Kirkpatrick Policy Group Honors Keating and Osborn

Former governor and current labor commissioner lauded for their exemplary service to Oklahoma.

 September 27, 2023

OKLAHOMA CITY – Surrounded by the historic trappings of Jamil’s Steakhouse – where political deals of bygone days were negotiated over steak dinners, bootleg liquor, and smoky cigars – Kirkpatrick Policy Group honored Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Leslie Osborn and former Governor Frank Keating during its inaugural awards luncheon on September 18, 2023.

The event resembled not the political dealings of years past but rather a celebration, as sunlight filtered through the windows, of two of Oklahoma’s great public servants. The guests – including some of the state’s most influential activists, businesspeople, philanthropists, and political players – cheered as KPG President Christian Keesee introduced Keating and Osborn. “We are honored to have with us today two Oklahomans who have served our state in exemplary fashion and contributed to the political causes we value,” Keesee said.

Keating Protected Oklahoma During 1990s “Hog Wars”

Keating was honored for his work protecting animal well-being and the environment during the “Hog Wars” of the 1990s, when large corporate hog farming operations moved into rural western Oklahoma, polluting the water, air, and land. While governor, Keating appointed a task force to combat the issue, and he called for and signed what became the toughest swine regulation legislation in the nation. Keating served as a state legislator, U.S. attorney, associate U.S. attorney general, and assistant cabinet secretary to presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush before serving two terms as Oklahoma governor from 1995 to 2003.

Rising to accept the honor, Keating said the hog companies brought jobs to the Oklahoma Panhandle and northwest parts of the state, and poultry companies brought jobs to northeastern Oklahoma. The economic boon, however, was overshadowed as the factory farms began turning the surrounding prairie lands and waterways into a “wreck.”

Keating also endorsed State Question 687 in 2002, which finally criminalized cockfighting in Oklahoma, and he opposed State Question 777 in 2016, Right to Farm, saying it would have given foreign-owned and industrialized factory farms blanket protections in the state constitution.

Keating and his wife, Cathy, have raised more than $6 million to send to college the nearly 200 children who lost one or both parents after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. The couple has also been ardent supporters of the arts in Oklahoma.

‍Osborn’s Service Benefits Oklahoma Women

Before being elected Oklahoma’s twentieth labor commissioner in 2018, Osborn spent ten years representing District 47 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. She was the first woman in state history to be named chair of the House Judiciary Committee and the first Republican woman to chair the House Appropriations and Budget Committee. She co-authored landmark worker’s compensation reform legislation and in 2017 was instrumental in passing legislation creating a public-private partnership to move women from incarceration to the Women in Recovery program, an alternative for women facing long prison sentences.

Osborn is a member of Oklahoma First Ladies and has served as the state director of the national group Women in Government. The Oklahoma Commission on the Status of Women gave Osborn the 2019 Kate Barnard Award for her work, as an elected official, in advocating for women.

She also serves as chair of the board of directors for Honestly, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving outcomes for youth by developing and implementing policies to reduce teen pregnancy. Honestly, the backbone organization of the Central Oklahoma Teen Pregnancy Prevention Collaboration, has successfully reduced the teen birth rate in Oklahoma County by 55 percent over the last decade. “Commissioner Osborn is an inspiration to women and men across Oklahoma,” said KPG Secretary Elizabeth Eickman.

Accepting the honor, Osborn said she appreciates the arts and protecting Oklahoma’s ballot measure process, two of KPG’s policy areas. She recently commissioned new public art depicting working Oklahomans to be installed in the labor department’s office building. When the state legislature failed to pass Medicaid expansion, Osborn said the state lost several major medical systems. Oklahoma voters took matters into their own hands, passing State Question 802 in 2020, giving Medicaid eligibility to low-income adults. Only after voters used their constitutionally guaranteed power of direct democracy to pass the issue did the damage begin to be reversed, Osborn said.

She praised Honestly’s teen pregnancy prevention work and stated the importance of protecting reproductive rights for women. “I never thought it possible in our country that my daughter would have less rights than my mother did,” she said.

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