Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of Ryan Walters' reign of terror over Oklahoma public education?
The answer to that question is as murky and poop-colored as Ryan’s eyes, but it’s starting to possibly/maybe/hopefully look like it!
Over the past couple of weeks, Ryan—just like his heroes in the Third Reich—has suddenly found himself fighting a multifront war against a powerful coalition of Oklahoma political rivals that could cost him his job and possibly land him with criminal charges.
For example, storming the beaches just outside the Oliver Hodge building, you have State Rep. Mark McBride—a hardcore Republican so loyal to the oil and gas industry that windmill moguls once installed tracking devices on his car.
McBride chairs the Oklahoma House Education Committee, and following Walters' latest stunt to block schools from receiving security funding, he started uttering the word “impeachment” to the local media.
To take things further, he got 16 of his colleagues to co-sign a Festivus-style letter to House Speaker Charles McCall, airing grievances and begging him to launch an impeachment investigation into Ryan’s “willful neglect of duty or incompetency.”
In today’s age of ultra-partisan politics, where party loyalty seems to matter more than anything else, getting 17 Republican lawmakers to publicly call for an investigation into the activities of a fellow Republican is a pretty big deal and somewhat unprecedented.
But along those lines, it’s also not enough to convince Oklahoma Speaker Charles McCall to go through with it... yet.
McCall issued a statement saying that 51 Republicans need to sign the letter for him to proceed with an impeachment investigation.
This makes some political sense.
If you talk to any Oklahoma political insider, Speaker McCall—along with Attorney General Gentner Drummond, Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell, US Congressman Kevin Hern, and, of course, Ryan Walters—is on the short list of likely GOP candidates for Oklahoma Governor in 2026.
As a result, McCall needs to tread carefully on the Walters issue.
He has to find a way to both pander to the ultra-right-wing MAGA voters (and Walters supporters) who decide Republican primaries and appease the Republican moderates who want to see Walters go, and do all this without wasting the opportunity to politically castrate one of his potential opponents.
Requiring 51 signatures is a decent way to do that.
If McBride gets enough co-signs, McCall can tell right-wing voters that he was just doing his McJob as Oklahoma Speaker, all while scoring brownie points with moderates!
If they don’t get enough signatures, he can tell right-wing voters he helped keep the Bible in Oklahoma public schools.
It's a win-win!
According to Spencer Humphrey, McBride and company are confident they can get the required number of signatures:
Even if McBride fails to gather enough signatures, there’s still another way to get the House to launch an impeachment investigation into Ryan Walters.
This leads to Ryan’s other opponent in his multifront war—Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond.
As we mentioned, Drummond—just like McCall—is rumored to be running for governor of Oklahoma in a couple of years, and it looks like he may finally be ready to shoot down Ryan.
Here’s the background:
Over the past year or so, Ryan and his agency have gone out of their way to try and ignore most Oklahoma open records requests filed by the media, especially the ones that look into all the novel things he and his team of saboteurs have done to try and wreck and destroy the Department of Public Education.
His disregard for these requests and Oklahoma open records laws finally reached the point that Drummond’s office reached out to see what was wrong. Fittingly, Ryan ignored them.
This prompted Drummond to send Ryan one of those mean attorney letters that people send me on occasion.
Via KFOR:
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond sent State Superintendent Ryan Walters a very strongly-worded letter last month demanding Walters and the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) comply with the Open Records Act, after his officer received dozens of complaints. Walters never responded.
You can read the letter here.
Towards the end, Drummond conveniently brought up that Ryan’s blatant disregard for Oklahoma laws could lead to criminal liability:
Although it could only be a threat designed to make Ryan comply, the fact that Drummond is bringing up criminal charges is important.
This is because Speaker McCall has said that one thing that could lead to an impeachment investigation—besides 51 golden Republican signatures—is a crime.
Last fall, House Speaker Charles McCall (R-Atoka) said Walters would have to commit a crime for him to consider impeaching Walters.
“That’s the level of infraction that you have to meet for this body to consider something that strong,” McCall said in September.
So, back to the original question posed in this headline—Are the walls closing in on Ryan Walters?
Weasels like him seem to be adept at getting out of sticky situations, but with the Oklahoma House attacking on one side and the AG’s office advancing from the other, I can’t imagine things are super cheery deep within the OSDE bunkers at the Hodge Building.
You have to admit he did look a bit squeamish in this KOCO interview:
It will be interesting to see what plan Ryan—along with Matt Langston, his weird new attorney, and the Libs of TikTok lady—will try to come up with to get out of this bind.
Will he begin saying McBride and McCall are actually snake people trying to subvert the will of Oklahoma politicians? Will he accuse Gentner Drummond of housing a large collection of forbidden library porn? Or, will he treat this whole thing like it’s a federal grant, open records request, or spouse hooking up with a coffee shop owner, and do absolutely nothing, content to let Oklahoma Public Education fall further into disrepair while he prepares for the next chapter in his life as a PragerU Executive or even—gasp!—US Secretary of Education?
As always, we’ll continue to follow the situation and let you know.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
