SHAWNEE — A current county commissioner is competing against a former legislator and tribal chief in the Republican runoff election for Senate District 17, with each saying they would approach their tenure differently than term-limited Sen. Shane Jett.
Former Rep. Justin Wood and current Pottawatomie County District 3 Commissioner Abby Thompson advanced from SD 17’s four-way June 16 Republican primary in an effort to succeed Jett (R-Shawnee), who has been chairman of the hardline conservative Freedom Caucus, which has clashed with Senate Republican leadership in recent years.
“I don’t have any connections with the Freedom Caucus or anything like that,” Wood said. “I love Shane, but my desire is to come in and be effective on day one. I don’t think it’s possible coming in to be effective on day one when I’m not trying to build relationships and have connections with everybody.”
Like Jett, Wood first served in the House — two terms between 2012 and 2015 — before running for the Senate. He is the son of Pottawatomie County Sheriff Freeland Wood, and he advanced to the SD 17 runoff election by receiving 45.3 percent support (4,226 votes) in the June primary.
Finishing second with 18.9 percent support (1,761 votes), Thompson said she is more familiar with county government than state government, but she feels prepared for the learning curves she will face.
“You’ll learn in government very quick, no matter what decision you make, some people are going to like it, and some don’t,” Thompson said. “You’re never going to make everybody happy, but that’s never affected my decision-making skills. I feel like I’m a solution finder.”
Noting that current rhetoric has caused “relational challenges” during his campaign, Wood said some people have tried to pigeonhole him into the Freedom Caucus, likely because of his friendship with Jett.
“The only caucus I’m going to be a part of when I get to the Legislature is the Republican Caucus, and my desire when I get there is to bring people together, not to take them apart,” Wood said. “I don’t think having individual caucuses within the Legislature was helpful when we started doing those sorts of things.”
Thompson was elected as a county commissioner in 2022, following in the steps of her grandfather, who she said was a county commissioner in Lincoln County. She said she initially planned to run for re-election but was approached by others who asked her to run for Senate.
“It was a very hard decision,” Thompson said. “I talked to my husband, and we decided that if I was going to do it, now was a great time, because my daughter is 14, so she’s pretty self-sufficient. So we’re at a point in life where I don’t have to worry about constantly raising her anymore.”
Wood’s political path has also featured tough choices, having campaigned and won election to House District as a 21-year-old. As an 18-year-old, he paged for his predecessor, former House Speaker Kris Steele, an experience that helped spur him to run for office at such a young age.
“You can’t replace being 21 and being elected to state office. It’s an experience that’s unique, for sure,” Wood said. “For me, it was hard to earn respect as a young person.”
Both candidates agreed to interviews ahead of the Aug. 25 runoff election.
Senate District 17 encompasses the majority of Pottawatomie County and parts of Cleveland and Oklahoma counties. The ultimate Republican Party nominee will face Democratic candidate Ed Bolt in the Nov. 3 general election.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25. Early voting is set to take place from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Aug. 20 and 21, as well as from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22.
Thompson: Low teacher salaries a ‘huge problem’
Both SD 17 runoff candidates have ties to the education world and want to improve the state’s educational arena. According to Thompson, many residents have expressed concern over Oklahoma ranking 50th in education.
“I also hear from a lot of superintendents and teachers who are kind of upset with that stigma, because I still think you have many of them who are doing a great job and trying their hardest,” Thompson said. “I think there’s a lot of issues there, but I think in order to find those issues, you shouldn’t be asking me this question. You should be asking your teachers, your superintendents, your school board. Where do they see that the issues are?”
Thompson said she works closely with educators as a county commissioner, building relationships within the district to address issues. According to her, low salaries makes it difficult to retain teachers.
“I’ve sat down with them and asked them their fears and concerns. A lot of it is the salaries (…) you get what you pay for,” Thompson said. “That’s a huge problem, in my opinion. I think that’s where you start. You’re not going to get good quality test scores if you don’t get good quality teachers. And I’m not saying that the teachers that we have now are not qualified.”
Wood, who currently works as the communications director for Tecumseh Public Schools, said education has always been at the heart of what he enjoys doing. During his time as state representative, Wood was vice chairman of a committee on higher education and career tech.
“I was able to really get to know our higher ed institutions. I visited, I think, almost all of them across the state and all of our career techs while I was in office to know them better and find out what their issues were, what they excelled at, what they need help with,” Wood said. “It really hasn’t changed in a decade. It’s pretty much the same issues they had before are the same issues they have now.”
Wood said he worked on education-based legislation during his first tenure in the Legislature, which included supporting a teacher pay raise. He said he has not seen major changes in education over the past decade, and he said higher education needs to find ways to create better outcomes for students.
“There’s so many students that go into higher ed, and they just leave with a bunch of debt, and they don’t actually find a job after. I love our higher ed institutions (…) but we’ve got to find a way to be better stewards of the students that we have there. Career tech is different. Career tech, their only goal is outcome (…) I want higher ed to kind of find that same functionality,” Wood said. “I don’t want to impose on [higher education opportunities] at all, but we all should have the same goals of everyone that leaves college should at least have an opportunity for a job immediately.”
Thompson brought up another concern she has heard from residents: ad valorem rates. She said people need to take a step back and see the big picture before cutting property taxes.
“Trust me, I don’t look forward to paying my property taxes either. But I think you have to take a step back and you have to realize everything that those taxes go to,” Thompson said. “Some of it is your rural fire departments, your schools, your senior centers. It’s very beneficial, so my question is, if the Legislature plans on getting rid of ad valorem taxes, how are they going to recoup those funds?”
Thompson said constituents need to be educated on such decisions before legislators make changes.
“To me, that’s the problem: We open up the world for things to automatically change, but we don’t educate the constituents, we don’t educate the people on what’s behind that,” Thompson said. “I’ve also heard maybe to decrease them for seniors or veterans, and I don’t disagree with that. I’m not sayin that there couldn’t be changes, but you absolutely cannot just get rid of them.”
Wood: DHS needs ‘better oversight and more effective standard’
In an Oct. 9 Facebook post, Wood wrote that Department of Human Services reform is a “major part” of his desire to run, a statement he doubled-down on during an interview in Shawnee.
“We absolutely have to have DHS reform. This is not saying that we don’t have wonderful DHS employees and state employees (…) the problem is that the bureaucracy itself and the agency itself is just too big,” Wood said. “I hope that one of the first pieces of legislation that I run will be to take DHS and break it into multiple departments or agencies — however you want to put it — to allow us to have better oversight and more effective standard of operations.”
From 2019 to 2022, Wood served as principal chief of the Sac and Fox Nation. He resigned from the position about one year before his term was set to end, the reasoning for which was unclear to much of the public. During his interview, Wood explained he resigned early after a being offered a job at Ligonier Ministries based in Florida, which he described as an opportunity where he could be “incredibly effective.”
He said he did not plan to run for re-election as principal chief and that his political profile faced some opposition in the Sac and Fox Nation.
“I was the first [one-eighth] blood quantum ever elected to the tribe, the first Christian ever elected to the tribe, the first Republican ever elected to the tribe. There were a lot of difficult things I had to navigate as chief, but COVID was definitely the most difficult,” Wood said. “Because of all of the differences that I have within the tribe (…) I felt like someone that was closer to them in ideology would probably do a better job leading them.”
Nonetheless, Wood said he supports tribal sovereignty and that his experiences gave him a new understanding of government processes.
“[Tribal sovereignty] is different in [tribes’] unique perspectives and unique situations. But yeah, it probably adjusted my understanding of how difficult it is to be a leader in those situations,” Wood said. “My relationships with state legislators were strengthened through that process. I tried to create a relationship with Gov. Stitt during that time — wasn’t necessarily successful [but] we did try. But it gave me a greater understanding of tribal and state government officials.”
Thompson, meanwhile, has been discussing personal history as well. She was diagnosed with epilepsy in her early 20s, and she said some people have tried to use her diagnosis to discredit her.
“The thing that saddens me the most is that they’ve tried to use that against me, and I just want to prove to people that just because you have a disability, you can still do a great job,” Thompson said. “I’m a very determined person, and I always have been, and so I decided from the get-go I was going to keep trying. I was not going to give up.”
Thompson’s Facebook bio states she has faced the challenges a condition can present. During an interview in Shawnee, she said transportation is one such challenge.
“When I first took office as a county commissioner, I started working with Pogo, which is an organization here in Shawnee. We don’t have a transit system, we don’t have a bus system, and I don’t think that’s right,” Thompson said. “If elected to the state Legislature, [public transit] is definitely something that I would love to work on for people.”
Thompson said she is the best candidate for SD 17 because she has government experience and is a good listener. She said she “saw the difference” her grandfather made in the lives of others and wants to do the same.
“He was one of the first county commissioners in Lincoln County to start working with the tribe and making a big difference, to collaborate,” Thompson said. “I love people, believe it or not, even as county commissioner. When they call you, they’re not very happy, but you also can make such a difference. I just hope to do that, and I hope to take that to the state.”
Wood said he thinks every candidate who ran in the primary election would have done a great job, but he believes he is the best because of his experience and community support.
“Ultimately, you’re responsible for the people that you represent within your district, but you’re also responsible for every single Oklahoman in making sure that they’re protected and that they have access to their government,” Wood said. “You want to make sure that people feel heard, and when people feel heard, they’re more interested in moving forward and not interested in standing still. And I think that’s what we have to do is move forward together.”
