With Drummond and Mazzei locked in a costly runoff, the Democratic nominee has spent the summer traveling Oklahoma and selling voters on her own message.
NORMAN — While Gentner Drummond and Mike Mazzei have spent the summer fighting over which Republican will face her in November, Cyndi Munson has had the governor’s race largely to herself.
The Democratic nominee has used the opening to travel Oklahoma, talk about schools, healthcare and household economics, and make her case without having to run directly against either Republican.
One morning last week, that campaign brought Munson to the Pink Pig Cafe in Norman, one of three stops on her schedule that day. More than 60 people — retirees, college students and others — packed into the modest shop to hear Munson, ask questions and meet with her one on one afterward.
Outside, the temperature was headed toward 100 degrees by 10 a.m. Inside, it was a comfortable 70. The political heat was somewhere else.
Drummond and Mazzei were entering the closing days of an expensive and increasingly bitter Republican runoff. Munson, meanwhile, spent nearly an hour taking questions about public schools, mental health care, taxes, housing, the minimum wage and the proposed aluminum smelter near Inola.
It is the kind of schedule Munson has been keeping throughout the campaign. After Tuesday, the luxury of campaigning without a single Republican opponent disappears.
Munson repeatedly brought the discussion back to what she sees as the daily pressures facing working families.
On education, she tied her position to her own experience growing up in Lawton. Neither of her parents attended college, she said, and public schools gave her opportunities she otherwise might not have had.
“I’m living, breathing proof of what it looks like when you invest in families and in children,” Munson told the crowd.
She said she opposes using public money for private-school vouchers and supports providing free breakfast and lunch to every child attending an Oklahoma public school. She also argued schools need more counselors, nurses and support staff rather than placing additional responsibilities on classroom teachers.
The questions frequently pulled Munson beyond traditional campaign talking points.
A mother of three children with disabilities asked about special education and potential federal funding reductions. Munson acknowledged that a Democratic governor almost certainly would still have to work with a Republican-controlled Legislature, but said the governor could use the budget and State of the State address to push different priorities.
“I’m not delusional,” she said. “The Republicans will likely still be in charge of the House and the Senate.”
Her answer reflected a political reality that hangs over the campaign even when it is not being discussed directly: No Democrat has won an Oklahoma governor’s race since Brad Henry was reelected in 2006.
Munson also fielded questions about homelessness and housing, drawing on a more personal part of her biography. After her parents divorced, she said, her family spent about eight months staying at one of her father’s co-workers’ homes.
That experience, she said, makes her cautious about judging people struggling with housing or homelessness.
“I take my lived experience in everything I do,” Munson said.
A campaign already looking toward November
Munson secured the Democratic nomination while Republicans were forced into a runoff, giving her weeks to campaign without knowing which Republican she will face Nov. 3.
At the Pink Pig, that meant talking about schools, wages and housing while Drummond and Mazzei continued attacking each other across television, mailboxes and social media. Munson told the crowd she believes Oklahoma politics has become too focused on issues that divide voters rather than the problems they share.
“How can we better understand each other? How can we solve these problems?”
“It’s time that we get back to focusing on those things instead of these issues that keep us at each other’s throats,” she said near the end of the event.
Then the campaign mechanics resumed, with Munson reminding supporters about yard signs, campaign buttons and donations. Her campaign counts down the race in “wake-ups” — the number of mornings remaining before Election Day. At the Norman event, the count was about 75.
Munson became emotional as she looked around the crowded room and thanked those who had shown up.
“I’m just so grateful,” she said.
Tuesday will end the Republican runoff and give Munson something she has not had all summer: a single opponent. It also will end the stretch in which she has been able to campaign without a Republican nominee running directly against her.
That nominee will enter the General Election with Oklahoma’s substantial Republican registration advantage and after a bruising runoff that has already drawn heavy spending. Munson’s answer so far has been to keep traveling.
After the crowd began filing out of the Pink Pig and the morning temperature pushed toward triple digits, Munson still had two more campaign stops ahead.
After Tuesday, some of the political heat moves her way.
