Sen. Mary Boren and Rep. Trish Ranson named KPG Legislators of the Year

KPG's first-ever legislative scorecard tracked votes on bills spanning four policy areas: animals, the arts and art education, reproductive health, and protecting the initiative petition process.

July 16, 2024‍

After the dust settled on the 2024 legislative session, Kirkpatrick Policy Group got to work tabulating which members agreed with us on the issues we care about the most: animals, the arts and art education, reproductive health, and protecting Oklahoma’s initiative petition process. With a diverse array of policy concerns, we wondered if any state lawmaker would score well across the board. However, once the votes were tallied, two clear winners emerged.

Senator Mary Boren and Representative Trish Ranson are KPG’s legislators of the year.

Ranson tops KPG scorecard

By one percentage point, Ranson scored the highest of any Oklahoma legislator, voting with KPG’s position 97 percent of the time. The Stillwater Democrat who represents House District 34 voted perfectly with our position in the areas of arts and art education, reproductive health, and ballot measure protection. On tracked bills related to animals, Ranson voted with KPG’s position 90 percent of the time. In all, she voted with our position twenty-nine times and voted against our position just once.

“I am thankful to Kirkpatrick Policy Group for recognizing my steadfast commitment to issues pertaining to public education, healthcare access, and equal opportunities for all Oklahomans. I look forward to continuing my work in this space and am comforted knowing that I have an ally in KPG,” Ranson said.

A former elementary school music teacher, Ranson passionately debated against HB 3278, which changes Oklahoma’s high school graduation requirements, removing art education and world language as mandated courses. The bill authors said the new requirements (the bill was passed and signed into law by Governor Kevin Stitt) would promote workforce development. Ranson countered that while workforce development is important, the goal of art education should not necessarily be to create professional artists, but rather art patrons. “My goal in teaching music at the elementary level is that when they grow up and get married, they’re going to be able to dance at their wedding. My goal in teaching them how to read music is so that when they attend their worship service … they know how to read music,” she said. “How do we develop them to be the best humans they can be?”

Ranson also opposed SB 1424 (also signed into law), which offers legal immunity to large poultry corporations when they pollute Oklahoma waterways, so long as they are deemed compliant with waste management plans that are rubber-stamped by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry. KPG vehemently opposed the bill, which we consider a sweetheart deal between the poultry industry and ODAFF, the very government agency tasked with regulating concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), factory farms known to create pollution and miserable living conditions for the animals in their care.

Ranson is currently serving her third term in the Oklahoma House, where she is the Democratic Caucus Chair.

Boren champions KPG issues

In the Senate, Boren became KPG’s top ally, achieving an overall score of 96 percent on our legislative scorecard. The Norman Democrat who represents Senate District 16 voted perfectly with KPG’s position in arts and art education, reproductive health, and ballot measure protection. Her only vote against KPG’s position came on SB 1424, regarding increased penalties for violating the Oklahoma Registered Poultry Feeding Operations Act. In fairness, Boren’s vote in support of SB 1424 came before the bill’s Republican authors substituted language from another bill into it, creating the legal shield for integrators—the massive, out-of-state poultry corporations.

In all, Boren voted with KPG’s position twenty-three times and against our position only once. “What an honor it is to be recognized by the Kirkpatrick Policy Group for my votes to support the arts, arts education, women’s health, and the wellbeing of animals,” Boren said. “Celebrating our successes helps us endure challenging moments and pass on achievements and lessons to the next generation.”

Boren debated against HB 1105 (signed into law), which place more restrictions on Oklahoma’s initiative petition process, chiefly by extending the period for legal challenges to state questions from ten business days to ninety days. The protest periods allow opponents of a particular ballot measure to challenge both the constitutionality of an initiative and the validation of the petition signatures gathered by proponents. State law allows just ninety days to gather the necessary signatures to qualify a measure for the ballot, the shortest period in the nation. Oklahoma’s constitution guarantees the right of people to propose or reject legislation through the initiative petition process.

HB 1105’s Senate author, Senator Julie Daniels, argued that allowing more time to challenge initiative petitions would help ensure that “we’re putting a good product before the voters of the state of Oklahoma.” Daniels also said she listened to political influencers such as the State Chamber and Oklahomans for Life who suggested this change.

Boren pushed back on this notion, arguing that the Legislature—elected by a small percentage of the state’s total population—should not meddle with a process that gives all Oklahoma voters the opportunity to create new laws beneficial to the citizenry. “Politics in Oklahoma does not reflect the majority of Oklahomans. Only 50 percent of Oklahomans are registered to vote. Of those, only 30 percent are actually voting,” she said. “So, this body, what we produce, is really only tied into a very narrow margin of people that are actively voting. The initiative petition is a natural correction to that.”

Boren also opposed HB 1449, the so-called “Women’s Bill of Rights,” a bald-faced piece of legislation that neither protects women nor give them more rights, but rather takes away equal protection under the law for transgender people and could give the government and employers the ability to discriminate based on sex. Boren questioned Senate bill author Senator Jessica Garvin about how the law would be enforced if a biological woman found herself in the position of having to share a public restroom with a trans woman.

Boren was first elected to the Oklahoma Senate in November 2018 and reelected in 2022.

Legislative trends

Overall, Democrats in the House and Senate performed much better on KPG’s first-ever legislative scorecard than Republicans. A nonpartisan, independent political advocacy nonprofit, KPG does not subscribe to any one partisan ideology. The positions we take signify what we think is good policy, regardless of political persuasion.

However, the results of the scorecard indicate that Democrats tended to align more with our values than Republicans. In the Senate, the lowest performing Democrat (Senator Jo Anna Dossett, 83 percent) scored twenty-five points higher than the highest performing Republican (Senator John Haste, 58 percent). The lowest performing Senate member, outgoing Republican Joe Newhouse, voted with KPG’s position just 24 percent of the time. In the House, the lowest performing Democrat (Representative Jason Lowe, 74 percent) scored sixteen points higher than the highest performing Republican (Representative T.J. Marti, 58 percent). The lowest performing House members were Republicans Trey Caldwell and Sherrie Conley, who voted with KPG’s position just 10 percent of the time. 

Methodology

The members were scored on floor votes taken on bills tracked in each of our policy areas. We began counting votes on March 1, 2024, after we had circulated our positions to the members of the Legislature. Missed votes were not counted against a member’s score.

Tracked bills included the following (with KPG’s position in parenthesis):

Animals

· HB 3194 – Water well monitoring, reporting (Support)

· HB 3749 – Prison rodeo fund (Oppose)

· HB 3997 – Coyote cyanide trap limits removed (Oppose)

· HB 4118 – Poultry feeding operations protections (Oppose)

· SB 1273 – Blue River health assessment study fund (Support)

· SB 1424 – Poultry feeder violations, standards (Oppose)

Reproductive Health

· HB 1449 – Women’s Bill of Rights (Oppose)

· HB 3002 – Assault and battery victims, unborn children (Oppose)

· HB 3013 – Abortion-related medicines, felony (Oppose)

· HB 3097 – Internet adult content age verification (Oppose)

· HB 3098 – Felony transmission of STIs (Oppose)

· HB 3214 – Medical Ethics Defense Act (Oppose)

· HB 3329 – Schools must provide free menstrual products (Support)

· SB 458 – Nurse practitioners, physician supervision (Support)

· SB 1386 – OSBI appropriation for sexual assault kits (Support)

· SB 1491 – Expedited partner therapy, STIs (Support)

· SB 1739 – Accredited birthing centers, non-hospital (Support)

· SB 1742 – 12-month contraception coverage, health plans (Support)

· SJR 34 – Repealing the Judicial Nominating Commission (Oppose)

Arts and Arts Education

· HB 3278 – High school graduation requirements adjustments (Oppose)

Ballot Measure Protection

· HB 1105 – Initiative petition adjustments, objections (Oppose)

· SB 518 – Initiative/referendum requirements (Oppose)

We will soon post the full results of our 2024 legislative scorecard. Stay tuned!

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