A few weeks ago, we told you about unreliable polling reports that showed both the Governor and State Superintendent races to be closer than expected, with Joy Hofmeister trailing Ole' Stitter by only a couple of percentage points and Jena Nelson actually staking a small lead on Ryan Epic-Barresi-Walters.
Since the polling results came from Sooner Poll and Bill Shapard – the Mr. Magoo of Oklahoma pollsters who took $300,000 from the state to slowly count signatures and keep the recreational marijuana state question off the November ballot – we were naturally skeptical, but now we're ready to party like it's drown night at Red Neck Yacht Club!
Yesterday, results from a more reliable polling group – Amber Integrated – echoed the Sooner Poll results, showing that Nelson – a lefty Democrat from OKC – still leads Walters – an anti-woke public school grifter from McAlester – by 5%...
Exclusive polling shows that Democrat Jena Nelson has a 5-point lead over Republican Ryan Walters, the current secretary of education, in the race for Oklahoma's next state superintendent of public instruction.
Among likely voters, a KOCO 5-Amber Integrated poll found that Nelson leads Walters 49% to 44%. The race for state superintendent marks the only one statewide where the Democrat is in the lead...
Seventy-one percent of Republicans support Walters, and 22% support Nelson. Across the aisle, only 8% of Democrats support the Oklahoma education secretary, and 89% support Nelson.
Fifty-seven percent of Independents support Nelson, and 27% support Walters.
The margin of error in the polling is 4.4%. So with the way the race looks now, and if it were to be correct, Nelson could be Oklahoma's next top educator.
That's hysterical.
Could the Oklahoma GOP have possibly picked a worse candidate for this race? Well, Janet Barresi is still out there so I guess the answer is yes, but 22% of Republicans want to vote for Nelson. In a red anti-education utopia like Oklahoma, that's hard to believe.
Seriously, imagine how embarrassing this must be for Walters, Stitt and all their anti-public education right-wing grifters and supporters. The guy is a Republican running for statewide office in Oklahoma during a mid-term election with an unpopular Democratic president holding office, and he's currently losing in polls to an AP English teacher who taught at Classen SAS! I bet that makes Ryan want to run to a girl's high school bathroom, read a banned book and cry!
All that being said...
Even with these new results, if I had to place a bet on the race, I'd still probably go with Walters. Sure, he may be an unabashed grifter who wants to sabotage Oklahoma public education from the inside, but he still has a big R by his name, and I worry that may be too much for undecided Oklahoma voters to resist come Election Day. Kind of like Ryan Walter is on every issue, let's hope I'm wrong.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We'll keep you advised.
