Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt will face a familiar challenger for his 2022 reelection bid after state Superintendent Joy Hofmeister announced her retirement from the Republican Party to run against him as a Democrat.
Hofmeister, 57, has been a longtime Republican and was first elected to her post in 2014. She said her decision was prompted because she believes “Kevin Stitt has hijacked the Republican Party here in Oklahoma.” Hofmeister is a former public school teacher and was elected in 2014 after she won a Republican primary against Janet Barresi and defeated Democrat John Cox in the general election, later being reelected in 2018. She is barred from running again due to term limits.
“With partisanship and ineffective leadership, Governor Stitt is running our state into the ground,” she said in a statement to the Tulsa World, explaining that she is “switching parties in hopes of building the Oklahoma I’ve always known our state can be.”
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Donelle Harder, campaign manager for Stitt, rebuffed Hofmeister’s challenge, claiming that Oklahomans “overwhelmingly” support the Republican governor.
“Under Governor Kevin Stitt’s leadership, the State has increased its funding of public education to historic highs and enacted another teacher pay raise all while lowering taxes and building the State’s largest savings account,” Harder told the Washington Examiner.
Stitt was one of several GOP governors who traveled to South Texas this week, where he toured the U.S.-Mexico border.
I’ve got some big news to share — I’m running for Governor, and I’m running as a Democrat.
Watch this video to learn more about why I’m running, then be sure to chip in any amount you can to help me get this campaign off to a great start! https://t.co/TyHVcUilPB pic.twitter.com/T04OigsBk8
— Joy Hofmeister (@joy4ok) October 7, 2021
Hofmeister oversaw Oklahoma schools at a time when widespread protests and walkouts occurred over teacher pay and school funding. She also broke with four of Stitt’s appointees to the state school board last year over whether to require schools to impose pandemic mask mandates after they voted to make the protocols optional.
“I wouldn’t have churned through four state epidemiologists in the middle of a pandemic,” Hofmeister said. “The policy was that if you ignore reality, somehow it will go away — when leadership mattered in reducing spread. With that strategy, Oklahomans bore the brunt of COVID in their own lives.”
Hofmeister also accused Stitt of committing an “attack on public education” when he ordered an audit of the state Department of Education last month. The superintendent was charged with a felony in 2016, along with four others, on allegations she raised money illegally and coordinated attack ads against Barresi in violation of Oklahoma law. The charges were later dropped.
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Democrat Connie Johnson, Libertarian Natalie Bruno, and Republicans Ervin Yen and Mark Sherwood are also running in the 2022 gubernatorial race.
