The Republican nominee is promising tax cuts and conservative government. Munson says the race now turns to voters more concerned about schools, healthcare and household costs.
Mike Mazzei and Cyndi Munson began Oklahoma’s General Election for governor Wednesday offering voters sharply different ideas about what the state needs — and about each other.
Mazzei, fresh off a razor-thin Republican runoff victory over Attorney General Gentner Drummond, used his victory speech Tuesday night to promise an aggressive conservative agenda built around eliminating taxes, improving literacy and making the Bible one of the standards he would use in making decisions as governor.
Munson, the Democratic nominee, has spent weeks preparing for either Republican. In an interview with OK Politics Today last week, she said a Mazzei victory would leave him with a different electorate to face after a Republican contest dominated by conservative voters and national politics.
“They are going to have to catch up in less than two months, figuring out how they’re going to shift to the general electorate,” Munson said. “And the general electorate is not in favor of extreme policies or stances. They want problem solving.”
That argument is likely to become central to Munson’s campaign as she tries to overcome Oklahoma’s substantial Republican advantage in statewide elections.
Mazzei showed no indication Tuesday night that he intends to soften the message that carried him through the GOP runoff.
After thanking President Donald Trump for helping him “across the finish line,” Mazzei said he would continue campaigning on making Oklahoma a no-income-tax state, abolishing property taxes for seniors and veterans, launching a statewide literacy program and targeting foreign ownership of Oklahoma land.
He also offered perhaps the clearest description yet of how he would approach governing.
“I will make decisions through three filters,” Mazzei said. “One, the Bible; two, the Constitution; and I’m a money guy, so three, can we afford it?”
Mazzei quickly turned to Munson.
“The Democrat agenda, however, will talk all about socialistic ideas that have repeatedly failed throughout history and are out of touch with the values of Oklahomans,” he said.
He accused Munson of favoring higher taxes and government spending and invoked transgender participation in girls’ sports, saying his Democratic opponent believes “boys should play in girls’ sports.”
Munson bets on working voters
Munson’s argument is considerably different.
When asked last week for her realistic path to victory in a state where Democrats face a steep climb, Munson said she is targeting voters less attached to party labels and more concerned about schools, childcare and paying their bills.
She said some registered Republicans she encounters while campaigning are Republicans largely because they want to participate in GOP primaries or because they have always been registered that way.
“We’re appealing to working people who really aren’t so caught up on partisan politics,” Munson said.
She said Republican voters at some of her events have told her they had never voted for a Democrat but were considering doing so because she had come to their communities.
Munson also plans to make wealth and everyday household finances part of her contrast with Mazzei.
Before Republicans had chosen their nominee, she described both Mazzei and Drummond as multimillionaires who could put millions of dollars of their own money into their campaigns.
“Most Oklahomans can’t do that,” Munson said.
The contrast is particularly pronounced with Mazzei. He has put about $11.6 million of his own money into the race, with candidate loans accounting for nearly $9 of every $10 received by his campaign.
Asked specifically about Mazzei last week, Munson pointed to that financial advantage.
“When you can dump that kind of money and have the backing that you do in your party, understand that that’s just for their party,” she said.
Munson argues her own experience is closer to that of working families. Asked what Oklahoma voters would get from her that they would not get from the Republican candidates, she talked about the pressure of making a household budget work.
“They will have a governor who understands what it’s like to pay bills, what it’s like to get to the end of the month and say, how in the world am I going to stretch this dollar even further to put gas in my car, to buy groceries, to figure out how I’m paying for childcare,” Munson said.
She said she would continue traveling the state and meeting voters rather than significantly changing her strategy because Mazzei won.
“Truly, nothing’s changing,” Munson said when asked what her campaign would look like after the runoff. “I’m gonna keep going.”
Before the Republican nominee was known, Munson also said neither Mazzei nor Drummond would outwork her on the ground. Her concern, she said, was the financial capacity of either Republican to dominate television advertising and the advantage that comes simply from carrying the Republican label in Oklahoma.
Two campaigns draw the contrast
Munson sharpened her criticism after Mazzei’s victory Tuesday night.
In a statement, she called Mazzei the more extreme choice and criticized his positions on public-school funding, private-school subsidies, taxes and rural healthcare. She said she looks forward to debating him on schools, healthcare and rising household costs.
Munson also returned to the personal contrast she had emphasized in the OK Politics Today interview.
“I’m just like you,” she said in the statement. “I work for a living. I pay my student loans, I pay my rent, and I know what it is like to live within a budget.”
Mazzei, meanwhile, showed Tuesday night that he intends to frame the election around conservative values, taxes and opposition to the Democratic agenda. His victory speech repeatedly invoked his Christian faith, credited Trump’s support and thanked Club for Growth President David McIntosh and the organization’s Oklahoma representative for helping his campaign.
The contrast is already taking shape. Mazzei will ask voters to extend Republican control of the governor’s office behind a strongly conservative agenda and the backing of Trump. Munson will try to persuade working-class voters, independents and enough Republicans that everyday economic concerns matter more than the party label.
Mazzei begins with the substantial advantage Republicans have carried into recent Oklahoma statewide elections. Munson begins with a much harder task: building a coalition large enough to overcome it.
The General Election campaign now begins.
