Good evening, friends. I write tonight from my familiar leather chair, where the light is steady, the coffee’s strong, and the weight of what’s at stake has me anything but comfortable. There’s a wolf at the door wearing sheep’s clothing, and its name is State Question 836.
For generations, Oklahoma Republicans have honored a clear, disciplined process. Any candidate can file to run in the Republican primary, but only registered Republicans get to decide who advances. We vet every contender against the core tenets of the OKGOP Platform—unapologetically, line by line—and then cast our ballots to select the one who best embodies our principles to carry our banner into the fall fight. We debate, we pray, we vote, and we send forward candidates forged in the fire of conservative principle. SQ 836 wants to smash that forge. It would shove every candidate—Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, you name it—onto one giant primary ballot. Every voter, no matter their registration, gets to pick. The top two finishers, even if both wear the same donkey pin, would square off in November. Sound familiar? It should. It’s the exact system California voters swallowed in June 2010 with Proposition 14.
And what did California get for its trouble? A one-party state. The last time a Republican won statewide office there was 2006—Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steve Poizner, both gone by January 2011. Since then? Crickets. No conservative voice in the governor’s mansion, the attorney general’s office, or either U.S. Senate seat. Conservative voters in the Golden State watched their primaries get swamped by liberal crossovers, watched solid Republicans get drowned out by vote-splitting, watched party labels turn into meaningless stickers anyone can slap on. That’s not theory; that’s fourteen years of hard data.
Last night, while ballots were still being counted across the country, New York City handed its keys to Zohran Mamdani—an avowed democratic socialist and the Big Apple’s first Muslim mayor. President Trump calls him a communist (which in reality, he is); Speaker Johnson called his victory “the biggest win for socialism in U.S. history.” Whatever label sticks, one thing is clear: the same Manhattan and Hollywood money now celebrating Mamdani’s win is the identical cash funneling petitions into Oklahoma to force SQ 836 on us. They aren’t hiding it—they’re bragging about it.
Our primaries aren’t broken. They’re battle-tested. They’ve delivered us governors, senators, and sheriffs who still say grace before supper and mean it. And this isn’t about giving Independents a voice—Independents already have a voice; they chose not to join a party. This is about diluting conservative strength until Oklahoma looks like Sacramento or, God forbid, the new New York: beautiful scenery, bankrupt values.
The time to act is now—before another clipboard hits another parking lot and before Veterans Day dawns next Tuesday, November 11. That sacred day belongs to the men and women who stormed beaches, held lines, and flew missions so we could keep choosing our own leaders instead of having them chosen for us by out-of-state radicals. Honor them by defending the system they fought for.
This is a call to action—when you talk to neighbors, share the California timeline, the facts regarding New York donors, and the simple truth: “Don’t California My Oklahoma. Decline to Sign.” Post it on social media, slip it into church bulletins, text it to your group chats, and pray without ceasing. Station yourselves at petition hot spots—grocery stores, football games, home stores—with a single question for petition circulators: “Why do New York socialists or California liberal extremists get to rewrite Oklahoma’s Constitution?” Link up with your neighbors; turn local resolve into a statewide firewall.
Friends, the petition circulators have ninety days to gather signatures. We have ninety days to stop them cold. I’ve seen Oklahomans rise up before—against forced union dues, against taxpayer-funded abortions, against every scheme that smelled like coastal elitism. We can do it again.
If you’re reading this, please consider this call—grab your neighbor, your deacon, your kid’s coach. Tell them what’s at stake. Then get to work.
Because if we let SQ 836 onto the ballot, we might as well mail the keys to the Capitol to Sacramento and be done with it.
Don’t California my Oklahoma. Decline to sign.
Thank a veteran next Tuesday—and God bless this red-dirt republic.
