I'm Tom Davis and this is our June twenty twenty four primary forum and it's
being brought to you by Phillip sixty six and Who's accused Vintage Mall. It
is now time for our state representatives to take to the stand here today for
our forum, and this is for District to ten. And first off,
we want to hear from our candidates. Are opening Stevens, Chad McCarthy,
you won the drum. Let's hear from you. Introduce yourself. Thank you.
It's a privilege to be here today. Quick introduction. I've been married
for twenty eight years. My wife Heather, and my son may be here.
My youngest son, so married for twenty years, father to six children.
We currently live on a farm outside of Dewey, Oklahoma. Most of
my life has been spending Christian ministry, church planting, doing missionary work.
During that time, I also built half a dozen businesses in order to support
us during Christian Ministry, built and sold. So I've got some quite a
bit of business experience. I haven't earned masters and PhD. I'm currently an
interim pastor Whipperwell in Osh County, and so I just want to be clear
where I'm coming from my biblical worldview. I clearly unequivocally confess the Creator's right
to guide our lives. I'm a conservative by conviction and as such, and
as such let me reflect on the Oklahoma GOP platform. As Republicans, we
believe our rights of life, liberty, and property are natural rights granted to
us by God, protected by the Constitution, to be defended by our elected
officials, even during a declared emergency. We believe that God is the author
and creator of life, and that all human life, both born and in
the womb, should be protected. We believe that economic freedom is the cornerstone
of individual liberty. The private sector and free market principles are the best means
to stimulate economic development, not government programs. It is the right of every
parent to act in their children's best interests, including the health decisions and choosing
the form of education, whether at private or public schools, or education by
other means. By this of conviction, I would say, representing you as
a representative in host district Keen is not about fixing potholes, economic development,
or service not primarily. That is the job of the free market or the
county commissioners. As we heard from earlier. We're not a socialist or a
top down government. We are a constitutional republic, and so therefore, supporting
and protecting your rights as citizens will be my primary responsibility if elected. Now,
the Republican Party requires the candidate support the GOP platform in order to receive
GOP support. I have read and marked that platform. I have a copy
with me today. It's spread out in front of me. I have marked
and read up the platform. You will hear me cite section and page number
this evening. This platform represents the belief that we as Republicans hold dear.
The platform truly does represent conservative biblical values, and I will proudly stand with
the GOP platform and will fight to protect, to protect and defend these values.
On your behalf. Thank you very much, Juhn Trump. Yes,
sir, turned for opening remarks. Thank you. I have to apologize.
I'm somewhere between a sneeze and a cough going here. I am Judge Strom.
I have I live right now where I came just about a mile from
where I came home from the hospital too. So I spent my entire life
in District ten. I went to Bowering School, I went to Openha State
University. My family and everyone I've growing up with, we're very service oriented.
We're very community oriented. I tell people, you know, my dad's
been the president of Bowery School Board for forty five years. My grandpa helped
build the water district. My dad and my family we helped build the rural
fire department up there and we've served on it. I've actually been a firefighter
for thirty years. I was a certified firefighter before I had a driver's license.
And that's really what stemmed on of One of my direct was to move
me towards government then, was we were having trouble out in the rural areas
iss so much a District ten was getting what we needed to help those communities.
The rural fire departments, the rural water departments, a lot of those
came apart as federal government programs, and when those went away at the state
level, we didn't have the help we needed. And so that's where I
went in. One of the things I say is I appreciate people that live
on a platform. I also have a kind of a little different platform that
I exist on. But one of the reasons I ran I ran against a
guy that was a great man. He was a family man, He was
a loving man. He was a very intelligent man. He came from a
great family and everything. But his entire philosophy for governance came from a platform
that I didn't think aligned with the majority or the overwhelming majority of the people
of District ten. Kind of an alternative idea to my opponent, I suppose,
was that we did want good roads, we did want good bridges,
we did want good schools. We were tired of being a left behind the
cities. We wanted those opportunities out here. And I wanted to see what
I could do. I wanted to go to work at the state level to
see what I could do to help my community. And in the six years
I've been in this position, I have spent four of those years in leadership,
and I'm very proud of the job we've done and the resources we've brought
back to District ten and the job we've been able to do. And a
lot of that has been even relinquishing some of that power from the state and
giving that back to the counties, given that back to the cities, bringing
that back to local control, which is a big party platform thing. So
I'm proud of that job. I appreciate and I'm proud of the six years
I've served. I'm honored to serve the people for six great years, and
I would like to serve for two more at least. Our first question goes
to dud Strom water conservation, water protection and even perhaps finding new sources of
water. Big issue in our part of Oklahoma as it grows. From the
position of state representative, what can you do to protect our interest in these
efforts and what can be done in your position proactively. I think in the
last two years, three years especially, we have been very proactive. You
know, I have a great friend that's represented from lot and I used to
send them snapchats of all the water fallen off in the watershed lakes and said,
this is what we do with our extra water. Well that come back
and bit me. In the last few years as we did face droughts,
we worked very hard with the Okamororo Water Board or the Water Resources Board to
get the things we need to keep the water going. But we've we've worked
since then to look to the future. And you have to have a plan,
you have to do studies, you have to know what we need to
do. When that comes around again. We've looked at raising the levels on
the lakes that we do have where our water sources are. We've looked at
pipelines that run to other lakes and water sources. We've looked you creating new
lakes for water sources. I don't know if you'd say it's lucky or not,
but Bartlesville was built with the water source that was adequate and we haven't
grown much past that. But that's in good years. When you have years
like we had the last two years or three years, when we were in
the worst drought that we've ever faced, not only were our lakes down,
but our aquifers were down, Our ponds were down, with led to problems
with livestock and livestock watering, and we hit that head on. We created
the drought Commission. We came in and I think that my district or District
ten, really got the most help from that commission that any other district did.
We drilled wells, we cleaned out ponds, we cleaned out waterways,
and luckily we got about twenty five inches of rain over the next winter and
springtime. So what we have to do now is we have to make sure
that we have alternatives that allow for that to never happen again. The situation
we were in last year, and we have worked on that problem for three
years, and we will continue to work on that problem. Same question to
you, mister McCarthy. What conservation with water and protection and perhaps even finding
new sources of water big issues of course here in Oklahoma. But from the
position of state representative, what can you do to protect our interest in these
efforts? And what could be done from your position proactively? So as I've
been knocking doors and speaking with county commissioners around District ten, one of the
comments that's come up in a number of situations has been the inefficiencies of our
water lines. And I don't remember exactly which part of Noada County, but
there are areas of Noada County where, in order to save money, water
lines were put in. My wife can tell you. At our home,
we have a motto and then, which is do it right the first time
and just do it once. And in order to save money, they used
water lines that were not appropriate for rocky ground. And now not long after
the water lines have been put in, they're losing upwards of fifty percent of
the water. It's catastrophic for the people of Noada County, especially in areas
where they're where they don't have as much revenue coming in. So on practical
you know, practically speaking, we can address issues such as waterloo if necessary,
try and find funding to put new water lines in and see if we
can be efficient. In addition to, as Representative Strong mentioned, look at
issues such as raising water levels and on the lakes. So all right,
mister McCarthy, this question is for you. House built forty three to twenty
seven. It's a bill that effectively ended surgical abortion in Oklahoma. Where do
you stand on that? Well, I appreciate you raising that question. On
page two of the ok GOP platform, it says this. It says,
we believe that children are a special gift from God and their safety and protection
are paramount. We have a responsibility to protect children. Elsewhere we read that
on page three, page three, number three, it says we believe that
intentional abortion is a contrary to the word of God and its murder. The
incumbent voted again against H forty three twenty seven, a bill which would have
which would have effectively ended surgical abortion. I stand I stand against all forms
of abortion. Abortion is murder and we should have nothing to do with it,
period. Mister Strong, same question to you. House Bill forty three
twenty seven, a bill that effectively ended surgical abortion in Oklahoma. Where do
you stand on that? Well, I voted against it. I'll tell you
why. When Rovertsus Way felt and we knew that was coming, Oklahoma immediately
reverted back to a nineteen to ten bill that made giving or providing an abortion
of felony and made it illegal in the state of Oklahoma. That happened as
soon as Rover Versus Way felt. We've had several options. In my six
years, I've voted every year, seems on some bill, and I voted
for every bill that would limit or end abortions, everything that's come up.
But the problem I had with House Bill forty three twenty seven was that that
civil and criminal line that got crossed in our criminal justice system, or in
our legal system in most of the United States, and certainly in Oklahoma.
You offend the state, you affect your neighbor. So if you offend the
state, you're guilty of a misdemeanor, a felony, You're punished. You
affect your neighbor, which is civil law. You back over the fence,
you owe me twelve hundred dollars, you run into my car, you owe
me something. But we don't cross that line to say you did something that
I'm offended by. I consume you and it has to go to court.
A judge would throw that out. So if that doesn't affect you, So
with I didn't believe that it was going to actually end abortion. I did
believe it was also probably unconstitutional because of discussions we had where every other person
in the House of Representatives said, well, we can't possibly vote against that.
That's an abortion bill. You can't do that. I said I can,
and it's because I'm not up here to stand on to be a show
voter or show people at home what I can do. I'm up here to
do real work. And I think that while this has a great title,
it has a great name, it's very popular, I think it will do
more damage to our legal system than it would do good. And I really
I didn't think even then I was right. It came back in both sides
of it were found to be unconstitutional and then therefore unenforceable. So there's a
fine out there. There's a not a fine out there, there's a punishment
out there that's not really attached to any other law. And so again,
when roverts is well fed, Roe versus Way fell, we reverted back to
a nineteen ten bill that made it a felony to provide an abortion in the
state of Oklahoma. Next question is to you, mister Strump, do you
agree or disagree with using taxpayer dollars for economic development instead of allowing the free
market to function. You are absolutely right that I agree with taxpayer funding to
create businesses or to help to create jobs. But the problem that has to
be is it has to be a strategic and it has to be a good
investment. We can look at those we can look at the path and see
what failed or what worked. Sometimes we need a boost. And I'll tell
you this, if we want to bring big businesses in that have great jobs,
that have high wages, that keep our kids that have grown up here
and gone to school here in Oklahoma, we have to try to help that
come along. We can move along slowly and hope the market works. But
maybe the market works in Oklahoma City, but it doesn't work in Tulsa.
Maybe it works in Tulsa, but it doesn't work in Bartlesville, and we
don't do what we used to do, which is just write you a check
and hope that you come here and do a good job. Right now,
what we do in Oklahoma's we have a quality jobs program. You have to
prove that you have created a certain number of jobs ad or above the regional
pay and keep those jobs for a certain time for a certain amount of time,
and then we will reward you back. But in the end, we
actually become the winners, not only because we keep our kids here in Oklahoma
and bring great people in here that are high way journers, but we set
ourselves up for the long term kind of the business begets business idea that comes
about everything brings the feeder businesses in. So I think if we can use
that money to strategically invest it, and then the return on our investment is,
you know, more jobs, more taxpayers, will have the opportunity in
the future to have more taxpayers paying fewer taxes. And I think just almost
everyone in this room would appreciate that same question. Do you, mister McCarthy,
do you agree or do you disagree with using taxpayer dollars for economic development
instead of allowing the free market to function. That's an excellent question. Again,
I'm going to refer to the Oklahoma GOP platform, and I want to
be clear, You're going to hear me over and over tonight. Refer to
the platforms because I believe the platform represents the values of the Oklahoma Republicans and
states. We believe that Oklahoma's efforts to attract industry should be grounded upon the
establishment of favorable and friendly economic climate rather than upon tax and government subsidy.
I'm running on a platform of taking no lobbyist money for the simple fact that
lobbyists by politicians, and this creates a doom loop. The encumbent supported HB
forty four to fifty five, which gave a whopping six hundred and ninety eight
million dollars to an unnamed corporation. This is this is systemic corruption. It's
legal, it's legal corruption, but it's systemic corruption. Whereby our legislatures make
special laws. Now, how do they get around this. They make special
laws by not naming the corporation, but they make it so narrow that only
one corporation can meet can meet those qualifications. These special laws then result in
donations, and this is how a large majority of our politicians get elected.
It's corrupt. We shouldn't do it. It's forbidden, it's forbidden by the
constitution, and it's against the platform. The free market is the best solution.
Our next question involves money again, and this goes to you, mister
McCarthy. Now that the state has quote billions in savings, should the taxpayers
be entitled to some sort of refund. That's an excellent question. But two
and a half years ago, the Biden administration passed a one trillion dollar infrastructure
bill. This infrastructure bill is pretty amazing, and there are hundreds of millions
of dollars, if my memory is correct, that were allotted to the building
of electric charger stations. Two years into this process, how many charging stations
were built? I think that I think the number was zero. Now we're
two and a half years into it. I think it's seven hundreds, hundreds
of millions of dollars and we have seven charging stations. Governments are corrupt because
of the lobbyist. The lobbyist tie with politicians. But at the end of
the day, sorry, can you repeat the question. Now that the state
has billions in savings billions of dollars. Should tax payers being titled to some
sort of refund? Sorry got off track. We need to produce spending because
COVID Sorry I didn't answer that. Well, COVID has resulted in hundreds of
millions of dollars in federal money coming to coming to the state. That's going
to come to an end. Combined with Social Security hitting a wall in twenty
thirty to thirty three, our budgets can to radically change. We need to
change how we spend money. Okay, same question to you, mister Stroump.
The state now has billions and savings. Should the taxpayers be entitled to
some sort of refund? Absolutely, We've worked on that. Now we need
to look at it. And again I keep using the same word, but
I think it's how a lot of us down there think. Now we need
to do strategically and carefully. You know this last year they passed the largest
tax cut in the history of the state of Oklahoma. And I'm gonna I'm
gonna be really honest with you that I didn't like it and voted against it.
I voted for thirteen other tax cuts. But the problem was they said
it was going to be a three hundred million dollar tax cut when they took
your sales tax off of your groceries. The problem with that was the very
no definition meant that only about ten percent of the food that you bought was
considered groceries. So when they were telling you you were going to make three
hundred dollars a year back, according to the Oklahoma Grocery Association, you were
going to get thirty dollars a year back. But I was there to vote
on the bill that fixed it, that come back and made the definition food
and food ingredients, so more of your grocery card you would save taxes on.
Now, the problem that we have is or something that I'm cautious about,
is something that my opponent brought up, which is a lot of monopoly
money's been dropped in this state over the last four or five years since COVID,
billions of dollars. Those were all went to shovel ready jobs. Those
put people to work, that brought an income tax, and in twenty twenty
five and into twenty twenty six, that money's all going away. So we
need to be careful because I don't want to put this state back into a
position where they were in twenty eighteen, where we were a billion dollars in
the hole and scratching for what we could cut and get rid of. I
think that in the six years I've been there, we've worked to provide the
services that people expected and the services that people want, and so I don't
want to cut that back. I want to make it more effective and more
efficient. But when it comes to tax cuts or getting a refund back,
there are so many different options that you could do. I mean, I
don't We've looked at writing a check back to people. In the time that
I have been there, we have cut income tax, we've cut franchise tax,
we've cut a marriage penalty tax, and now we've cut the grocery tax.
So we are looking at that and saying we are ahead. And I
think people do want to pay lesson taxes and I'm willing to work on that.
Mister Stroud, what is your stance on school choice? I have been
very firm and I'm one of those that kind of stands out I think in
the Capitol, in my party. In the in District ten, there are
sixteen rural public school districts. I have no private schools. I think I
do have thirty four kids that go go to private schools. But every dollar
we send on private schools leaves my district. And I don't think the overwhelming
majority of people want to see dollars leaving their district for education. They want
those dollars spent right here in District ten. And So, while I love
private schools, and I live right next door to some wonderful private schools that
we have here in Bartlesville, I love homeschool and I know a lot of
I mean some of my family and some of my best friends, and some
people that are here I think do a wonderful job at homeschools. But I
think that we should keep government dollars out of private schools and out of home
schools, because as soon as you start to spend tax payer dollars on those
entities, you become accountable to the Oklahoma taxpayer. And year after year,
election after election, and rule making or lawmaking year after law making year.
We have said that we want to test our kids. We have said that
we want four levels of math. We've said we want four levels of science.
We've said we want so much English. We have made those rules because
that is what taxpayers wanted. I don't think people that have their kids in
private school or people that are teaching their kids at home want the government or
the tax payers telling them how to educate their kids. And so as far
as the scholarships for private schools or the money going into home schools, I
think we should keep public dollars in public schools. All right, same question
to you, mister McCarthy, what is your stance on school choice Again,
I'm going to refer to the Oklahoma platforms. You GOP platform. It's the
right of every parent to act in their child's best interest, including health decisions,
choosing the form of education, whether at a private or public school,
or education by their means. It seems to me that the concern for most
Oklahomas comes down to the issue of government intervention, money and government intervention.
On page eight page eight point four, the Oklahoma platform says this, we
oppose government expansion and control by the use of public tax dollars to fund and
interfere with private forms of education. If I'm elected, one of my primary
responsibilities will be to protect your rights as citizens of Oklahoma. I'm firmly convinced
by conviction that the government should not interfere with private education the incumbent. The
incumbents supported. I believe he authored bill HB thirty five to eighty five,
which if it had passed, it did not it would have interfered with parntal
rights. And so I stand with the people of Oklahoma and the platform that
government should not interfere with private forms of education, whether public or private.
Our next question goes to you, mister McCarthy. The state of Louisiana is
passing vaccine status related protection legislation? Would you support something like this? And
if a pandemic were to occur again, would you vote to require masks in
public buildings? Sorry? Can can you read that once more? Yes?
This came in from a listener, so I'm trying my best owner stand as
well. Louisiana is passing a vaccine status related protection legislation. Would you support
something like this? And if a pandemic were to occur again, would you
vote to require masks in public buildings? I would unequivocally stand against masks in
public buildings. We had this question last night at the Washington County Forum.
The incumbent was surprised to learn that many people had been fired from the hospital
here in town, one of them, which was my wife. Yes,
my wife was fired for not taking an untested gene therapy. In hindsight,
I'm so thankful that she did not. As a nurse who works in labor
and delivery delivery, she can tell you she could talk to you for an
hour about the terrible health issues anecdotally. She's not a research scientist, but
anecdotally that she's seeing as a nurse with twenty, I don't know, almost
thirty years of nursing history. I'm going to stand against vaccine mandates without reservation.
It is the role of government to protect individual rights against business overreach the
other way around. Same question to you, mister Stroum. Louisiana is passing
a vaccine status related protection senseral legislation. Would you support something like this?
And if a pandemic were to ever occur again, such as COVID nineteen,
would you vote to require masks in public buildings vaccine status related legislation? It
sounds for me like Louisiana is trying to be more like the state of Oklahoma.
We have a great system here in the state of Oklahoma, for the
people, for our workers, for the you know our kids at school,
when you go out in public, we have exemptions that are in place the
kids can have that people can have for the most part. One thing I
will say again is when the pandemic came the last time, there were no
state laws made, There were no state mass mandates made. We didn't we
I think I was the second person in the capitol down there with another colleague,
and we said, it's very important that we don't destroy what we have
for one thing, the whole past, future, and a lot of what
you saw during COVID in the state of Oklahoma came down to a money deal,
the same as in our hospital. We didn't say you have to do
this. What happened was the CMS rules from the federal government said if you
don't do this, you don't get money. Well, our hospital would have
closed down if they didn't follow those rules. And I worked through the pandemic
from my kitchen table, which was after we got kicked out of the capitol,
and I worked every day with the hospital. I was in touch with
people every day, and we heard all the stories about people getting fired from
Jane Phillips and Bartlesville. But every day people told me we haven't fired anybody
because they didn't take a vaccine. We've tried to move people, we switched
schedules, we've moved people working from home and every day. That's what they
reported to me. So that's what I stand by. And you know,
we don't know what's coming in the future. We've got to be able to
be on the ball and move depending on what needs to happen. But again,
I think Oklahoma did a great job. We came out of the pandemic
better than anybody else. We come out with a stronger economy than anybody else.
We went back to work faster than anybody else. And a lot of
what you saw were your big businesses that were holding on. But I'll remind
you that any rules we made wouldn't it just been for the big companies.
They would have been for the other the ninety nine percent of our companies,
which are small businesses, and there's three hundred and fifty thousand of them,
and they didn't want rules imposed on them by the state, and we didn't
make any so they were allowed to do what they wanted during the pandemic,
and I respect that. Our question now is to you, mister Strom,
would you support something that's called track and tax if it comes up for a
vote in the next latest slative session. You know, one of my favorite
things to come out of the Capitol when you get home and you hear things
that are just described in terrible ways track and tax, you know, And
I've heard that I support track and tax, and I want to track every
mile that you drive, and I want to know where your car's at.
And it's some more Wallian thing that I'm trying to do. I'll be straight
with you right now. Your roads and bridges are paid for with gas tack
and a diesel tax. Their nineteen cents a gallon for gasoline and nineteen cents
a gallon for diesel, and that's how we pay for our roads and bridges.
But in twenty twenty one, thirty of the new cars that come into
the state of Oklahoma where electric or high hybrid, they're not paying their share.
By twenty fifty, the gas standards are forty nine miles per gallon or
better for passenger vehicles is what they have to be. So what's gonna happen
in fifty years. It's gonna get more expensive to build our roads and we're
gonna be taking in less revenue to build our roads and bridges. So right
now, the state of Oklahoma said, we need to be thinking about what
are we gonna do in twenty thirty five, What are we gonna do in
twenty forty, What are we gonna do by the time we get to twenty
fifty. And I think it's important that maybe we do a study. We
did. It was the Roads or the Drive Study or whatever they come up
with, weird acronyms at the Capitol all the time. It started in twenty
two, it ended in twenty twenty three, and there was a full report.
You can see it on the see it on the internet at the dot
dot website. And I think it was a smart thing to do. Do
I want to be tracked, Absolutely not do most of my friends and family
want to be tracked. I don't believe so. But I also don't want
to be the guy out here in my fourteen mile agallon that are paying for
everyone else's roads and bridges that all be driven by heavier electric cars more electric
cars. You know, if we're gonna look into hydrogen, we're also gonna
have to figure out how do we look into hydrogen or is there a different
battery technology we're gonna have to do. I think it was very smart to
do that study now, because in the future we're gonna have to make decisions,
and I don't want to make decisions in a dumb way. I want
the facts. I want to know what's up. We didn't have info from
anywhere else, so we went out and found those facts ourselves. I'm proud
of the study. I'm glad we did it, and I'm glad we'll be
able to meet that problem head on. When it gets to to you,
mister McCarthy, would you support so called track and tax if it comes up
for a vote in the next legislative session. I would not. I think
it's important to look at the world and society in which we live, both
globally and here inside the United States. The World Economic Forum is discussing or
making statements that we'll own nothing and be happy. They are actively talking about
desiring to get rid of all private ownership of vehicles here in the United States.
Locally, we have multiple states that are introducing legislation that would begin as
a voluntary program that once it's passed. We're now seeing in other states a
move to make these same types of legislation move from a voluntary to a mandatory
law. Other states have talked about putting in a flat rate per day with
respect to how many miles that are driven. As a business owner, I've
owned multiple businesses, I've started multiple businesses. I can tell you this idea,
this idea that politicians think we're going to be mostly electric cars by twenty
fifty is a pipe dream. All you have to do is look at our
electric grid. We don't have the electric grid. You only have to look
at silver to realize that we don't produce enough silver to make the connections and
life vehicles. We could go on and on, look at rare earth minerals
who owned some earth minerals China does. We are an oil based state.
We are to pursue energy independence. We should celebrate the fact that we have
such God given abundance of resources and find better solutions while we can know to
track and tax. More importantly, let's protect all of our rights, not
just the right to travel. Alrighty, it's time now for closing comments.
We'll start off with mister judds. Trump. Thanks, sir. I think
the most important thing I said that I said earlier, which is I've absolutely
been honored to serve you for the last six years. I love my community,
I love my neighbors. My family's all here, my friends are all
here, and I think we've worked. I've had the opportunity to work really
for them every single day. And when I say every single day, I'm
not kidding. In this job, your phone starts ringing about six thirty in
the morning and it quits about eleven eleven thirty, and then it just buzzes
and you kind of ignored a little bit. But it's all day. It's
every day, and I've loved the opportunity to do it. There's not one
moment that I've regretted doing it. I have served in leadership for four years
and I'll continue in that position. I am the chair of General Government on
a budget committee, and I've had the opportunity to really, i think,
move this state forward in a better way. We've seen this state and the
time that I've been in office go from having a billion dollars shortfall to hav
an over four and a half billion dollars in savings. I've had the opportunity
in that to vote for over four point seven billion dollars worth of tax cuts,
we've had the opportunity to make strategic investments in our education. Since I've
been there, We've given over one point two billion dollars to our public schools
and improve those I just I'm proud of the work that I've been able to
do when I was down there, and every time I thought, you know,
it'd be a lot easier just to come home to the most beautiful place
in the world and raise, you know, look after my black cows and
go a little wild or relax a little more or something like that, I
think I can't because I don't trust anyone to do the job that I've done
when I was down there. I've just I really appreciate all the people that
I've had the opportunity to serve that Like I said, they really they call,
and they text, and they email, and they and they write,
and they come in and every day. I think it's just been an honor
to be able to work for them, and I would appreciate the opportunity to
continue to do that. I think we're on a great path for the first
time in many years. I said, since the nineteen hundreds the other day,
and it really made me feel old we've turned this state around as far
as brain drain. Braindrain is your kids that you spend twenty years educating and
then they pick up and leave the state. If they want to be successful,
if they want to be happy, they think they have to go somewhere
else. I said when I was running, it was important to me that
I wanted you to be able to get a good job and have a good
life here. I wanted your kids to have a good job life here,
and I didn't want their kids to ever wanted to leave. I wanted to
be able to find it right here. And I think strategic investments we've made
in workforce development and education, in science and technology and aeronautics and even terism
have really moved this state forward. And I'm proud to have been a part
of that. And I just I don't see yet that I'm ready to give
up that opportunity to keep helping because there are a lot of great people in
the House of Representatives and in the Senate. Don't tell the Senator I said
that, but they're really doing great things and I'm proud to be a part
of it. And I would appreciate your opportunity and your support on June eighteenth
to give me the opportunity to continue what we're doing. Thank you and your
closing statement, mister McCarthy. It's been a privilege to sit across from the
incumbent both last night and this evening. One thing I appreciate about Incumbent Strom
is his honesty. So often politicians are duplicitous, They say one thing and
they do another. I feel that Strom has been very honest, and I
appreciate that. One thing that he has pointed out, and I'll remind you,
is we are presenting two different perspectives. I do come from a biblical
worldview. I do clearly, I do clearly confess without any shame or reservation,
the Creator's right to guide our life. So when you've seen me reference
the Oak, the Oklahoma GOP platform over and over both yesterday evening, if
you were there, and this evening, it's because I believe, I truly
believe, as a matter of conviction, not not the not the politics solves
everything. But I believe, as a matter of conviction that standing up for
the rights of life, liberty, and property, the belief that these are
natural rights granted by God, I believe these are worth protecting I believe that
family rights, parents rights. I think these are more important than than than
than government interventionism. I think that we should be a bottom up country,
where a constitutional republic. And I believe that the primary responsibility of an elected
official is to protect the rights of the citizens, and if elected, this
will be my primary responsibility. Unashamedly stand on the Republican platform. I'd like
to remind you that the Republican platform, specifically the Oklahoma Republican platform, this
isn't something that I wrote. This is something that you wrote. We the
people of Oklahoma, we got together as Republicans, and these are the values
that together we decided these are the values that matter to us. And I
appreciate Stromp's honesty. He's told you yesterday, he told you again today.
They're not his values, at least not consistently. I stand on the platform,
and i'd like to defend your rights given the opportunity to elect you that
if you would elect me to be your representative, appreciate your vote on June
eighteenth. Thank you, Thank you both candidates. You've been watching and listening
our District ten form and I want to thank both of our participants tonight,
ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for being here at the Bartlesville
City Chambers. Pretty much a full house, maybe one or two vacant seats,
that's okay. We have plenty of watchers on our K one TV,
also on Radio one A fourteen hundred FM, ninety three point three and ninety
five point one. We want to thank our sponsors, Phillip sixty six and
Susie Q's Vintage Mall. We also want to remind everyone that we do have
our campaign corner page. You can review all kinds of interviews with our candidates
in this forum. Will also be a podcast form on that page on our
website at Bartlesville Radio dot com. We do have our early voting coming up
on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, fourth floor upstairs, and also our traditional
election day which will be on Tuesday at the eighteenth. Once again, thank
you all for coming, thank you all for watching, thank you all for
listening. Make sure you vote. Make sure you tell your friends to vote,
because sometimes they forget. How could they? Thank you? Once again,
You've been wonderful. Thank you