Jo Glenn nearly missed the candidate filing period, which extended Wednesday through Friday last week. Hundreds of candidates visited the state Capitol during those three days to formally file paperwork to run for statewide, congressional, legislative and judicial races.

Glenn is a teacher from Tulsa who taught class in the morning before making the trek to Oklahoma City. She arrived around 4:15 p.m. only to realize she didn’t have all the documents she needed. After a last minute scramble, she successfully filed to run for U.S. Senate.

Oklahoma Watch staff manned the official start of the campaign season, and here’s what Glenn told reporter Paul Monies about why she’s running (and for snippets from many other candidates, see Why Are You Running? Oklahoma Candidates Say Why They’re In The Race):

“I’m a proud Democrat. I am a schoolteacher. And also, I have a law degree and can practice law. I am running because we need to protect democracy in this country. They are carving away, cutting it out, voter suppression, all of those things that they are trying to take away our right to vote and our right to choose our own leaders. I watched and I hoped that the courts would take care of it. I hoped that Congress would take care of it. But no, they’re at the back of it.

“So I’m going to run here. I’m running against Sen. (James) Lankford because he proved on 1/6 that he was a part of the group that wanted to overthrow the government. And I don’t think somebody who’s trying to overthrow the government should sit in the United States Senate.”

Teachers filed in statewide races, too, and five candidates are running for state superintendent (The Oklahoman has more on that race in this story.)

Part of our mission at Oklahoma Watch is to help citizens make informed decisions, especially at the ballot box. So, what stories do you want to see? What questions do you have for candidates? Let me know! Always happy to hear from readers via email or DM.

— Jennifer Palmer

Recommended Reading

• Many have debated the substance of CDC recommendations to schools throughout the pandemic, such as on school reopening and masking. But the agency fell short of a much more straightforward task: communicate clearly and accurately with schools about its guidance and research. [Chalkbeat]
• Property tax protests are at least an $80 million school funding problem. [StateImpact Oklahoma]
• State regulators rejected a proposal for a new virtual charter school because it planned to send more than half its revenue to an Arizona-based private management company. [Tulsa World]

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