Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, has taken pains to boost his national profile and get in President Donald Trump’s good graces. It’s made Oklahoma politics awkward in the process.
Intraparty tension had been building throughout Walters’ tenure but finally came to a head when Gov. Kevin Stitt replaced members of the Oklahoma State Board of Education, including Walters’ allies, arguing the committee was too political.
Walters responded by forming a “Trump Advisory Committee,” which he described in a news release as a “DOGE-style education oversight group,” to which he appointed two of the former board members. Stitt later turned up the temperature in a press conference where he accused Walters of “running for another office and trying to get headlines” and criticized his proposal to collect information about students’ immigration status.