‘TO THE RIGHT’
Conservative lawmakers unveil Oklahoma Freedom Caucus
A national far-right Republican group said it is launching an affiliate in Oklahoma to analyze public policy for state lawmakers and, the group’s state leader added, to push the nation’s second-most conservative Legislature even further to the right.
Speaking on the south steps of the Capitol, Andrew Roth, the president of the State Freedom Caucus Network, said the new Oklahoma affiliate would provide information about policy and legislation to conservative state lawmakers.
Sen. Shane Jett, the caucus’ state chairman, said his goal was to urge more state lawmakers to “embrace and join a freedom-centered focus of legislation.” “We want to use the principles of the Republican Party, and the values they came here with,” said Jett, of Shawnee. “We’re going to keep moving them to the right, to the right, so back home (the voters) will send us back here with a new mandate: Continue the good work we’re doing, because it reflects their values.”
Jett and Roth were joined at a news conference announcing the group’s launch by a handful of Republican state lawmakers and U.S. Rep. Josh Brecheen, a Republican who represents Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District. Other state lawmakers attending the news conference included Sens. Dusty Deevers, from Elgin, and Dana Prieto, from Tulsa, and Rep. Jim Olsen, of Sallisaw.
Jett said the caucus’ job was to ensure that no one granted the power to govern would ever be allowed to run over those who consent to be governed. Jett said the caucus also would work to “provide meaningful input to our (legislative) colleagues before they make a vote.”
“We are here to make sure that government serves people and doesn’t rule over them. That’s the essence of the Freedom Caucus.”
Sen. Shane Jett
The caucus’ state chairman
“We are here to make sure that government serves people and doesn’t rule over them,” Jett said. “That’s the essence of the Freedom Caucus.”
Known for its disruptive actions on both the state and federal level, the House Freedom Caucus was formed in 2015 by a group of far-right members of Congress and members of the Tea Party movement. The group has continued to support former President Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again movement. The Freedom Caucus also provides funding for congressional candidates through its political action committee, the House Freedom Fund.
“The House Freedom Caucus is the conservative North Star in Washington, D.C.,” Roth, the caucus’ national chairman, said during the Oklahoma event. “But we have 50 swamps in the 50 states, and we needed to bring the Freedom Caucus down to the states.”
Since its founding, the group helped force the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner in the fall of 2015, and was behind the defeat of the GOP-bill, the American Health Care Act and supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Two years after he was ousted, Boehner told Vanity Fair magazine the group sought to destroy. “They can’t tell you what they’re for,” he said. “They can tell you everything they’re against. They’re anarchists. They want total chaos. Tear it all down and start over.”
Jett countered that members of the state caucus would push for a “respectable” dialogue with their colleagues. He refused to say how many state lawmakers were part of the Oklahoma Freedom Caucus. Roth said the organization had a total of 165 members of 12 states, or an average of 14 members in each state.
“We are not disclosing our full membership,” Jett said. “We are disclosing for those behind us and those who chose to disclose. We want to make sure it (the caucus) remains focused policy and not personality and not politics.”
He said keeping the membership secret was necessary because of “freedom of association and freedom of affiliation.”
“The truth is there have been concerns that there may be punitive action against members who have been affiliated with our organization,” Jett said.
Jett predicted Oklahomans would see the caucus’ membership grow as it builds relationships and as members in the House and Senate “look to the group for guidance on policy-based decisions.”
State lawmakers will return to the Capitol this fall for legislative studies, which run through November. The 2025 session of the Oklahoma Legislature will begin in February.