Democrat Jasmine Thomas hopes lived experience will propel her to Oklahoma Senate seat

In an Aug. 25 runoff election, Oklahoma voters will choose the Democratic nominee to replace Markwayne Mullin in the U.S. Senate after his March appointment to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

In the June primary, N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas led the five-way Democratic primary with 45% of the vote, and Jim Priest followed with nearly 24%. State law requires a runoff when no candidate in a primary earns more than half the vote.

The winner of the runoff will face Republican Kevin Hern in the general election in November. Hern has served as the Congressman for Oklahoma’s first district since 2018 and swept the Republican primary in June.

Neither Thomas nor Priest has held elected office before. Priest, a lawyer and nonprofit executive, ran in 2010 to serve as state Attorney General and lost to Republican Scott Pruitt. Thomas is a nurse.

Both candidates would face an uphill battle in November. Oklahoma has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1990, and Hern alone received more votes in the Republican primary than every Democratic candidate combined. President Donald Trump endorsed Hern shortly after Mullin’s cabinet appointment, a decision the New York Times wrote “all but assured” Hern would take the seat.

Hern has also raised significantly more money than either Democratic candidate, including more than $5 million he personally loaned his campaign.

KOSU interviewed Priest and Thomas about how they would approach a race against Hern, their attitudes toward the President and what their priorities would be in Congress. KOSU’s interview with Jim Priest was published Thursday.

Sabrina Thaler, KOSU reporter: Why are you running for Senate?

Jasmine Thomas, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate: I’m running because there has never been any kind of representation on the federal level here in Oklahoma. I have never seen anyone who looked like me, walked like me, talked like me, or who has lived like me in these positions. I have seen countless people who are exactly the opposite of me. And I just thought that it was my time to actually step up.

I have a son with autism. Oklahoma didn’t have the resources for us to be able to give him the ABA, the speech language pathology, the OT, and the Army saved us. And I just thought, well, who’s saving the Oklahomans? So when I went to go look at all of the legislation that was in the Senate or even in the state House. I said, you know what? Like there’s no priorities here. None, zero, zilch. And none that actually benefit the working class. But then one day I just so happened to wake up and see Markwayne Mullin. And I was just like, man, this guy is a real… he’s interesting. Like, what does he actually do? So I just went back and I looked at all of his track record of any legislation that he’s passed and just noticed that none was conducive to the Oklahomans. Everything just benefited him in some odd capacity. But the U.S. Senate was not the first thing that I thought that I would ever run for, for sure, but I’ve always wanted to be a legislator.

Thaler: You don’t have conventional political experience, but what experience of yours do you think makes you qualified to be a Senator?

Thomas: My lived experience. I believe that most public servants… I don’t believe that we should be called politicians, because politicians obviously have a different kind of interest versus a ‘public servant.’ I’m a nurse. I’m an active duty military spouse. I’m an advocate. I’m a mom with a child with special needs. So disability rights has been something that I’ve advocated heavily on. The veterans, VA and also military spouse issues that we face within our community. I’ve advocated on behalf of. And also nurses, nursing unions, making sure that we actually have a lunch, we get paid for the time that we’re on the clock, not being able to take a break because we have so many patients to one nurse. I’ve also done education advocacy, because my son is in a special education class. I’ve done IEP, 504 and the IDEA. It’s all a big cluster of things.

I believe that you don’t necessarily have to have political experience. You have to have that lived experience or else you won’t know how to serve your community at the end of the day. You just won’t, when you’ve never been from, a certain area or you’ve never been having to scrounge up change to eat or trying to figure out where you’re going to get formula from, or sitting in an IEP meeting, or wondering how you’re going to pay certain bills, what kind of workforce you have you’re having to go into because there’s hospitals closing down in rural areas.

Someone’s not prioritizing the people. They’re not prioritizing the people. And that’s just not what we need on a federal level. We need someone who’s going to stand up and who’s going to actually make things change. We need to have someone who can get up there and say, listen, I’ve touched the hands of the rural community, the urban communities, the Black, brown, the disability community. We need people who are actually public servants.

Thaler: Oklahoma hasn’t elected a Democrat to the US Senate since 1990. And the state has also struggled with low voter turnout. In June, less than a quarter of registered voters cast ballots. If you win this coming runoff, how do you plan to reach Republican and independent voters?

Thomas: We ended up shutting the independents out of our voter bloc anyway, and so with closed primaries for our independents who are normally some of our solid voters, it really kind of put that damper. I understand that we have over 200-and-something thousand Democrats that are registered, but the thing is, they needed something to vote for. And that’s why I decided that I would get into this as well. We’ve seen the same people run over and over and over again, and we’ve seen nothing change. So I was out there getting people registered. I was out there getting motivated, activated, feet on the ground.

I can reach across the aisle. I’m not a difficult person. One thing about me is that I’m not a yes-man. I tell people that I’m kind, not nice. Kindness is standing up to the oppressor and saying no when everyone else is saying yes. But being nice is being the yes-man and not going against the grain and taking the path of least resistance.

Thaler: As a senator, how would you translate Oklahomans everyday concerns into federal policy, and what are those policies that you would propose?

Thomas: I have a few policies, and some of them are very detailed, and they’re very centered to the people. We see a lot of issues every day that do not get addressed, because I know that corporations are being put over the people. So one thing that I would make sure of, is I’d codify our civil rights. I think civil rights are super important, and I think when anyone is walking that line where they can just delineate our rights, they need to be codified, 100 percent.

When I get up there, I’m going to make sure that we start funding and putting in the resources into our hospitals, getting their funding for their research, such as cancer, autism or any other, any other health ailment.

My job is to not keep rebuilding onto the cracked foundation that we’re at right now. It’s not. My job is to reconstruct, rebuild. That’s not getting rid of the Constitution. That’s not taking away what the Founding Fathers have done. At the end of the day, the Founding Fathers founded this land of freedom, justice, and the pursuit of happiness, and that’s what we need to get back to. But we can build a better America by actually starting with the people.

Thaler: If you win August’s runoff, you would face Representative Kevin Hern in the general election. He swept the Republican primary, and his campaign has also raised over $9 million. And that includes $5 million of Mr. Hern’s own investments. How do you plan to bridge that gap and face Kevin Hern in the general election?

Thomas: The thing is, we’re seeing a whole new generation of campaigning. I have piloted the online campaigning here in Oklahoma. We’re seeing a new generation of campaigning and we’re seeing that money really doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t. Money is the root of all evil right now. So we’re seeing people, when you reach out to them, you touch them, you actually go into the communities and actually talk with them, you’re seeing their minds change. So even with $9 million, a handshake is worth more than that.

I believe that I can beat Kevin Hern because Kevin Hern has a different type of interest that should not interest anyone who actually cares about Oklahoma. He swept this because of the fact that people know who he is. Our Republican counterparts, even our moderates know — and most of them are actually going to vote blue – they voted for the most extreme to make the Democratic candidate look more appealing and appeasing. But that’s giving us a better strategy that I don’t want to give out too much, because the thing is, I can’t give it away, or else someone else is going to try to take it from me.

Thaler: Representative Hern has been a fierce champion of President Trump, and he received the president’s endorsement in this race. Your potential predecessor, Markwayne Mullin, left his post in the Senate to join President Trump’s cabinet. As a Senator, how would you approach a working relationship with the president?

Thomas: Like I said, I’m kind, not nice. So I will make sure that I work as diligently as I can to make sure that within my first 100 days that we impeach, remove, and convict. They will have to pry that pen out of my cold, dead hands before I go any further with allowing this administration to continue doing what they’re doing. So, I mean, hopefully that’s a good answer. But I am going to remove, impeach, remove and convict. That’s it. Like that’s all. That’s the answer.

And we can take back the Senate. We just have to keep giving people something to vote for, something to look forward to. Because if we don’t do that, our younger generation, that’s who we’re depending on.

We know that our regular voters, the ones that come out every election, can help, but the youth and also our Black and brown communities, they are going to carry this. And also our moderates, I love my moderate Republicans. But our super MAGA Republicans, our job is not to change their mind. We’re not going to switch that. I am very, very well aware of that. It’s just not going to happen. Now, can they have a coming to Jesus? Absolutely. I applaud them for that. And I actually would encourage that. But that’s not going to be our main base. We’re going to actually get our disengaged and apathetic. We’re going to get our younger voters. We’re going to get the people who are against or not wanting to vote or that don’t want to be political because of, you know, certain beliefs that maybe the political system does not actually work for us, it works against us. Well, who can work against us if your voice is casted and you get someone that you believe in? We just have to give the people something to believe in.

Thaler: What makes you different from Jim Priest, your opponent in this race?

Thomas: I’m not a career politician. I am a mom of a son with autism. I am an active duty military spouse that understands what it’s like to organize and to be resourceful, and also who knows how to be very reasonable, because that life is hard. But also, I’m a nurse. I do this caring thing for people daily and we need someone like that. We need people who have lived experiences. And I don’t believe that that’s what Jim has.

No shade to Jim, or maybe all shade, because I cannot fund myself $50,000 to put into my campaign. Right. I cannot even put that into my kids’ accounts right now. I live the same working class life that everyone else does, still to this day. My campaign finances. I beat him by a 21% margin with less than $50,000. And that all came from my community. It came off of my community. But the thing is, I cannot fund my kids’ future tomorrow. But he could step away from this today and fund his grandkids’ future. I cannot rely on leaving this, and just going to kick back and relax and have a great time. I’m going to have to get back to work after this because life is not free. And the thing is, that should not have to be our first thing that we have to think about when we’re trying to be public servants. It should be, ‘Hey, you’ve been campaigning for X amount of time, take two weeks off,’ you know? But no. I have to get right back to work. And that’s something that my opponent does not have to worry about. He does not.

I just want to say, vote for me. I have the grit. I’ve shown the stamina and I’ve shown how hard I work. And I outwork everyone. And if that wasn’t the truth, then I wouldn’t be in this position right now. I am the candidate. I am the girl for this job. And I know that I can beat Kevin Hern because Kevin Hern has already beaten himself.

We don’t need two of the same going against each other. That’s a bore. Let’s live it up for once. Let’s have something that Oklahoma can actually be proud of, but also let Oklahoma finally have some eyes on them outside of Thunder. We can do this. It’s going to be an uphill battle. It’s going to be David and Goliath. But the thing is, David still beat Goliath at the end of the day.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

This article was originally published by KOSU.