereminded us that not just
electing women though it's great, we definitely want to increase
the amount of women serving inoffice, but it also have to be
(17:45):
women who we can also holdaccountable right, because right
now we do have women, I wouldsay, in the state legislature
that are doing more damage thangood.
So, like this, one of thereasons why I love this open
primary is because it takes awayall of that and it just goes
back to the first, giving backthe power to the people, we, the
people.
And also it's just that kind ofability that your words will
(18:08):
matter, what you say will matter, and you can't just cater to
your party talking points or thethings that get everybody
excited.
The other problem that we havetoo, I feel like, is that social
media, the people in charge ofthe algorithms benefit and
profit from rage baiting andgetting us all upset.
(18:30):
And what is rage baiting?
All the talking points thatyou're seeing from right now?
In my opinion, it's coming veryheavily from the Republican
Party.
I'm not saying that bothhaven't done it, but it's just
my personal opinion of what Isee.
But anyways, this would helphold people accountable.
(18:51):
But I want to turn it over,because right now, obviously,
most of Best Members are basedin Oklahoma, but through our
podcast, we obviously recordmost of our sessions and then
repurpose them for our podcast,which actually has a national
reach in women from everywherenot just women, but people that
support them as well listen toour podcast.
(19:12):
So I want to correlate as tohow open primaries also affect
people that are not necessarilybased in our state.
We know why this question is soimportant for our state and why
we need to vote yes, but talkto us about the larger spectrum
and how this impacts womennationally.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Well, like I said before, the United States is
kind of a patchwork of differentsystems.
I think, overall, we arethrough technology and just
modern times.
We have to acknowledge, numberone, that the electorate is
different than it was in, let'ssay, 1900, when a lot of these
(19:57):
rules were put into place, andwe've heard some scary things
about how I mean and I'm notmaking this up there there's one
legislator who has said, well,we need to eliminate the woman's
right to vote.
You know like people are sayingbizarre things.
We hear a lot of times, haveheard, people being reluctant to
(20:24):
engage in politics, and I amnot a political person, never
have been not interested in it.
What I want is a functionalsystem that does not waste my
time and does not waste my moneymy money and I personally feel
like that's kind of a Republicanvalue system, but maybe it's
not.
(20:44):
I think maybe all a lot ofpeople feel that way, and so
what I think people, you know,women around the country, anyone
around the country needs to belooking at today is how can we
do something that brings ustogether in a constructive way,
(21:04):
that reduces chaos, that allowsus to function, that allows
businesses to have some kind ofcertainty.
How are we going to peel itback a little bit?
I'm not saying we go back toyesteryear, I'm saying we go
forward with rules that makesense for where we are.
We go forward with rules thatmake sense for where we are.
(21:28):
And I look at my young son whois 23, and I trust him.
I mean, he's got a really goodbrain on his shoulders and I
think that that is anotherelement that we are not taking
advantage of our younger peoplethe way we need to.
I know that you know it's kindof a joke among political people
that they said that the oldervoters, while they have been
(21:51):
very important in races andoutcomes, they are actuarially
aging out like departing thevoter world for actuarial
reasons, meaning they're dying.
Ok, so the question is who'scoming up behind us?
(22:13):
And we've got this tremendouspipeline of talent, but they do
need guidance and and we need tobe there for them, but we also
need to empower themno-transcript support, that kind
(22:46):
of support, so that normalwomen can just everyday women
can feel that they can step upand can volunteer and can be
part of a process that makessense for us all that makes
sense for us all.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
And, erica, I really I feel like this is part, you
know, open primaries is part ofwhat we need to do for total
democracy, kind of change andprogress.
It's one piece right.
So we need to do open primaries.
We have a huge gerrymanderingissue in this country.
We have, you know, voterregistration and just voter
apathy.
So this is one part of thepuzzle.
(23:27):
It's a step towards um fixingwhat has become a very
dysfunctional system, but it'snot.
It's not the end answer.
Right, there will be more work,but this is the place that we
feel is the best place to start,especially in Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
You know I'm very vested no pun intended on this
initiative because I listen.
If I had a dollar for everytime somebody would DM me
privately and say how do we fixthis.
I would say this is one way,right, sarah?
It's not going to be the answerto everything, but it's one way
, and I think it's tangible, andI think it's something that can
(24:06):
pass.
But I also want to be able toaddress the naysayers, right,
Like what are people that arenot for this question saying,
and what is your response tothem?
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Well, the first thing we hear is really a
misunderstanding, and I don'tknow if it's an intentional one
or it's just ignorant.
But they say we don't wantnon-Republicans or non-party
members, we don't want thosepeople voting in our primaries.
And if anybody does anyhistorical research on the
primary system, you know thatprimaries, you know that
(24:39):
primaries publicly fundedprimaries were put into place in
order for the public to expresspreference.
They are not the property ofparties and they never were.
So there is a misunderstandingabout who owns the primaries.
I would say it's the public.
(25:00):
You know we're paying for themand they belong to us.
Number two our proposal is afully open primary in which
there would be no more partisan,separate club primary.
(25:21):
The parties can still express apreference, they can have their
meetings, they can do theirnominations.
We love it, go for it, have atit.
But then when we come to vote,we will all have one piece of
paper and we will have all ofthe choices on one piece of
paper.
That is our proposal forOklahoma.
So we know that it works, weknow that it's what the people
want and that's what oursolution is here.
(25:43):
And, like I said, differentsolutions for different states.
I think Texas.
Right now the Republican partythere is attempting to close its
primaries.
Right now it has a semi-open,which means that in Texas you
just register to vote.
You do not align.
You don't register in a partywhen you register vote.
(26:04):
You do not align.
You don't register in a partywhen you register.
You simply register to be avoter and then on the day of the
election you tell them whichballot you want and at that
moment that's who they say youare.
So when they say there are Xnumber of Republicans in Texas,
that is how they're countingthem.
I think our people feel likethat's a little convoluted.
I kind of like the idea of justbeing a registered voter
(26:28):
without committing to a party.
But we're not disrupting thatwith our state question at all.
So we're just hopeful thatOklahoma will be a leader.
We have been told that we are amessage state.
I do think that we have a lotof opportunity to be a leader in
this way and it's going to setthe stage for a lot of other
(26:50):
positive things.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Absolutely, and you know.
I just have to say I'm gladthat you mentioned how primary
how our system is funded,because, as an independent, I
pay taxes and I, you know thosetaxes, some of those taxes fund
primaries, but yet I can'tparticipate in the system unless
, you know, I go and vote for aDemocrat.
(27:13):
I wanted to vote, you know,like many times people have said
, oh, you should just registerRepublican so that you can vote
on primaries because we're inOklahoma, you know, blah, blah,
blah.
And I just refused to do thatbecause that party, I mean
there's no values.
That not not now, the way theparty is currently operating,
(27:35):
there's nothing that appeals tome from that party and in fact I
would feel very dirty as aLatina, as an immigrant, even as
a small business owner, becauseI think one of the things that
that party has done very well isbrand themselves as a party for
business.
But if we were really to breakdown the type of policies that
(27:56):
they put together, they mean bigcorporations, not necessarily
small businesses, but anyway,that's my personal opinion.
But there's many things of whyit is very hard for me to
identify with the RepublicanParty and why, and I also think
it's a Band-Aid solution, right,like it's not really fixing the
system.
Even if I register Republican,it doesn't mean that all of the
(28:19):
disengaged voters or all of thevoters that feel apathy are
going to show up and vote aswell.
So I think it's a Band-Aidsolution.
I'm just curious if you hearthat as well.
And what would you say tosomebody that just counters it
with just register Republican?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Well, it makes me laugh because if we all
registered Republican, if youwalk that thought experiment
forward, then you are describingour proposal.
You would have all voters, oneballot, all those choices on one
piece of paper.
So that actually makes me laugh, and I've heard that for a few
(28:55):
years.
So again, it's kind of amisunderstanding, I think, by
people who want to trap us in abox and are unwilling to
entertain the idea that allvoices matter and that we can
make some decisions forourselves.
(29:16):
Okay, well, let's open it up.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
I'm going to ask the team to help me moderate some of
the lively chat, and then, ofcourse, members can choose to
have the team read some of thequestions or just unmute
yourself and ask them.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
I saw a question in the chat from Monica.
Monica, feel free to unmuteyourself and add anything else,
but she asks is there anyevidence that open primaries
encourage candidates to run indistricts where they might not
otherwise?
This is what Margaret wastalking about at the time when
she asked this question.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
And it's really about , like, reducing the number of
uncontested elections.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Right.
The research shows that wherewe have had fully open primaries
around the country, severaloutcomes have occurred.
Number one a bump in voterparticipation, which we
anticipate.
We currently have 500,000independent voters in Oklahoma.
We need to scoop them in offthe sidelines.
(30:20):
Number two it does producefewer uncontested elections.
It gives candidates a path.
Any candidate can have a path,and the reason why it is, as
Commissioner Osborne can attest,you have just opened the entire
electorate up for thatconstituency, up for fundraising
(30:44):
, door knocking, messaging,volunteering, all of that stuff
of a campaign, whereas right nowthe parties have been totally
controlling that process.
And you know, I'm going to sayhis name because he spoke at one
of our events a couple of yearsago.
(31:04):
But we have a wonderful citycouncilor in Tulsa named Phil
Lakin and he is a greatrepresentative.
I think his last election hegot like 75 or 85 percent of the
vote.
I mean like he has astoundingsuccess when he campaigns.
But he has told me as a youknow old guard kind of Reagan
(31:28):
Republican fan he said, margaret, I will never run for another
office because the city of Tulsaelections are nonpartisan and
he knows that he can walk inthat room and he can hear all
sides.
He can listen to hisconstituents every single one of
them and he can make a decisionthat he thinks reflects common
(31:52):
sense and where his people wantto be.
He said if I ran in a partisansystem at some point, I'm going
to be told to come to a room andthey will close the door and
one person will tell me how I amgoing to vote.
And he said I'm just unwillingto do that.
That is how our system worksright now.
(32:13):
It is a top down system and ithas no interest in the people
and what the people really want.
It's all about the money, right?
So and that is really you knowthen that flows into the
leadership positions what thingsare heard, who's on what
(32:33):
committee, who's not on thatcommittee, because that's where
the money is.
You know, it's reallydisturbing when you get into it
and, as a, as a non-professionalpolitical person, uh, I find it
very, uh, concerning as well.
So, yeah, we're going to, we'regoing to bust that all open and
(32:55):
we're going to give everybodythe same chance, we're going to
give everybody the same rules,and it's going to be, it's going
to be fun, we're all going tohave a good time and the people
will win, in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I'm glad that you're talking about fun, because
oftentimes I think, because ofthe very partisan narrative out
there, people that have notnecessarily engaged in politics
think it's just going to be allthis negative and I'm like no,
you can build community.
I build some of the bestfriendships across the country
(33:28):
with people who have the samevalues as me and we have fun.
You know, whether we're makingcalls or whether we're making a
content or whether we'reattending meetings together,
it's not something that needs tobe think as like a.
You know you're going to bedragging all of your energy.
It could be fun.
It could lead to newrelationships, new friendships.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
We're all about fun.
We have a giant Liberty Bellcostume that volunteers are
going to wear at the Tulsa StateFair, so we you know, that's
kind of one of the things thatMargaret and I have always
talked about.
Like it has to be, we have tohave some fun right, because so
much of it is serious and so youhave to have some
lightheartedness with it.
(34:08):
So if anybody, wants to wearthe Liberty Bell costume and hit
the giant striker and see howstrong they are at the Tulsa
State Fair.
Please come see us.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
And we're also Sarah and I have talked about hosting
a creator happy hour.
We're going to invite creatorsto talk about this and then
together we can figure out howto make content and amplify each
other's messaging, of course,in the state question, so yeah,
I do want to tell you, erica,and all of your members here,
(34:38):
that is the best part of what weare doing with this state
question, which is really just atool.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Ok, this state question 836 is one tool for a
movement that we have createdhere in Oklahoma.
It is a movement that includesevery single person who lives in
our, in our state, and and evensome who are not in our state
are still following us andthey're fans.
(35:06):
So we are doing things verydifferently.
So we don't think that peopledefine themselves personally by
their party registration.
I would say none of us on thisphone call wake up every day and
someone says well, what do youdo?
Well, I'm a Republican.
Let's start with that.
You know we don't do that.
(35:27):
Who are we?
Well, I'm a lawyer, I'm adentist, I'm a plumber, I'm a
community volunteer, I'm astudent.
You know, that's who we are,and so that's how our campaign
is organized.
We are not dividing people up bypartisan affiliation.
We want people to be with thepeople they want to be with, and
(35:48):
so we are just a massiveconnector organization, and that
is what we're doing.
We're trying to find people andconnect them and find a
connection that they want.
It's not what I want them tohave.
It's what connection do youwant to have?
And in this case it might befemale owned businesses, or it
(36:08):
might just be small business ingeneral, or it might be finance.
We have that, we have people.
So you know, that is the funpart about what we're doing is
really, I hope, actualizing whopeople want to be and who they
think they are, instead of somekind of artificial label.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Okay, Jay.
What other questions are weseeing on the chat?
Speaker 4 (36:35):
Yes, Another question I thought was really
interesting from Jo Beth, ournewest Vest member.
Feel free to chime in, Jo Beth,but she asked do you feel open
primaries can somewhat offsetgerrymandering?
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Gerrymandering is so prominent right now.
We obviously havegerrymandering in Oklahoma, have
gerrymandering in Oklahoma.
For some states who alreadyhave an open primary of some
kind, maybe gerrymandering isthe issue that they need to deal
(37:16):
with.
I happen to be a fan of theIndependent Districting
Commission that Katie Fahey puttogether with citizen petition
in Michigan.
It also happens to be thesystem they use in California
and some other states.
I mean, it's around, butOklahoma, we're not really ready
for that.
We need to deal with our mostfundamental problem and that is
(37:40):
voting.
That is, who can vote.
It's even even more specificabout voting.
We need to really start withthat.
So, yes, is it going to changethe landscape in Oklahoma?
Yes, yes, districtingcommission.
(38:01):
I think that we would like toreduce partisan control, or
(38:24):
let's just even say single-partycontrol of a system.
I found it personally shockingwhen I learned that we allow our
elected officials to draw theirown districts.
I just find that very strange.
I wasn't aware that we wereletting them do that.
But again, that's a laterconversation and fortunately,
(38:48):
once we have an open primarysystem, we can have all of those
kinds of conversations.
We can have a lot of seriousconversations in which people
will be forced to listen becauseagain, when it comes back to
election time, they're going tohave to come back and then we
elect them or not and we holdthem accountable and move
(39:23):
forward.
So I do think that it's goingto help with a lot of issues,
including gerrymandering, forsure.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
Leslie, I see you raise your hand.
You want to unmute yourself.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
Yes, I want to give a big shout out to Margaret and
Sarah because they have donejust phenomenal work on this and
all of the things we'rediscussing, from gerrymandering
to other systemic problems, arefixed after this passage Because
as we slowly moderate our state, we'll have the ability to do
(39:56):
more of those things like workon gerrymandering.
State will have the ability todo more of those things like
work on gerrymandering.
Having run two statewidecampaigns and been successful
where I was in a primary runoffwith both, I almost lost both
because most people show up thefirst Tuesday in November and if
we're lucky we get them atprimaries To get them to a
closed primary runoff that theydon't even know the date or
(40:17):
remember unless they watched acommercial and they're usually
at their kid's soccer game andthey don't remember.
So I ran against Sean Robertslast time, who raised $6,000.
I raised $770,000.
I proved and put in commercialsby using Mike Hunter as my ad
hoc or my free attorney that hehad beaten his ex-wife and
(40:38):
children so bad he leftpermanent scarring and I only
beat him in the primary runoffby 6%.
Now fast forward to the generalelection, like three months
later.
I got the most votes of anycandidate in the state, 165,000
more than Kevin Stitt.
And my point is this wheneveryone can vote, people show
(41:03):
up and you get different typeelections.
My friend, april Grace, went toa runoff at the same time and
lost by 6% to Brian Walters.
Without closed primaries shewould have been our state school
superintendent, so just wantedto put out that this is real in
real elections that matter.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Absolutely, and you brought up something that,
margaret, you said before and Ithink it's so true.
I think that part of the voterapathy also comes from what you
just said Leslie or Margaret.
Give me somebody to vote for,leslie or Margaret, give me
somebody to vote for.
And, of course, like Leslie,any race that she runs I'd be
(41:50):
happy to vote for her.
But I feel like so often we'releft with like the lesser of two
evils, or we feel like we'revoting against something, and I
think most people get tired ofthat, right Like, but instead
give us a candidate thateverybody can get behind, that
it's excited, that's talkingabout real issues that affect us
every day.
At the end of the day, most ofus just want to have secure
financial security, we want tohave an ability to provide for
our family.
You know all of those things,and I want a candidate that
(42:14):
talks about that and thatprovides solutions, and I will
rally behind that candidate allday long, regardless of what
political affiliation theybelong to.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
I do think that this helps improve candidate quality
as well, because right now youhave people that would be
excellent legislators.
You know that don't want to bein that kind of hyper-partisan
environment because that's notwhat they're interested in doing
.
They're interested in solvingproblems and helping their
community and they don't want toplay that game.
(42:45):
So I do think when you give youknow people the option to vote
for everybody or to vote for youknow, open it up, then you do
get people that are moreinterested in running, that are
qualified.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Absolutely.
There was a question on thechat, jay, about what is the
timeline on the campaign, and Iknow that Alex answered it there
, but I think it's important forus to put it out there for
those that are going to belistening to this afterwards.
You want to walk us through thetimeline, margaret?
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Yeah.
So this week we received news.
We received two orders from theOklahoma Supreme Court and both
were in our favor, so we'resuper happy about them forward
(43:53):
under the older petition rules,which will help us a lot.
And so we're now in a kind of alittle bit of a pause because
the Secretary of State will haveto set the date for us to start
gathering signatures and we donot control that process.
(44:16):
We think that it'll be aroundthe end of October when we start
gathering signatures and thenwe will have 90 days and it's
kind of an all hands to the deckkind of situation.
So if there's anyone inOklahoma and they are willing to
attend our training, we have todo this in tandem with a
(44:37):
professional signature firm.
So the good news is, even ifyou're willing to gather
signatures, there are two waysto do it.
You can either attend ourtraining and volunteer, or you
can attend training and you canliterally get paid to do it.
But there are some catches.
You'd probably have to get inyour car and go to you know
(44:59):
wherever they want to send youto get these signatures, but
that would be under theirdirection.
So it's a huge effort.
We feel very confident about it.
We've been working on gettingour grassroots support up in
every community around the stateof Oklahoma and we're finding a
lot of people are ready to helpus collect those signatures.
(45:20):
So registering to vote, helpingus get signatures, those are
two key things to do If you'rein Oklahoma.
Drag everybody you know to goget registered and then bring
them to our training.
Then after that there will betime for challenges to those
signatures and the goal is forus to get through all of that.
(45:43):
And then the governor would setus on the November 2026 ballot
and a new education secretary orwhatever.
Whatever that position is, thathe that is held right State
(46:04):
superintendent.
So we'll have all of thosestatewide elections and we will
also be able to express ouropinion about who can vote in
Oklahoma going forward on 8, 8,36.
So we're very excited aboutthat.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Absolutely.
Thank you for sharing that, andAlex is sharing links on where
you can volunteer and when youcan donate, because of course
all of this takes resources andfunding to be able to put
together.
So those links are on the chatand then, for those listening to
the podcast afterwards, we'llinclude those links in the show
notes which you can get atwwwvestorco.
(46:45):
Jay.
Any other questions or Vestmembers?
If you just want to unmuteyourself and ask, now is the
time.
Speaker 4 (46:55):
Nobody wants to unmute themselves.
It's time Nobody wants tounmute themselves.
I had a question from.
We had a question from Kendraand Leslie and Alex talked about
it in the chat, but I thoughtit would.
We thought it'd be good tobring up in conversation as well
.
Kendra asked what are youhearing from Republicans, as you
are talking about openprimaries?
Are you seeing, are you sensinggeneral openness or more
(47:18):
resistance?
What is the biggest hill thatmust be climbed to see success?
Speaker 3 (47:23):
I think one of the good things for us right now is
the Republican Party is highlyfractionated, right.
So they have you have yourtraditional Republicans, your
Reagan Republicans that feellike they've lost their home and
they're looking for how do theyget back to the type of system
where they can govern.
(47:44):
You know, reasonably, the waythat they want to, and so I
think, when you, it's hard forus to lump all Republicans
together in one sense, becausethere are a lot of Republicans
that are supporting this effort.
You know they tend to bebusiness leaders like yourselves
and people that are longtimecommunity supporters and
(48:05):
understand kind of theimportance of having
infrastructure funding, ofsupporting education, of
supporting policies that helpbusiness.
So I think that that's onething to think about.
And then, Margaret, I'll let youtake the second part of that
about kind of what else you'rehearing from Republicans.
We can't let this get, thiscan't be a partisan issue.
(48:26):
If this becomes a partisanissue, we don't win.
So we have to walk.
I know this is kind of a safespace, but we do have to walk
kind of a fine line there.
So that's what I would say onthat.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
I think we're finding a lot of support from moderate
Republicans and even I know thisseems counterintuitive but some
of the older kind of the TeaParty type Republicans, because,
believe it or not, they believein the power of the people and
that's what they were tryingthey thought to express.
(49:02):
20 for me.
We did a strategic plan whichI'm happy to tell you, we are
(49:24):
fucking nailing it on ourstrategic plan.
So pardon my French, but we aredoing great with that.
The first year was research,the second year was listening,
the third year was develop apolicy and the fourth year was
execute.
And here we are and we're righton track.
So I'm delighted with that.
We happen to be a veryRepublican forward group,
(49:47):
because that is kind of who weare in Oklahoma right now.
After we have 836,.
We do think that there's goingto be a big opportunity for
people to redefine themselvesand adjust and seek the group
that really speaks to them, andso I don't know where that's
(50:10):
going to land and I don't reallycare.
I'm just happy everyone isgoing to be able to diffuse a
little bit.
And that is what I'm kind ofthinking about right now is if
you are looking for an off rampfor discord, which cannot be
underestimated these days.
(50:32):
And and when I say discord, Ithink we all know what I'm
talking about.
Like it, it can.
It can really trigger someone ora group and even and and online
it can become so big like awave and and this state question
and in any other state of anyway to literally bring people
(50:56):
together is is going to serve uswell and it's going to reduce
the temperature because,counterintuitively, the way to
reduce that temperature andreduce the vitriol is to let
more people speak.
I think that people have beenreally looking for a way to feel
(51:18):
empowered and a way to feellike that they can exercise
control over themselves andtheir you know, their children
can look forward to living in aworld where they have a say, to
see elected leaders notlistening and that is where we
(51:41):
get so much of our negativeenergy these days, and so we
just need to bust it open andlet everybody in and then have a
conversation, and I really havefaith that the majority of
Oklahomans, as they would in anystate, when you get us all in
the room and you give us thefacts and we all kind of put our
heads together, we're going tocome up with a consensus, like
(52:04):
they do in every city and townthat leads us forward, maybe in
a slightly imperfect way, but ina way that we can all accept.
That is fair.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
I absolutely love everything you just said,
margaret, because I think thatthat's it right.
Right now, very few voices,very radical voices, are driving
the narrative, and it's whyit's so important for each of us
.
The theme of this month, forbest, is to find our voices, and
it can mean different thingsand we're all at different
(52:40):
levels.
Right, like you can start withincremental change.
It doesn't mean that tomorrowyou're going to start being on
social media and talking aboutthese things.
It could mean that you have aconversation.
It could mean that you startadvocating for yourself at work.
It doesn't have to be political,but finding, finding your voice
, learning how to advocate foryourself, for your community,
(53:01):
for the people you love, for thepolicies we feel will create
more equitable work environments, more equitable playing fields
for businesses, for ourcommunities, is just.
But it's going to require us tofigure out where we feel
comfortable, starting and thenfinding community in which we
(53:24):
can, so that because it's alsoheavy, right, we can't.
If we do it alone, we're goingto get tired, we're going to get
burned out.
But figuring out how to buildcommunity support systems around
us and then taking ultimately,this will lead to taking the
control of the narrative.
Call to action on the chat isplease consider donating.
(53:44):
They need to raise more forhiring the position.
This is coming fromCommissioner Osborne, so when
she's ran successful campaigns,definitely let's listen to her.
Any other call to actions,margaret and Sarah, that you
have for us that we haven'tcovered?
Speaker 3 (54:00):
We are looking to try to raise $350,000 from
grassroots supporters forsignature gathering.
Signature gathering alone is$3.5 million, which is just part
of that is because we have avery short window to gather the
$172,000 plus verifiedsignatures.
But also we have some greatvolunteer opportunities.
We need letters to the editorand op-eds, like what you did,
(54:23):
erica.
We do need social mediawarriors.
We need people that will go onand share our stuff and repost,
and you all handle those trolls,because we can't.
So, yeah, we have greatvolunteer opportunities.
We're organizing some webinarsright now that are based on
industry.
So we've got a great one comingup with doctors.
(54:45):
We had a great one with lawyers.
If you have kind of a, you knowone that you think would be
helpful.
We'd love to talk to yourindustry about that.
What am I?
I'm probably forgetting lots.
What am I forgetting, margaret?
Speaker 2 (55:04):
No, we just we are in fundraising mode.
It's been pointed out to me thatwe could have all the great
volunteers you know in the world, but if we don't close the gap
on the petition firm, you knowthat's not going to help us.
So so we have to do it and,again, anyone you can throw our
way for donations or to dosignature gathering.
That's where we are right now,and then we will take the next
(55:27):
step, because I think that thisis like any other task, any
other large project that we areworking on.
You break it down into thesteps, and we have worked
tirelessly for a long time toget to where we are right now.
I really don't want this todisappear.
(55:49):
It is a once-in-a-lifetime,once-in-a-generation opportunity
for our state and again, if wecan win here, you know other
states will find optimism andhope to do some other things for
themselves as well, and we willhelp them because we have
(56:10):
developed this expertise, wehave a phenomenal team and I'm
just saying we're not going tostop with this.
It is where we are right now.
Speaker 1 (56:21):
Love that call to action and love that you're
giving us an opportunity to be apart of this, because I think
how great would it be to changethe narrative in our state right
and to say that we didsomething that could be
replicated in other states, likeyou're saying Well, thank you
so much, sarah and Margaret, forbeing here.
(56:42):
I will definitely.
Right after this call, I willmake sure to sign up as a
volunteer, so count me in andthen I will also make a donation
and the podcast episode will golive for all of people that are
not members to listen to.
Speaker 2 (57:04):
Erica.
I want to say one last thingthat I think is going to
motivate everybody on this call.
Two years ago, Sarah and I satin a meeting and with some other
members of our team, all ofwhom happened to be female and
we were told by a male politicaldude that you know well this
(57:29):
problem, that problem,everything else and then so we
wasted some time talking to this, and then he went his own way,
and we heard later that he toldsomeone else quote the girls are
never going to get this done,the girls are never going to get
(57:50):
this done, and so I just knowhow the world works.
And the women do get it done.
They got it done in myhousehold, and I think they get
it done in your households, andthey got it done here today, and
it is really time for us tostep up.
We have to protect ourselvesand we have to show up, and so I
(58:14):
hope everybody will.
Speaker 1 (58:15):
If you enjoyed this episode, share with a friend and
don't forget to leave us areview.
And if you're ready to takeyour career to the next level,
apply to become a Vest memberand join our community of women
professionals eager to help youget there and stay there.
Go to wwwvestherco to learnmore.
Voter.
Participation is one of theclearest measures of a healthy
democracy.
Yet in the United States, weconsistently fall short.
In the last presidentialelection, only about 65% of
eligible voters cast a ballot,and participation in local and
primary elections is often farlower.
Women, in particular, havehistorically been excluded from
(00:23):
the political process.
Women, in particular, havehistorically been excluded from
the political process.
While white women won theconstitutional right to vote
just over 100 years ago, blackwomen, along with many other
women of color, continue to facesystemic barriers that kept
them from the ballot box fordecades afterwards, and even
today we continue to strugglewith voter suppression,
(00:43):
gerrymandering and policies thatmake it harder for many
communities to fully participatein our democracy.
One of the structural issuesthat continues to limit
participation today is closedprimaries.
When only registered partymembers can vote, we shrink the
voter pool and fuel polarization.
The result Candidates who caterto the extremes instead of
(01:07):
representing the broaderpopulation.
Research shows that states withclosed primaries often produce
leaders less willing tocompromise, which ultimately
weakens governance.
This is a concern for all of us, no matter where we live,
because when participation islimited and when the choices on
the ballot don't reflect thediversity and the complexity of
(01:29):
our communities.
We all pay the price in policy,in representation and in trust
in our democracy.
That's why, in today's episode,we're exploring open primaries.
Joining us is Margaret Kobos,founder and CEO of Oklahoma
United, a nonpartisan grassrootsorganization advocating for
reform through State Question836, along with Sarah Blaney, a
(01:53):
political consultant andnonprofit executive with over 20
years of experience inelectoral politics nationwide.
For our guest's full bios andshow notes, go to wwwvestherco
forward slash podcast.
If you enjoyed this episode,share with a friend and don't
forget to leave us a review.
(02:14):
And if you're ready to takeyour career to the next level,
consider applying to become aVest member and join our
community of women professionalseager to help you get there and
stay there.
Go to wwwvestherco to learnmore.
Join our community of womenprofessionals eager to help you
get there and stay there.
Go to wwwvestherco to learnmore.
This conversation was part of amore intimate coaching session
(02:34):
with Vest members and has beenrepurposed to accommodate this
episode.
What is an open primary and howdoes it differ from the system
that's currently used in ourstate and in other states?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
The United States is made up, obviously the state.
You know, the laboratories ofdemocracy are different.
In you know, every stateoperates a little differently.
Oklahoma is one of 11 stateswith a statutory, a statutory
(03:10):
scheme that closes primaries sothat only a member of a party
may vote in a single partyprimary election.
So in Oklahoma that means thatindependents are not able to
vote in all the primaryelections.
They don't really have a voiceto vote in all the primary
elections.
They don't really have a voice.
(03:30):
They are excluded by theRepublican Party.
The Democrat Party hasvoluntarily opened their
primaries to independents.
The Libertarians, just thissummer, decided to follow suit.
They are also going to allowindependents to vote in
libertarian primaries.
But the real problem is thateven if each party were to open
(03:52):
their primary to independents,it still we would go up to the
table and we announce what ourregistration is and we're given
only that menu, only that ballot.
(04:14):
So your next door neighbormight be running for a state
office and she may be a Democratand you may want to vote for
her because you know herpersonally.
But then the governor is overhere on this ballot and you have
to literally choose whichmatters the most to you and I
(04:36):
think that you know.
Our research shows that thesedays there's less and less
definition by party label.
So people really want to votewith their hearts.
They want to vote for the rightperson, no matter where that
person comes from, and so ourOklahoma system is a little
(04:56):
outdated.
Other states have what we calla semi-open primary, in which
independents are allowed to votein primaries, but again they
still have to pick only one ofthose ballots and they're
confined in their choices.
So our findings are throughextensive research and polling,
(05:19):
oklahomans are ready to have anopen system where we all have
one ballot and one primaryelection.
All of the candidates arelisted on it and we pick the one
person that we think is bestfor the job, and the top two
finishers in a contestedelection would go on to a
(05:41):
general election.
So you would have twoopportunities to look at
candidates, become familiar, andthen you have two choices in
November.
Our research shows that inOklahoma that's what the
majority of people want andthat's what our state question
is based on.
So that is in a nutshell.
That is state question 836.
(06:02):
And, like I said, everyone isdifferent around the country.
Texas has a semi-open, missourihas had a semi-open, we happen
to be going fully open and thereason why we're doing that is
because that's what our peoplewant and that's what they think
makes sense and it is the systemthat we're using in every
(06:23):
Oklahoma city and town today.
So I think maybe it resonateswith people and it's simple and
it avoids runoffs in primaryelections.
So I think we're all happy toeliminate one more trip to go
vote.
So we think it's reallyappealing to a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Can you talk to us about the importance of
primaries, Because I think thatyou know often, especially when
I travel, people talk or referto us in other states as a red
state, but I remind people thatit's not that we're so, not so
(07:06):
much that we're red, but ratherthat we are a non-voting state,
right Like we have a lot ofpeople that don't show up to
vote, particularly in theprimaries where you tend to see
the most radical voices appear.
So can you talk a little bitabout that and then how that
leads to extreme candidatesoften?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yes.
So I was drawn to thisnonpartisan reform idea because
Oklahoma has been last in the USin voter turnout for 2020 and
again in 24.
And I find that personallytroubling when we know that we
have all this discord in stategovernment here.
Our state government, our statelegislature, pulls consistently
(07:46):
in the 30 percent favorabilityrange.
So while we don't love ourstate government, we seem to be
unable to do anything about it.
I also learned early on thatonly 51 percent of Oklahomans
are registered Republican.
Percent of Oklahomans areregistered Republican and, as
(08:08):
you pointed out, we arecharacterized as a red state,
and rightfully so for a lot ofreasons.
I think that our value systemdoes tend to be more
conservative in nature.
However, we can see thatthere's a real disconnection
between voter registration andthe people who have been elected
to office.
We are a trifecta red state andwe're finding some of the
(08:32):
dysfunction in our stategovernment the unwillingness to
talk about real problems, theunwillingness to address
fundamentals are political andthey're politically motivated in
nature, and so what the peopleof Oklahoma want, what I want,
what all the moms and the dadsnext to me on the bleachers want
(08:53):
we just want the thing doneright.
We know what the problems areright in front of us.
We just want them done.
We want transparency, we wantto eliminate waste and fraud
where we can, but we areexhausted by failure to take
care of what we think is commonsense.
(09:14):
You know, solution solving,problem solving that we really,
really crave.
The only way to do that is tostart electing people
differently and to make themaccountable to all of us.
And that is actually the magicof an open primary like what
we're talking about.
It puts all the candidates infront of all the voters and then
(09:37):
, on the flip side, it makes allof the elected officials
accountable to all of us,elected officials accountable to
all of us.
And I'm glad that OklahomaState Labor Commissioner is on
this call Leslie Osborne, andyou, erica, and all of these
business leaders, because ifthere's anything we learn in
business, one of the firstthings we learn is the
performance review.
(09:58):
And in Oklahoma and in a closedprimary state, you have no
valid performance review ofelected officials.
And again, that's what statequestion 836 will do.
It's going to make these peoplehave to account for their
failures and successes with thepeople, all the people that they
(10:21):
serve people that they serveAbsolutely.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
And speaking of performance reviews, you know,
Sarah, you joined us.
Thank you for joining us at ourStitch Group and Best Community
event that we hosted last weekwith Mayor Holt, where we spoke
about.
You know, it's just unfortunatethat Oklahoma City and Tulsa
have so much going for them, butit's that growth and exciting
things is often overshadowed bythe state performance.
We rank last in education.
(10:54):
We rank last in the quality oflife for women.
You know we're a best group,all about women, and that's what
I tell people.
You know we can do all of theprofessional development that we
want, we can invest in allwomen led businesses that we
want, but if we don't fix thepolicies that continue to
compound inequality, then itdoesn't matter, right?
(11:16):
So that's why it's so importantto engage civically.
But, Sarah, I want to talk toyou about that.
You know, since you attendedthat conversation.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Because we do rank at the bottom.
What do you see as theconnection between voter
participation, primary electionsand the policies that?
But also you know, first, fordomestic violence, most likely
to be killed by a partner,highest for child abuse.
And so I think the way that weadvise as political consultants,
the way that we advisecandidates right is we're trying
(12:02):
to help them win and so we'readvising them to win within the
system that they're currentlyplaying in right.
And so if you're a candidateand you come to me and you're in
a blue district, there'll becertain things that I'll advise
you to take a stance on one wayor another that might appeal to
a primary voter that maybewouldn't appeal to a general
(12:24):
voter.
And that's because theobjective right is to win, to
get elected and to stay elected.
And so what you have is you havebecause not everybody can vote
in these primary elections andbecause they typically attract
those that are the most partisan, that's who participates.
They skew older as well, theyskew more white as well, they
(12:50):
skew, you know, more.
That's just how it is.
You get people that are may ormay not personally agree with
the policies that they promote,but they put their personal kind
of politics aside and they voteand introduce legislation that
will help them win in thatprimary election.
(13:11):
And so what we have to do is wehave to change the incentive
system to give politicians areason why it is best for them
to introduce legislation andpolicies that benefit the
greater good and not just thatsegment of very partisan voters.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Margaret, anything you want to add on that?
I mean, I think it goes back toyour performance review.
I think one of the mostimportant things is that if we
did have an open primary, we canactually hold people
accountable right, and theywould know that it's not just
based on what politicalconsultants will tell you on how
to run and what policies youshould run, but also people are
going to be watching you right,Regardless of affiliation.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Right.
The primary elections.
Back to your original question,I think, is you know why
primaries?
Why do they matter?
Why do we care?
In Oklahoma and in every otherstate, the important elections
are happening in the primaries.
In Oklahoma we have so manyuncontested general elections
(14:18):
that 80 to 90 percent of ourdecisions are made in a primary
election.
Our voter turnout is very low.
Even if you have a contestedprimary election race, if you do
not vote, if you do not investyourself at some level in the
(14:39):
primary, either because you havea candidate you like or because
you dragged yourself out of bedand went and did it against
your better judgment, one way orthe other, if you have not
participated in a primaryelection, statistically you're
unlikely to jump up andparticipate in November, jump up
(15:06):
and participate in November.
And so, even if you have acompetitive election, if you
don't have that habit and youdon't have a, you know, a dog in
the hunt or whatever, you'renot going to have that, that
habit and that inclination to go.
We find that in Oklahoma, ourresearch shows that too many of
us, a majority of Oklahomans,say that they do not vote
(15:27):
because they don't think theirvoices matter.
And we have a system.
We have an election system thatreinforces it, and so we need
to break that open, and we needto do that in every state.
We need people to register tovote, but then we have to give
them someone to vote for.
We've had a lot of great groupstrying to do voter registration
(15:49):
, but it's like banging yourhead against the wall because
we're missing the other half ofthe equation.
So that's what we're trying todo with this open primary
election.
That's what I would like to seeeverybody look into in their own
state and in their own city.
There are a lot of groupstrying to do this work, and we
would love to see everyonesucceed, because, unlike some
(16:11):
people, we actually believe thata rising tide lifts all boats,
and I want everyone to win.
I want Vest to win.
I know that if you win, I'mgoing to be better off, oklahoma
will be a better place for me,and so I think we have to
support each other.
I think that is something thatwomen do well, that we just need
(16:35):
to have more of, and oh, by theway, we probably need more
women in office, and so if wecan find a way to engage and
mobilize women not just forwomen, but for candidates who
produce common sense and thatidentify with us and that are
(16:58):
accountable to us, then I thinkwe're all going to be a lot
better off.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Absolutely, and one of the main reasons I love this
initiative and, by the way, Iwrote an opinion piece.
If anybody's interested in it,it's in the journal Record.
It went out, I think, yesterdayand I just posted it on
LinkedIn.
But one of the reasons I'llnever forget Leslie, in addition
to being a labor commissioner,is a dear friend and probably
(17:23):
one of the few Republicans thatI still have direct connections
with and relationships with andthat I still respect.
But Leslie said to me, you know, in a previous Vest session
which she was a speaker, shereminded us that not just
electing women though it's great, we definitely want to increase
the amount of women serving inoffice, but it also have to be
(17:45):
women who we can also holdaccountable right, because right
now we do have women, I wouldsay, in the state legislature
that are doing more damage thangood.
So, like this, one of thereasons why I love this open
primary is because it takes awayall of that and it just goes
back to the first, giving backthe power to the people, we, the
people.
And also it's just that kind ofability that your words will
(18:08):
matter, what you say will matter, and you can't just cater to
your party talking points or thethings that get everybody
excited.
The other problem that we havetoo, I feel like, is that social
media, the people in charge ofthe algorithms benefit and
profit from rage baiting andgetting us all upset.
(18:30):
And what is rage baiting?
All the talking points thatyou're seeing from right now?
In my opinion, it's coming veryheavily from the Republican
Party.
I'm not saying that bothhaven't done it, but it's just
my personal opinion of what Isee.
But anyways, this would helphold people accountable.
(18:51):
But I want to turn it over,because right now, obviously,
most of Best Members are basedin Oklahoma, but through our
podcast, we obviously recordmost of our sessions and then
repurpose them for our podcast,which actually has a national
reach in women from everywherenot just women, but people that
support them as well listen toour podcast.
(19:12):
So I want to correlate as tohow open primaries also affect
people that are not necessarilybased in our state.
We know why this question is soimportant for our state and why
we need to vote yes, but talkto us about the larger spectrum
and how this impacts womennationally.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Well, like I said before, the United States is
kind of a patchwork of differentsystems.
I think, overall, we arethrough technology and just
modern times.
We have to acknowledge, numberone, that the electorate is
different than it was in, let'ssay, 1900, when a lot of these
(19:57):
rules were put into place, andwe've heard some scary things
about how I mean and I'm notmaking this up there there's one
legislator who has said, well,we need to eliminate the woman's
right to vote.
You know like people are sayingbizarre things.
We hear a lot of times, haveheard, people being reluctant to
(20:24):
engage in politics, and I amnot a political person, never
have been not interested in it.
What I want is a functionalsystem that does not waste my
time and does not waste my moneymy money and I personally feel
like that's kind of a Republicanvalue system, but maybe it's
not.
(20:44):
I think maybe all a lot ofpeople feel that way, and so
what I think people, you know,women around the country, anyone
around the country needs to belooking at today is how can we
do something that brings ustogether in a constructive way,
(21:04):
that reduces chaos, that allowsus to function, that allows
businesses to have some kind ofcertainty.
How are we going to peel itback a little bit?
I'm not saying we go back toyesteryear, I'm saying we go
forward with rules that makesense for where we are.
We go forward with rules thatmake sense for where we are.
(21:28):
And I look at my young son whois 23, and I trust him.
I mean, he's got a really goodbrain on his shoulders and I
think that that is anotherelement that we are not taking
advantage of our younger peoplethe way we need to.
I know that you know it's kindof a joke among political people
that they said that the oldervoters, while they have been
(21:51):
very important in races andoutcomes, they are actuarially
aging out like departing thevoter world for actuarial
reasons, meaning they're dying.
Ok, so the question is who'scoming up behind us?
(22:13):
And we've got this tremendouspipeline of talent, but they do
need guidance and and we need tobe there for them, but we also
need to empower themno-transcript support, that kind
(22:46):
of support, so that normalwomen can just everyday women
can feel that they can step upand can volunteer and can be
part of a process that makessense for us all that makes
sense for us all.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
And, erica, I really I feel like this is part, you
know, open primaries is part ofwhat we need to do for total
democracy, kind of change andprogress.
It's one piece right.
So we need to do open primaries.
We have a huge gerrymanderingissue in this country.
We have, you know, voterregistration and just voter
apathy.
So this is one part of thepuzzle.
(23:27):
It's a step towards um fixingwhat has become a very
dysfunctional system, but it'snot.
It's not the end answer.
Right, there will be more work,but this is the place that we
feel is the best place to start,especially in Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
You know I'm very vested no pun intended on this
initiative because I listen.
If I had a dollar for everytime somebody would DM me
privately and say how do we fixthis.
I would say this is one way,right, sarah?
It's not going to be the answerto everything, but it's one way
, and I think it's tangible, andI think it's something that can
(24:06):
pass.
But I also want to be able toaddress the naysayers, right,
Like what are people that arenot for this question saying,
and what is your response tothem?
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Well, the first thing we hear is really a
misunderstanding, and I don'tknow if it's an intentional one
or it's just ignorant.
But they say we don't wantnon-Republicans or non-party
members, we don't want thosepeople voting in our primaries.
And if anybody does anyhistorical research on the
primary system, you know thatprimaries, you know that
(24:39):
primaries publicly fundedprimaries were put into place in
order for the public to expresspreference.
They are not the property ofparties and they never were.
So there is a misunderstandingabout who owns the primaries.
I would say it's the public.
(25:00):
You know we're paying for themand they belong to us.
Number two our proposal is afully open primary in which
there would be no more partisan,separate club primary.
(25:21):
The parties can still express apreference, they can have their
meetings, they can do theirnominations.
We love it, go for it, have atit.
But then when we come to vote,we will all have one piece of
paper and we will have all ofthe choices on one piece of
paper.
That is our proposal forOklahoma.
So we know that it works, weknow that it's what the people
want and that's what oursolution is here.
(25:43):
And, like I said, differentsolutions for different states.
I think Texas.
Right now the Republican partythere is attempting to close its
primaries.
Right now it has a semi-open,which means that in Texas you
just register to vote.
You do not align.
You don't register in a partywhen you register vote.
(26:04):
You do not align.
You don't register in a partywhen you register.
You simply register to be avoter and then on the day of the
election you tell them whichballot you want and at that
moment that's who they say youare.
So when they say there are Xnumber of Republicans in Texas,
that is how they're countingthem.
I think our people feel likethat's a little convoluted.
I kind of like the idea of justbeing a registered voter
(26:28):
without committing to a party.
But we're not disrupting thatwith our state question at all.
So we're just hopeful thatOklahoma will be a leader.
We have been told that we are amessage state.
I do think that we have a lotof opportunity to be a leader in
this way and it's going to setthe stage for a lot of other
(26:50):
positive things.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Absolutely, and you know.
I just have to say I'm gladthat you mentioned how primary
how our system is funded,because, as an independent, I
pay taxes and I, you know thosetaxes, some of those taxes fund
primaries, but yet I can'tparticipate in the system unless
, you know, I go and vote for aDemocrat.
(27:13):
I wanted to vote, you know,like many times people have said
, oh, you should just registerRepublican so that you can vote
on primaries because we're inOklahoma, you know, blah, blah,
blah.
And I just refused to do thatbecause that party, I mean
there's no values.
That not not now, the way theparty is currently operating,
(27:35):
there's nothing that appeals tome from that party and in fact I
would feel very dirty as aLatina, as an immigrant, even as
a small business owner, becauseI think one of the things that
that party has done very well isbrand themselves as a party for
business.
But if we were really to breakdown the type of policies that
(27:56):
they put together, they mean bigcorporations, not necessarily
small businesses, but anyway,that's my personal opinion.
But there's many things of whyit is very hard for me to
identify with the RepublicanParty and why, and I also think
it's a Band-Aid solution, right,like it's not really fixing the
system.
Even if I register Republican,it doesn't mean that all of the
(28:19):
disengaged voters or all of thevoters that feel apathy are
going to show up and vote aswell.
So I think it's a Band-Aidsolution.
I'm just curious if you hearthat as well.
And what would you say tosomebody that just counters it
with just register Republican?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Well, it makes me laugh because if we all
registered Republican, if youwalk that thought experiment
forward, then you are describingour proposal.
You would have all voters, oneballot, all those choices on one
piece of paper.
So that actually makes me laugh, and I've heard that for a few
(28:55):
years.
So again, it's kind of amisunderstanding, I think, by
people who want to trap us in abox and are unwilling to
entertain the idea that allvoices matter and that we can
make some decisions forourselves.
(29:16):
Okay, well, let's open it up.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
I'm going to ask the team to help me moderate some of
the lively chat, and then, ofcourse, members can choose to
have the team read some of thequestions or just unmute
yourself and ask them.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
I saw a question in the chat from Monica.
Monica, feel free to unmuteyourself and add anything else,
but she asks is there anyevidence that open primaries
encourage candidates to run indistricts where they might not
otherwise?
This is what Margaret wastalking about at the time when
she asked this question.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
And it's really about , like, reducing the number of
uncontested elections.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Right.
The research shows that wherewe have had fully open primaries
around the country, severaloutcomes have occurred.
Number one a bump in voterparticipation, which we
anticipate.
We currently have 500,000independent voters in Oklahoma.
We need to scoop them in offthe sidelines.
(30:20):
Number two it does producefewer uncontested elections.
It gives candidates a path.
Any candidate can have a path,and the reason why it is, as
Commissioner Osborne can attest,you have just opened the entire
electorate up for thatconstituency, up for fundraising
(30:44):
, door knocking, messaging,volunteering, all of that stuff
of a campaign, whereas right nowthe parties have been totally
controlling that process.
And you know, I'm going to sayhis name because he spoke at one
of our events a couple of yearsago.
(31:04):
But we have a wonderful citycouncilor in Tulsa named Phil
Lakin and he is a greatrepresentative.
I think his last election hegot like 75 or 85 percent of the
vote.
I mean like he has astoundingsuccess when he campaigns.
But he has told me as a youknow old guard kind of Reagan
(31:28):
Republican fan he said, margaret, I will never run for another
office because the city of Tulsaelections are nonpartisan and
he knows that he can walk inthat room and he can hear all
sides.
He can listen to hisconstituents every single one of
them and he can make a decisionthat he thinks reflects common
(31:52):
sense and where his people wantto be.
He said if I ran in a partisansystem at some point, I'm going
to be told to come to a room andthey will close the door and
one person will tell me how I amgoing to vote.
And he said I'm just unwillingto do that.
That is how our system worksright now.
(32:13):
It is a top down system and ithas no interest in the people
and what the people really want.
It's all about the money, right?
So and that is really you knowthen that flows into the
leadership positions what thingsare heard, who's on what
(32:33):
committee, who's not on thatcommittee, because that's where
the money is.
You know, it's reallydisturbing when you get into it
and, as a, as a non-professionalpolitical person, uh, I find it
very, uh, concerning as well.
So, yeah, we're going to, we'regoing to bust that all open and
(32:55):
we're going to give everybodythe same chance, we're going to
give everybody the same rules,and it's going to be, it's going
to be fun, we're all going tohave a good time and the people
will win, in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I'm glad that you're talking about fun, because
oftentimes I think, because ofthe very partisan narrative out
there, people that have notnecessarily engaged in politics
think it's just going to be allthis negative and I'm like no,
you can build community.
I build some of the bestfriendships across the country
(33:28):
with people who have the samevalues as me and we have fun.
You know, whether we're makingcalls or whether we're making a
content or whether we'reattending meetings together,
it's not something that needs tobe think as like a.
You know you're going to bedragging all of your energy.
It could be fun.
It could lead to newrelationships, new friendships.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
We're all about fun.
We have a giant Liberty Bellcostume that volunteers are
going to wear at the Tulsa StateFair, so we you know, that's
kind of one of the things thatMargaret and I have always
talked about.
Like it has to be, we have tohave some fun right, because so
much of it is serious and so youhave to have some
lightheartedness with it.
(34:08):
So if anybody, wants to wearthe Liberty Bell costume and hit
the giant striker and see howstrong they are at the Tulsa
State Fair.
Please come see us.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
And we're also Sarah and I have talked about hosting
a creator happy hour.
We're going to invite creatorsto talk about this and then
together we can figure out howto make content and amplify each
other's messaging, of course,in the state question, so yeah,
I do want to tell you, erica,and all of your members here,
(34:38):
that is the best part of what weare doing with this state
question, which is really just atool.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Ok, this state question 836 is one tool for a
movement that we have createdhere in Oklahoma.
It is a movement that includesevery single person who lives in
our, in our state, and and evensome who are not in our state
are still following us andthey're fans.
(35:06):
So we are doing things verydifferently.
So we don't think that peopledefine themselves personally by
their party registration.
I would say none of us on thisphone call wake up every day and
someone says well, what do youdo?
Well, I'm a Republican.
Let's start with that.
You know we don't do that.
(35:27):
Who are we?
Well, I'm a lawyer, I'm adentist, I'm a plumber, I'm a
community volunteer, I'm astudent.
You know, that's who we are,and so that's how our campaign
is organized.
We are not dividing people up bypartisan affiliation.
We want people to be with thepeople they want to be with, and
(35:48):
so we are just a massiveconnector organization, and that
is what we're doing.
We're trying to find people andconnect them and find a
connection that they want.
It's not what I want them tohave.
It's what connection do youwant to have?
And in this case it might befemale owned businesses, or it
(36:08):
might just be small business ingeneral, or it might be finance.
We have that, we have people.
So you know, that is the funpart about what we're doing is
really, I hope, actualizing whopeople want to be and who they
think they are, instead of somekind of artificial label.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Okay, Jay.
What other questions are weseeing on the chat?
Speaker 4 (36:35):
Yes, Another question I thought was really
interesting from Jo Beth, ournewest Vest member.
Feel free to chime in, Jo Beth,but she asked do you feel open
primaries can somewhat offsetgerrymandering?
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Gerrymandering is so prominent right now.
We obviously havegerrymandering in Oklahoma, have
gerrymandering in Oklahoma.
For some states who alreadyhave an open primary of some
kind, maybe gerrymandering isthe issue that they need to deal
(37:16):
with.
I happen to be a fan of theIndependent Districting
Commission that Katie Fahey puttogether with citizen petition
in Michigan.
It also happens to be thesystem they use in California
and some other states.
I mean, it's around, butOklahoma, we're not really ready
for that.
We need to deal with our mostfundamental problem and that is
(37:40):
voting.
That is, who can vote.
It's even even more specificabout voting.
We need to really start withthat.
So, yes, is it going to changethe landscape in Oklahoma?
Yes, yes, districtingcommission.
(38:01):
I think that we would like toreduce partisan control, or
(38:24):
let's just even say single-partycontrol of a system.
I found it personally shockingwhen I learned that we allow our
elected officials to draw theirown districts.
I just find that very strange.
I wasn't aware that we wereletting them do that.
But again, that's a laterconversation and fortunately,
(38:48):
once we have an open primarysystem, we can have all of those
kinds of conversations.
We can have a lot of seriousconversations in which people
will be forced to listen becauseagain, when it comes back to
election time, they're going tohave to come back and then we
elect them or not and we holdthem accountable and move
(39:23):
forward.
So I do think that it's goingto help with a lot of issues,
including gerrymandering, forsure.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
Leslie, I see you raise your hand.
You want to unmute yourself.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
Yes, I want to give a big shout out to Margaret and
Sarah because they have donejust phenomenal work on this and
all of the things we'rediscussing, from gerrymandering
to other systemic problems, arefixed after this passage Because
as we slowly moderate our state, we'll have the ability to do
(39:56):
more of those things like workon gerrymandering.
State will have the ability todo more of those things like
work on gerrymandering.
Having run two statewidecampaigns and been successful
where I was in a primary runoffwith both, I almost lost both
because most people show up thefirst Tuesday in November and if
we're lucky we get them atprimaries To get them to a
closed primary runoff that theydon't even know the date or
(40:17):
remember unless they watched acommercial and they're usually
at their kid's soccer game andthey don't remember.
So I ran against Sean Robertslast time, who raised $6,000.
I raised $770,000.
I proved and put in commercialsby using Mike Hunter as my ad
hoc or my free attorney that hehad beaten his ex-wife and
(40:38):
children so bad he leftpermanent scarring and I only
beat him in the primary runoffby 6%.
Now fast forward to the generalelection, like three months
later.
I got the most votes of anycandidate in the state, 165,000
more than Kevin Stitt.
And my point is this wheneveryone can vote, people show
(41:03):
up and you get different typeelections.
My friend, april Grace, went toa runoff at the same time and
lost by 6% to Brian Walters.
Without closed primaries shewould have been our state school
superintendent, so just wantedto put out that this is real in
real elections that matter.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Absolutely, and you brought up something that,
margaret, you said before and Ithink it's so true.
I think that part of the voterapathy also comes from what you
just said Leslie or Margaret.
Give me somebody to vote for,leslie or Margaret, give me
somebody to vote for.
And, of course, like Leslie,any race that she runs I'd be
(41:50):
happy to vote for her.
But I feel like so often we'releft with like the lesser of two
evils, or we feel like we'revoting against something, and I
think most people get tired ofthat, right Like, but instead
give us a candidate thateverybody can get behind, that
it's excited, that's talkingabout real issues that affect us
every day.
At the end of the day, most ofus just want to have secure
financial security, we want tohave an ability to provide for
our family.
You know all of those things,and I want a candidate that
(42:14):
talks about that and thatprovides solutions, and I will
rally behind that candidate allday long, regardless of what
political affiliation theybelong to.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
I do think that this helps improve candidate quality
as well, because right now youhave people that would be
excellent legislators.
You know that don't want to bein that kind of hyper-partisan
environment because that's notwhat they're interested in doing
.
They're interested in solvingproblems and helping their
community and they don't want toplay that game.
(42:45):
So I do think when you give youknow people the option to vote
for everybody or to vote for youknow, open it up, then you do
get people that are moreinterested in running, that are
qualified.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Absolutely.
There was a question on thechat, jay, about what is the
timeline on the campaign, and Iknow that Alex answered it there
, but I think it's important forus to put it out there for
those that are going to belistening to this afterwards.
You want to walk us through thetimeline, margaret?
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Yeah.
So this week we received news.
We received two orders from theOklahoma Supreme Court and both
were in our favor, so we'resuper happy about them forward
(43:53):
under the older petition rules,which will help us a lot.
And so we're now in a kind of alittle bit of a pause because
the Secretary of State will haveto set the date for us to start
gathering signatures and we donot control that process.
(44:16):
We think that it'll be aroundthe end of October when we start
gathering signatures and thenwe will have 90 days and it's
kind of an all hands to the deckkind of situation.
So if there's anyone inOklahoma and they are willing to
attend our training, we have todo this in tandem with a
(44:37):
professional signature firm.
So the good news is, even ifyou're willing to gather
signatures, there are two waysto do it.
You can either attend ourtraining and volunteer, or you
can attend training and you canliterally get paid to do it.
But there are some catches.
You'd probably have to get inyour car and go to you know
(44:59):
wherever they want to send youto get these signatures, but
that would be under theirdirection.
So it's a huge effort.
We feel very confident about it.
We've been working on gettingour grassroots support up in
every community around the stateof Oklahoma and we're finding a
lot of people are ready to helpus collect those signatures.
(45:20):
So registering to vote, helpingus get signatures, those are
two key things to do If you'rein Oklahoma.
Drag everybody you know to goget registered and then bring
them to our training.
Then after that there will betime for challenges to those
signatures and the goal is forus to get through all of that.
(45:43):
And then the governor would setus on the November 2026 ballot
and a new education secretary orwhatever.
Whatever that position is, thathe that is held right State
(46:04):
superintendent.
So we'll have all of thosestatewide elections and we will
also be able to express ouropinion about who can vote in
Oklahoma going forward on 8, 8,36.
So we're very excited aboutthat.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Absolutely.
Thank you for sharing that, andAlex is sharing links on where
you can volunteer and when youcan donate, because of course
all of this takes resources andfunding to be able to put
together.
So those links are on the chatand then, for those listening to
the podcast afterwards, we'llinclude those links in the show
notes which you can get atwwwvestorco.
(46:45):
Jay.
Any other questions or Vestmembers?
If you just want to unmuteyourself and ask, now is the
time.
Speaker 4 (46:55):
Nobody wants to unmute themselves.
It's time Nobody wants tounmute themselves.
I had a question from.
We had a question from Kendraand Leslie and Alex talked about
it in the chat, but I thoughtit would.
We thought it'd be good tobring up in conversation as well
.
Kendra asked what are youhearing from Republicans, as you
are talking about openprimaries?
Are you seeing, are you sensinggeneral openness or more
(47:18):
resistance?
What is the biggest hill thatmust be climbed to see success?
Speaker 3 (47:23):
I think one of the good things for us right now is
the Republican Party is highlyfractionated, right.
So they have you have yourtraditional Republicans, your
Reagan Republicans that feellike they've lost their home and
they're looking for how do theyget back to the type of system
where they can govern.
(47:44):
You know, reasonably, the waythat they want to, and so I
think, when you, it's hard forus to lump all Republicans
together in one sense, becausethere are a lot of Republicans
that are supporting this effort.
You know they tend to bebusiness leaders like yourselves
and people that are longtimecommunity supporters and
(48:05):
understand kind of theimportance of having
infrastructure funding, ofsupporting education, of
supporting policies that helpbusiness.
So I think that that's onething to think about.
And then, Margaret, I'll let youtake the second part of that
about kind of what else you'rehearing from Republicans.
We can't let this get, thiscan't be a partisan issue.
(48:26):
If this becomes a partisanissue, we don't win.
So we have to walk.
I know this is kind of a safespace, but we do have to walk
kind of a fine line there.
So that's what I would say onthat.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
I think we're finding a lot of support from moderate
Republicans and even I know thisseems counterintuitive but some
of the older kind of the TeaParty type Republicans, because,
believe it or not, they believein the power of the people and
that's what they were tryingthey thought to express.
(49:02):
20 for me.
We did a strategic plan whichI'm happy to tell you, we are
(49:24):
fucking nailing it on ourstrategic plan.
So pardon my French, but we aredoing great with that.
The first year was research,the second year was listening,
the third year was develop apolicy and the fourth year was
execute.
And here we are and we're righton track.
So I'm delighted with that.
We happen to be a veryRepublican forward group,
(49:47):
because that is kind of who weare in Oklahoma right now.
After we have 836,.
We do think that there's goingto be a big opportunity for
people to redefine themselvesand adjust and seek the group
that really speaks to them, andso I don't know where that's
(50:10):
going to land and I don't reallycare.
I'm just happy everyone isgoing to be able to diffuse a
little bit.
And that is what I'm kind ofthinking about right now is if
you are looking for an off rampfor discord, which cannot be
underestimated these days.
(50:32):
And and when I say discord, Ithink we all know what I'm
talking about.
Like it, it can.
It can really trigger someone ora group and even and and online
it can become so big like awave and and this state question
and in any other state of anyway to literally bring people
(50:56):
together is is going to serve uswell and it's going to reduce
the temperature because,counterintuitively, the way to
reduce that temperature andreduce the vitriol is to let
more people speak.
I think that people have beenreally looking for a way to feel
(51:18):
empowered and a way to feellike that they can exercise
control over themselves andtheir you know, their children
can look forward to living in aworld where they have a say, to
see elected leaders notlistening and that is where we
(51:41):
get so much of our negativeenergy these days, and so we
just need to bust it open andlet everybody in and then have a
conversation, and I really havefaith that the majority of
Oklahomans, as they would in anystate, when you get us all in
the room and you give us thefacts and we all kind of put our
heads together, we're going tocome up with a consensus, like
(52:04):
they do in every city and townthat leads us forward, maybe in
a slightly imperfect way, but ina way that we can all accept.
That is fair.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
I absolutely love everything you just said,
margaret, because I think thatthat's it right.
Right now, very few voices,very radical voices, are driving
the narrative, and it's whyit's so important for each of us
.
The theme of this month, forbest, is to find our voices, and
it can mean different thingsand we're all at different
(52:40):
levels.
Right, like you can start withincremental change.
It doesn't mean that tomorrowyou're going to start being on
social media and talking aboutthese things.
It could mean that you have aconversation.
It could mean that you startadvocating for yourself at work.
It doesn't have to be political,but finding, finding your voice
, learning how to advocate foryourself, for your community,
(53:01):
for the people you love, for thepolicies we feel will create
more equitable work environments, more equitable playing fields
for businesses, for ourcommunities, is just.
But it's going to require us tofigure out where we feel
comfortable, starting and thenfinding community in which we
(53:24):
can, so that because it's alsoheavy, right, we can't.
If we do it alone, we're goingto get tired, we're going to get
burned out.
But figuring out how to buildcommunity support systems around
us and then taking ultimately,this will lead to taking the
control of the narrative.
Call to action on the chat isplease consider donating.
(53:44):
They need to raise more forhiring the position.
This is coming fromCommissioner Osborne, so when
she's ran successful campaigns,definitely let's listen to her.
Any other call to actions,margaret and Sarah, that you
have for us that we haven'tcovered?
Speaker 3 (54:00):
We are looking to try to raise $350,000 from
grassroots supporters forsignature gathering.
Signature gathering alone is$3.5 million, which is just part
of that is because we have avery short window to gather the
$172,000 plus verifiedsignatures.
But also we have some greatvolunteer opportunities.
We need letters to the editorand op-eds, like what you did,
(54:23):
erica.
We do need social mediawarriors.
We need people that will go onand share our stuff and repost,
and you all handle those trolls,because we can't.
So, yeah, we have greatvolunteer opportunities.
We're organizing some webinarsright now that are based on
industry.
So we've got a great one comingup with doctors.
(54:45):
We had a great one with lawyers.
If you have kind of a, you knowone that you think would be
helpful.
We'd love to talk to yourindustry about that.
What am I?
I'm probably forgetting lots.
What am I forgetting, margaret?
Speaker 2 (55:04):
No, we just we are in fundraising mode.
It's been pointed out to me thatwe could have all the great
volunteers you know in the world, but if we don't close the gap
on the petition firm, you knowthat's not going to help us.
So so we have to do it and,again, anyone you can throw our
way for donations or to dosignature gathering.
That's where we are right now,and then we will take the next
(55:27):
step, because I think that thisis like any other task, any
other large project that we areworking on.
You break it down into thesteps, and we have worked
tirelessly for a long time toget to where we are right now.
I really don't want this todisappear.
(55:49):
It is a once-in-a-lifetime,once-in-a-generation opportunity
for our state and again, if wecan win here, you know other
states will find optimism andhope to do some other things for
themselves as well, and we willhelp them because we have
(56:10):
developed this expertise, wehave a phenomenal team and I'm
just saying we're not going tostop with this.
It is where we are right now.
Speaker 1 (56:21):
Love that call to action and love that you're
giving us an opportunity to be apart of this, because I think
how great would it be to changethe narrative in our state right
and to say that we didsomething that could be
replicated in other states, likeyou're saying Well, thank you
so much, sarah and Margaret, forbeing here.
(56:42):
I will definitely.
Right after this call, I willmake sure to sign up as a
volunteer, so count me in andthen I will also make a donation
and the podcast episode will golive for all of people that are
not members to listen to.
Speaker 2 (57:04):
Erica.
I want to say one last thingthat I think is going to
motivate everybody on this call.
Two years ago, Sarah and I satin a meeting and with some other
members of our team, all ofwhom happened to be female and
we were told by a male politicaldude that you know well this
(57:29):
problem, that problem,everything else and then so we
wasted some time talking to this, and then he went his own way,
and we heard later that he toldsomeone else quote the girls are
never going to get this done,the girls are never going to get
(57:50):
this done, and so I just knowhow the world works.
And the women do get it done.
They got it done in myhousehold, and I think they get
it done in your households, andthey got it done here today, and
it is really time for us tostep up.
We have to protect ourselvesand we have to show up, and so I
(58:14):
hope everybody will.
Speaker 1 (58:15):
If you enjoyed this episode, share with a friend and
don't forget to leave us areview.
And if you're ready to takeyour career to the next level,
apply to become a Vest memberand join our community of women
professionals eager to help youget there and stay there.
Go to wwwvestherco to learnmore.
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