Jenni White for Oklahoma Republican chairman

POST-CONVENTION UPDATE: John Bennett was elected chairman, Shane Jemison was elected vice chairman. The convention reverted to paper ballots, a likelihood that outgoing Tulsa County Chairman Bob Jack, serving as convention credentials committee chairman, had anticipated and had prepared for.

Four candidates have filed to become the next chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party. Incumbent chairman David McLain of Skiatook is not running for re-election. The candidates on tomorrow's ballot at the Oklahoma State GOP Convention are:

• John Bennett from Sallisaw (personal Facebook profile)
• Christine Leeviraphan from Catoosa (personal Facebook profile)
• Charles Ortega from Altus (personal Facebook profile)
• Jenni White from Luther (personal Facebook profile)

Bennett and Ortega are former state representatives, Leeviraphan is chairman of the Rogers County Republican Party.

Personal obligations won't permit me to attend tomorrow's Oklahoma Republican State Convention, but if I could be there, I would cast my ballot for Jenni White. Jenni is a principled conservative, an excellent communicator, and someone with a record of getting things done. Her signature accomplishment was as a leader of the successful effort to end Common Core in Oklahoma, in the face of opposition from the state's education and business establishment.

After the Common Core battle ended, White won a seat on her town's board of trustees in 2017 and was immediately chosen by her colleagues to serve as mayor. In that unpaid role, she provided leadership for a number of town improvements and won praise from Luther officials.

Town Manager Scherrie Pidcock wrote, "She is a problem solver and has worked tirelessly on grants, committees and numerous projects as Mayor of Luther. She is decisive, a person of action, and in my experience, always keeps her word." Kasey Wood, chairman of the Luther Parks Commission, said that White's "accomplishments in 4 years changed the trajectory of the Town of Luther" and that she has "been such a pleasure to work with and always willing to do whatever is needed."

Two of the candidates are former state representatives. Charles Ortega was term-limited this last election; he had a 55% lifetime conservative score from the Oklahoma Constitution newspaper. John Bennett decided not to run for re-election in 2018; he had a 69% cumulative conservative score. Some of my conservative friends are backing Bennett rather than White. I don't doubt his conservative credentials, but he didn't have a record of accomplishment at the State Capitol. It's great to make bold conservative statements on policy, but you also have to be able to persuade your colleagues to vote for your ideas. Jenni White has demonstrated the ability to get legislators to vote for her cause, even though she didn't have the access that a legislator would have.

I anticipate three knocks by supporters of Jenni's opponents: She lost her race for re-election as town trustee earlier this week; she wasn't an enthusiastic Trump supporter from the beginning; and she attended the January 6th rally in Washington in support of election integrity.

Tuesday's Luther town election drew only 80 voters, 37 of whom voted to re-elect Jenni White as trustee. (Four years ago, over 200 voters went to the polls.) Four candidates were on the ballot, and voters could cast a vote for up to three. Jenni made her decision to run for state party chairman after it was too late to take her name off the ballot, and she opted to put her resources into running for state chairman rather than her re-election effort. (If she had been re-elected and then elected state chairman, she would have had to resign her seat as a town trustee.)

Some Lutherites professed to have been offended by her attendance at the January 6th rally in Washington. In this column for The Federalist published before the rally, she recounted her years of political involvement, trying to accomplish change by playing by the rules of the game; the lack of response by judges and state officials to clear evidence of fraud and significant irregularities undercut her belief in the system, and she wanted to stand with her fellow Americans to call for Congress to investigate. After the march, she wrote her first-hand account of the day, far from the violent incidents at the Capitol.

White has been criticized from some Trump fanatics because she was a Ted Cruz supporter in 2016. I don't know of any serious, thoughtful conservative activist who did back Trump during the 2016 primary season. There were plenty of other candidates with a track record of conservative action from which to choose, and there was plenty of reason at that point to doubt the sincerity of Trump's commitment to conservatism and his ability to carry out an effective program of conservative action.

Jenni White has the intelligence, organizational skills, and powers of persuasion to be a successful Oklahoma Republican Party chairman, and I ask my friends at the convention to give her their support.

FOR VICE CHAIRMAN:

Shane Jemison from Wapanucka and David Van Risseghem from Tulsa are the two candidates seeking the vice chairman's office. Jemison is currently serving as State GOP Vice Chairman, having been elected last June to fill the vacancy by the Republican State Committee; he was previously elected by county party officials across eastern Oklahoma to serve as 2nd Congressional District Republican Chairman. Van Risseghem has the soonerpolitics.org website and has served in a number of party offices at the county level. I know David personally, and I know he has great familiarity with the nuts and bolts of the party organization.

MORE:

Jamison Faught expresses his concerns about the plan to use all-electronic voting at the state convention, despite the fact that, unlike last year's conventions, delegates must attend and vote in person.