The two Republican candidates in Tuesday’s House District 98 runoff each carries unusual baggage as they try to convince Broken Arrow voters to book their reservation for a stay at the State Capitol.
Rep. Dean Davis (R-Broken Arrow), who did not respond to multiple voicemail requests for an interview before the publication of this article, is seeking his fourth term in office. During his six years as a legislator, he has generated controversy for two separate alcohol-related arrests, each of which he has disputed as captured in audio and video recordings.
Reelected without opposition in 2020 and 2022, the three-term incumbent is facing his first real reelection obstacle.
But challenger Gabe Woolley is not without his own unusual past. Although he is running as a conservative Christian opposed to LGBTQ rights, Woolley also identifies as a former member of the LGBTQ community who openly talks about his experience on his The Oklahoma Lion podcast.
Davis, 51, and Woolley, 29, emerged as the top two vote getters in a three-way Republican primary in June, finishing with 911 and 910 votes respectively. The Republican winner of the Aug. 27 House District 98 runoff will face Democrat Cathy Smythe, an IT consultant, in November.
After second arrest, Davis faces first reelection challenge
Davis, a former teacher and coach at Broken Arrow Public Schools, was first elected in 2018 as part of a wave of teachers elected to the Oklahoma House following that year’s walkout.
Within a year, however, Davis was arrested by the Broken Arrow Police Department for driving under the influence in 2019. As captured in recordings of his phone calls from jail, Davis contacted fellow legislators and even left a voicemail for Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado in a request for special assistance. At one point, Davis told Rep. T.J. Marti (R-Broken Arrow) that the city they represent in the Legislature had made a mistake.
“This is not going to help Broken Arrow at all because they just made an enemy, and that’s not good at all,” Davis said. “You know that.”
Davis — who had a previous DUI arrest from 2010 — pleaded no contest to the charges and apologized, saying: “I will be ensuring this does not happen again.”
Davis was reelected in 2020 and 2022 without opposition, but he was arrested for public intoxication in March 2023 after hours on the patio of a right next to an Oklahoma City police station. After falsely claiming that he could not be arrested because he was a member of the state House of Representatives and session was ongoing, Davis peppered an OKCPD officer with questions and comments while detained in the back of his squad car:
I’m going to time it, and if there is 30 seconds — do you think it was one minute, five minutes, or was it 30 seconds? How long was it? You tell me of how long you got here, when you walked up, what you said, what you did, and then within 30 seconds you grabbed my arm. Because it was 44 seconds. In 44 seconds, what do you think is going to happen? You tell me. So you already made up your mind of what was going to happen, correct? Cause when you walked up, you had an idea of what you were going to do, but you chose the wrong person. Congratulations. This is wrong, 44 seconds dictates what is going to happen right here, right now. Congratulations. Oh my God. This is going to get good. I will sit there with your captain and watch that video in a heartbeat. Open Records Act. I bet you it’s less than two minutes from the time you pulled up to where you put it in, cause you pulled up rolling in hot. Oh, this is going to get really good. And I gave every option, but you didn’t. So I gave the option, you didn’t. Hmm.
He again pleaded no contest to the charge and was censured by the House of Representatives after body camera footage contradicted his House-floor claim that he had done nothing wrong.
The censure barred Davis from committee assignments until he wrote a formal apology letter to be submitted into the permanent legislative record in February 2024. However, hours later, Davis reiterated his initial claim that he was not at fault for the 2023 arrest.
“You know, I don’t feel like I need to apologize when I didn’t do anything wrong,” Davis said.
Davis’ campaign is active on Facebook, where he posts about supporting “traditional values,” cracking down on illegal immigration and cutting taxes.
He has endorsements from outgoing Rep. Kevin McDugle (R-Broken Arrow), Broken Arrow Mayor Debra Wimpee and the third-place candidate in the June 18 GOP primary, J. David Taylor.
Davis, who successfully authored legislation in 2023 authorizing biennial vehicle licensure, told the Tulsa World he does not think Woolley “understands the job.” He also said he wants to expand public school teachers’ insurance plans to include coverage for their children.
Former LGBTQ candidate runs campaign critical of LGBTQ rights
A teacher currently working at a charter school in Tulsa, Gabe Woolley has spent nine years in education. He spent most of his time working in Tulsa Public Schools, but he said he spent a year teaching in Phoenix and another year at Tulsa Honor Academy, a charter school. Outside of his year in Phoenix, Woolley said he has lived most of his life in Broken Arrow.
In an interview, Woolley said his top priority would be increasing support for education in Oklahoma, including expanding school choice, as well as increasing the “accountability” of government agencies.
“I believe that parents should make the choice for how they want their children to be educated,” Woolley said. “I would like there to be a little more accountability over some government agencies (like) DHS (and) childhood services.”
Woolley also works on creating documentaries with Red River Creative Media, such as Saving Clayton, a film about the controversial custody battle involving his nephew. Woolley’s parents, Bill and Lisa Woolley, are well known in the area after years of local coverage of the dispute.
Woolley describes himself as a “former member of the LGBTQ community,” and he calls his experience with same-sex attraction as a “struggle.”
“But ultimately, truth be told at the end of the day, I never necessarily believed it was right. I never necessarily believed it was best for me,” Woolley said. “So really I look at is as I just struggled with it for several years of my life, meaning I’m personally at war with it in my life, and I never accepted it as my truth ultimately.”
Woolley’s stance on his sexuality has elicited controversy and public posts showing his profile on the gay dating app Scruff. Left-leaning critics find his rhetoric on LGBTQ people to be hypocritical, while right-leaning critics find his former identification with the community objectionable.
On several different shows on Rumble, Woolley has appeared on segments arguing that LGBTQ people should not be allowed to adopt children. Asked about the appearances, Woolley said he supports the right of adult LGBTQ people to “cohabitate,” but not their right to adopt children.
“Truth be told, I don’t think that that is in the best interest of the child,” Woolley said. “I think that nature tells us children need a mother and father.”
Asked if parents who want their transgender children to have access to gender-affirming care should have that freedom, Woolley said he “supports the truth” and that transgender advocates are “anti-science” and motivated by “trauma and mental illness.”
“I think there’s a lot of misinformation and disinformation that can go on with a lot of that LGBTQ indoctrination or deviance that are politicized based off of a victim mentality of Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ movements,” Woolley said. “I think the LGBTQ movement has become very anti-family, anti-man, anti-female.”
While avoiding the term “culture war,” Woolley criticized an “ideology” that he said “shifted the culture.” He also said he supported legislatively defining words like “woman,” “man,” “family,” “child,” “biology,” “science” and “what facts are.”
“It’s shifting culture, and everybody has to live in that culture in our society,” Woolley said. “A lot of us that stand on truth and stand in reality don’t want to have to bow down to that type of culture. Change their vocabulary, change their reality, change the way they function in the world off of something that’s not true.”
Woolley said he has endorsements from Tulsa Public Schools Board member E’lena Ashley, Oklahoma Republican Party Vice Chairman Wayne Hill and controversial Tulsa City Councilor Grant Miller.
Asked how he thinks the Oklahoma Legislature should engage with tribal governments, Woolley said he has not followed all of the developments related to the U.S. Supreme Court’s McGirt v. Oklahoma decision in 2020, but he said he believes “Native American tribes are sovereign nations” and wants the Legislature to cooperate with tribes.
