Democrats rethink strategy after disappointments statewide
Tuesday night there were many disappointments for the democrats across the state as many thought this year was their year to win big.
Gubernatorial candidate Joy Hofmeister lost to incumbent Kevin Stitt by 13.7% a larger margin than Drew Edmondson in 2018 who lost by 12.1%.
Democrats now saying they're reworking strategy.
"Tonight I hope you hear me loud and clear. Oklahoma still belongs to you," said Joy Hofmeister, Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate.
"It's an uphill battle as a democrat it's hard to be a Democrat in Oklahoma the deck is really stacked against you," said Chuck Finocchiaro, OU Associate Director - Carl Albert Center.
Tuesday night was a tough loss for democrats across the state as many thought Hofmeister had a shot to take the highest office in the state.
"It's interesting that you had a former Republican run as a Democratic nominee. I think had Joy Hofmeister done even better than she did this could have been a model that you would see in places across the country. But as you said the reality is she didn't do much different then Drew Edmondson did four years ago," said Finocchiaro.
And with last night's losses, the Democratic party in the state is rethinking strategy going forward.
"What we will do is we will build. We will start building now. We will take what we've learned and use it for 2024. There were a lot of lessons learned last night but there were voices of dissent," said Alicia Andrews, Oklahoma Democratic Party Chair.
But this is a trend across the nation, we're seeing the difficulty of flipping states.
"We've all heard of the polarization of politics but the calcification being that people are just baked in one way or the other. You could have a phenomenal candidate or you could have a candidate who is really a poor candidate. At the end or the day they don't seem to do much differently when the votes are counted," said Finocchiaro.
Finocchiaro tells us across the country it wasn't all bad for democrats.
"I think nationally it was not a bad day for Democrats. I think the Democrats ran better nationwide than some people expected coming into the race. There's slam dunks for Republicans and slam dunks for Democrats. But there's this narrow slice that seems competitive year after year," said Finocchiaro.
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