Oklahoma tax dollars funding national promotion of State Superintendent Walters

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Update: One day after this story was published, FOX 25 confirmed the resignation of OSDE employee David Martin. OSDE spokesman Dan Isett said Martin's last day is Friday. Isett noted Martin's departure has 'absolutely nothing' to do with our reporting on the state's contract with Vought Strategies, which found Martin's name on the documents registering Vought as an Oklahoma LLC on the final day bids were accepted. Isett also said Martin's name appearing on those documents was the result of a 'clerical error.'

A DC-based firm is pocketing tens of thousands of your tax dollars to promote State Superintendent Ryan Walters on a national stage.

We reported back in November the Oklahoma State Department of Education was looking to hire someone for the job.

FOX 25 collaborated with Oklahoma Watch to dig into the details of this new partnership and find out how your money is being spent.

"You've also posted a job opening for someone who's supposed to manage your national media appearances, have you hired someone for that position?" we asked Walters at a FOX 25 Town Hall on Nov. 13, 2023.

"No," Walters responded.

During that interview, we pushed Walters for details on why Oklahoma taxpayers should foot the bill for him to get more national publicity. He told us then it was about recruiting teachers.

"We have absolutely targeted those folks nationally, and we are going to continue telling Oklahoma's story. We're going to continue to recruit business to Oklahoma," he said. "We're going to recruit the best teachers in the country to come here and teach."

On March 6, 2024, Oklahoma entered into a contract with Vought Strategies.

We collaborated with journalist Jennifer Palmer at Oklahoma Watch to get a copy of that contract to land Walters 10 national bookings a month, write and place op-eds in various publications, and write speeches for Walters.

Documents show we're paying Vought $200 an hour to promote Walters and his agenda.

The initial contract for $30,000 runs through June 30, 2024. However, FOX 25 learned the relationship between Walters and Vought goes back well before this contract started, and even before the job was posted, Vought previously listed Walters as a client online.

We also got our hands on emails showing the firm was doing work promoting Walters as far back as early August of 2023.

The emails from Caroline Woods at Vought were sent to national media outlets pitching Walters for segments to talk about topics including fentanyl and the southern border, his fight against drag queens in the classrooms, PETA, teachers' unions, and certain library books.

Vought also sent out emails to national media about Walters being under attack from "the radical left" after selecting the Libs of TikTok creator to serve on the library advisory committee, and following the death of a non-binary student in Owasso.

It's not clear who was footing the bill for these services before March 6, 2024, the day the contract began.

We've reached out to the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Spokesman Dan Isett tells FOX 25 this contract with Vought was actually an "extension" of a previous contract. However, Isett could not recall the details of when the contract was in place.

We've requested any previous contracts with Vought through an Open Records Request. Isett noted that OSDE is in full compliance with the law in its contract with Vought Strategies.

In our investigation, we also learned there are ties to Vought from inside the Oklahoma Department of Education headquarters.

Vought was registered as an Oklahoma LLC on Nov. 9, 2023, the same day bids closed for the job.

The registering agent on file is one of Walters's staffers at OSDE, David Martin. He was serving as assistant chief operating officer at the time but has since been promoted the senior director of accountability. Martin registered Vought's Oklahoma address as the Oliver Hodge building, the same location as the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

FOX 25 reached out to Vought Strategies to verify their relationship with Walters and to request being added to their mailing list. FOX 25 is, of course, not a national outlet like the ones Vought targets for Walters. We are a local news station. We never heard back.

We'll reveal much more about what we've found during this investigation Wednesday at 9 p.m. on FOX 25. Tune in.