I have now attended four of Rep. Josh Brecheen’s town-hall meetings, including the one in 2023 and the most recent one on August 27 of this year.
It’s never a welcoming environment. This year, as in other years, several uniformed police officers hover over the gathering, either near the entrance or at the back of the room. And for at least the last two years, there is a large sign before you enter the room that indicates that everyone must remain civil.
In other words, Brecheen isn’t expecting people to behave civilly (as they always have behaved in public meetings I’ve attended). He seems to feel he needs police protection from the very people he represents.
Has anyone ever attacked, or threatened to attack, Brecheen at any of his town-hall meetings? No such incident has ever been reported that I’m aware of.
At Brecheen’s town-hall meetings, he typically talks for around 50 minutes, then takes four or five questions, to which he gives long answers. Then he is out the door for his next town-hall meeting.
This time he changed it up a bit. He had someone monitor the time and let him know when he had talked for 20 minutes. Then he took questions. I was hopeful that more time would allow more questions, but it didn’t. Each question asked received a long answer, so in essence it was just a reorganization of his speaking time.
Here is my takeaway from these four events: In 2023, Ukraine was at the beginning of what has turned out to be a very long war after Russia attacked them. I was taken aback by Brecheen’s apparent lack of support for Ukraine. (I wondered, “don’t we support democracies any more?) It was a “rude awakening” that he and other democratic representatives would not support Ukraine, because they were not the ones going to war.
The next year, as an RN I asked him a question about birth control, because in reading Project 2025 (the draconian plan for reorganizing society proposed by far-right-wingers) I understood that the Republicans were advocating severely limiting birth control medications. Brecheen’s answer supported my fears.
Last year, when a female high school teacher asked why it wasn’t a consideration to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to something reasonable that would help people out of poverty, Brecheen answered, “What do you suggest, a million an hour?” What a ridiculous, dismissive retort to a perfectly rational question!
This year, the question that stuck in my mind was about the physical de- struction of a national park in Utah. Brecheen indicated that he wasn’t aware of such a destruction but offered to have his staff obtain more information. But most concerning was that he said President Teddy Roosevelt had established these parks unlawfully. It suggested to me that perhaps he would be unwilling to push back against the current administration’s disregard for our national parks.
Maybe none of these things are concerning to those who read this. But I don’t feel that we can keep doing the same thing and hoping it will get better. In November, I am voting for Brandon Wade, candidate for U.S. Representative in Congressional District 2, someone who respects this great nation and who is “a working class person running to be the voice of the working class,” not the billionaires. I know Brandon and I know he will support my Oklahoma values.
Pat Notley is a retired RN, and is the current chair of the Bryan County Democratic Party.