The Oklahoma State Capital

It’s the closest thing you’ll find to a modern-day founding father: a courageous individual who believes so deeply in the American republic that they will sacrifice their time, fortune, and reputation to expose—and, if possible, defeat—the “Republican” incumbents and their many special interest financiers who cash out for personal gain while undermining the greatest republic in human history.

These are the courageous few who step forward and pledge that, if elected, they will be different. They will not be swept into the Oklahoma City nightlife. They will turn down the gifts and contributions of special interests. They will take the time to read the bills—something most legislators never do—and they will have the courage to vote “no” on the endless stream of bad and unnecessary proposals. They are, in short, the antidote to the poison that is killing our country.

As one might imagine, stepping up to do this requires great courage. All the forces feeding off the taxpayers’ dime will spend thousands to protect the status quo—principally by trying to destroy the reputation of the hardworking challengers who, through sheer effort, put themselves in position to do the near impossible: defeat an establishment candidate.

Most of these courageous candidates will not be successful; but, to them, my advice is this: Never stop. Keep working. In time, in district after district, if you show up in every single election cycle, persistence will break through.

And even if victory doesn’t come on election night, your effort can still spark results greater than you ever imagined.

If a candidate asks me about the second point, I point them to Oklahoma’s ultimate Exhibit A. It is proof that one person, armed only with courage, can take on the odds, face down the darkest forces and darkest minds in Oklahoma politics, and though they may fall short at the ballot box, still make a world of difference.

And this picture tells the story better than words ever could.

Allow me to explain.

In 2022, grassroots candidate Karmin Grider sought to hold the liberal “Republican” incumbent of House District 31 accountable and liberate her district from the control of the special interests.

She didn’t win.

But, as the above picture proves, the people of Oklahoma did.

Here’s the story. That incumbent—perhaps sensing certain defeat at the hands of the determined Grider—bowed out. The establishment and its dark money allies seized the moment, parachuting in a ringer: a polished lawyer with military credentials, deep family roots in the district, and—most importantly—no voting record to expose. The perfect cutout for the special interests: a fresh face with no liabilities, armed with the state’s best consultant, and buoyed by a flood of campaign cash unlike anything the district had ever seen.

Grider didn’t back off. She kept her head down, worked hard, and, running on the “no lobbyist money” platform, took her populist, grassroots, conservative message door-to-door throughout the district.

The forces of darkness, likely guided by consultant-driven polling, recognized the power of Grider’s message. They frenzied and unleashed one of the most vicious, out-of-context attacks I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot—crafted by the state’s darkest political minds. The worst of it, of course, traced back to a mail forwarding store and almost certainly designed to be untraceable.

Despite that opposition, Grider came within just a hair of winning the election. And she did it by spending just a fraction per vote of that of the establishment candidate, the dark money and outside money groups that sought to elect him.

So, while at first glance, on the surface, this was a defeat, made all the more painful by the closeness of the loss, the observant took notice of a fascinating fact: Grider, an ardent opponent of Oklahoma’s massive turnpike system, and the author of the “Free The Turnpikes” plan, a realistic proposals to systematically bring an end to the tyranny of the turnpike system, was the first candidate to expose what until that time had been a little-talked-about house bill that had just passed, flying under the radar: House Bill 1712 sponsored by current candidate for lieutenant governor, Representative Brian Hill, a fact you must remember when his name appears on your ballot next June 15th.

Grider’s campaign succinctly coined the term “Track and Tax” to aptly and succinctly describe Hill’s plan. It’s a term that would spread across the state like wildfire, torturing the establishment politicians who had approved the plan—essentially, the plot to turn every Oklahoma road into a toll road, potentially requiring every Oklahoma motorist to track their miles, and pay a fee to the state for every mile driven.

It was one of several surveillance state proposals, ranging from Real ID, to a medical record-sharing infrastructure, to paving the way for a digital central bank currency, to license plate scanners—all ideas that have met with various levels of legislative success in the McCall/Treat legislative years.

Insiders knew what Track and Tax really meant: Oklahoma would become one of the first red states to charge motorists by the mile, opening the door for the government to regulate how, when, and where we drive. Congestion pricing was likely in the cards—variable rates based on “overuse” of the roads would follow. It was the darkest dream of the bureaucrats: to control the motorist, to shove people onto public transit, and to strip away the privacy of the car—replacing it with commutes packed in beside the drug-addled and dangerous.

Oklahoma made an inviting target for this particular attack due to the fact that it has more center-lane toll miles than just about any other state in the nation.

Grider sounded the alarm like a modern Paul Revere, taking the warning of Track and Tax from door to door: The big-government crowd, drunk on green ideology and chasing their fantasy of 15-minute cities, had set their sights on your automobile. Soon, other grassroots candidates across Oklahoma took up the warning.

Time and again, the establishment “Republican” politicians—though many of them would win their races—potentially had to face the tough question: “Why did you vote for this? And, are you going to vote for the second phase of the plan when it comes back before the legislature?”

In Bartlesville, incumbent Judd Strom took to the local radio station to justify his vote. In Yale, incumbent John Talley, speaking at a public forum, attempted to convince listeners that the plan only applied to electric cars, a complete falsity, and in Grove, incumbent Josh West took the cake with his completely inaccurate description of the plan, which also misled voters into believing the plan only applied to electric vehicles: it didn’t.

A 2022 Facebook post by Josh West attempted to downplay the Track and Tax plan, incorrectly claiming it applied only to electric vehicles. In fact, 91% of participants were gas-powered vehicles. After so adamantly misinforming his constituents, West was re-elected and now holds one of the most powerful positions in House Speaker Kyle Hilbert’s administration.

It worked like this. Phase one called for a voluntary group of motorists to run a simulation of Track and Tax. Their miles were tracked and monitored by the state and included in a glowing report which, as anyone who knows the way the government works, was pushing an agenda not an honest assessment of track and tax. Subsequent phases were set to follow, and, if Oklahoma followed the course of Oregon, the blue state that was toying with the plan, forced participation would soon be on the table for consideration.

A committee of rubber stampers, reportedly signed off on the Phase One report, although the minutes of their final meeting likely aren’t easy to find online. A high-powered marketing firm from out of state did their magic and the local corporate media played their role, promoting the concept—a concept that was driven by the powerful but little-known National Conference of State Legislatures, who are conducting mega junket events by which Oklahoma’s legislators go away to exotic locations to talk about various scary schemes, one of which is Track and Tax.

That marketing campaign—no doubt costing thousands—was designed to convince Oklahomans to accept a future where every road became a toll road. It was hosted at FairMilesOK.com—a site still promoted and linked directly from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s website, to this very day.

And this was supposed to be the year when legislators advanced Phase Two of the plan. But then, shortly before the session began, something strange happened: The transportation special interests suddenly pulled their punch. Despite spending years and thousands of dollars teeing it up, they didn’t even try to move the Phase Two legislation.

What happened?

Some may argue that Trump’s victory was the decisive factor, because it was the Biden administration and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg pushing the plan. Once in office, the Trump administration went after New York City’s congestion charge scheme, and—as in so many other policy areas—their election changed everything for the people and their rights, often in ways the public can only begin to grasp.

However, allow this writer to suggest it’s at least possible that another key factor behind the defeat of the Orwellian plan was the bravery of one well-informed candidate—determined enough to press on despite long odds and unprecedented and relentless opposition from the darkest minds in Oklahoma politics. She just kept going. There’s no doubt in this writer’s mind that the fact that so many politicians were forced to answer for their bad votes made a big difference, and there’s a good chance Phase Two would have been defeated had it been brought forward, even in a non-election year.

Karmin Grider didn’t win in 2022, but because of her bravery, the people of Oklahoma did.

And that fact is best evidenced by a quick visit to FairMilesOK.com. The state bureaucrats were so defeated that they failed to even renew the domain name of a site which no doubt cost thousands of dollars to produce, out dollars, taxpayer dollars. It’s a domain name still linked to by the state but since scooped up by domain pirates, whose marketing prowess benefits from the SEO juice of a high-authority government link courtesy of the State of Oklahoma and the taxpayer dollar. To this day, it stands as a mighty testament to the David who took on a Goliath—and who, though most don’t realize it, won the day.

Are you ready to be brave like Karmin Grider?

It’s just possible that your local incumbent is a Goliath who also needs to be challenged. Notwithstanding the “R” by their name, most are in need of a challenge from a courageous challenger, someone who can hold them accountable for their vote for the latest Orwellian scheme to deprive the people of their hard-won American liberties for which so many others have already sacrificed so much.

In the coming days, The Capital will release its People’s Audit—the authoritative measure of how your representative fared on the 100 worst votes of the session. This audit will not only identify the incumbents who need to be replaced, but also provide the educational tools and campaign messaging needed to properly inform the public about those votes.

If your incumbent ranks low on the audit, then reach out—and let’s talk about finding a David in your district, someone with the courage to challenge Goliath and make a difference for the people of Oklahoma, perhaps, even though they may not win the race, in ways that they may never fully realize.

MORE: State’s Road Fee Website Hijacked by Foreign Gambling Site Domain Pirates.