Why rural Oklahoma needs open primaries

Your Turn

Erika Wright

Guest columnist

When I founded the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition, it was because I believe education is the single most important investment we can make for Oklahoma’s future and for the prosperity and well-being of our families.

I also saw that too often, legislators were being pushed by special interests to prioritize other issues, and when they did consider education, the policies they pursued had little relevance to rural communities. That was true when we started, and sadly, it’s still true today.

But the problem has changed. It’s no longer just out-of-state, monied interests slowing progress. Today, many elected officials are appeasing a small minority of voters who use education as a proxy battlefield for larger 'culture war' fights that have little to do with actual student outcomes in Oklahoma.

I live in Noble. I know parents here have opinions about whether every classroom should have a Bible, or when — if ever — kids should have access to certain books with mature or controversial themes. Reasonable people can disagree on those things. But virtually every parent I talk to is in panic mode about Oklahoma’s educational outcomes, which now rank dead last in the nation.

That ranking isn’t just a number, it’s a warning sign. It means our kids will face steeper challenges, fewer opportunities and dimmer prospects for a prosperous future. And yet too many lawmakers would rather spend time on symbolic cultural fights because those play well to the 5% to 10% of hard-left or hard-right voters who dominate our current primary system. Many of those voters don’t even have children in public schools.

And here’s why that matters: In Oklahoma, the way our elections are set up gives those small, extreme groups enormous influence. Most legislative races are effectively decided in the primary, long before the November election when most people show up to vote. If you’re not registered in the right party — or if your party has no contested primary — you don’t get a meaningful say in who represents you. That means the people who turn out in primaries — often the most ideologically rigid — hold disproportionate power over which candidates make it to November. In rural areas especially, competitive general elections are rare, so if you’re not part of that small, motivated bloc in the dominant party’s primary, your voice is silenced before the campaign even begins.

It’s a bit like having an election for high school class president where only the kids in the chess club get to vote. Chess is great, but those students do not necessarily speak for the band kids, the FFA students, the basketball team or everyone else in the school. Yet their preferences end up being the only ones that count. That’s how our current primary system works — it lets a narrow slice of the population set the agenda for everyone, while the majority of rural Oklahomans are left watching from the sidelines.

State Question 836 offers a path forward. It would create an open primary system where all candidates, regardless of party, appear on the same ballot, and the top two advance to the general election. That means candidates would have to speak to — and be accountable to — a much broader swath of voters, not just the extremes.

If we want real progress on education, we need leaders who focus on outcomes, not distractions. Open primaries would help ensure that those leaders can actually make it to the November ballot — and give rural Oklahoma families the voice they deserve.

We can’t fix our education crisis if we keep letting the loudest fringe dictate the debate. Passing SQ 836 is a necessary first step toward bringing common sense back to Oklahoma politics — and putting our kids’ future first.

Erika Wright is founder/director of Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition.