This GOP governor could lose in one of the midterms’ biggest upsets: report

Bob Brigham
November 01, 2022

Gov. Kevin Stitt / Gage Skidmore

Republicans are spending big to try and shore up an incumbent governor facing re-election in a reliably red state.

"Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt was supposed to cruise to re-election," Eric Cortellessa reported for Time magazine. "Yet the Republican Governors Association has just released a seven-figure ad buy to help Stitt over the finish line. And prominent Republicans like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas are rushing to his side, as party leaders fear Oklahoma might be the site of one of the biggest upsets of the midterms."

Joy Hofmeister, the superintendent of Oklahoma’s public school system, is the Democratic Party nominee after being a Republican until last year, blunting GOP messages attempting to link her to President Joe Biden.

Stitt has made Hofmeister's job easier.

"The tight race is largely the result of a series of missteps by Stitt, from scandals that have plagued his administration to a bitter feud with Oklahoma’s 39 American Indian tribes," the magazine reported. "Stitt also signed one of the country’s most restrictive abortions bills into law, which has drawn some pushback even in conservative Oklahoma for its banning the procedure in cases of rape, incest and when the mother’s health is at risk. And he oversaw one of America’s highest COVID death rates, with roughly 17,000 lives lost.

The magazine said Stitt loaned his campaign "roughly $1 million" in recent days.

Governor Stitt has hijacked the Republican Party,’ Hofmeister said. “He is pandering to extremism.”

Read the full report.