A Democratic public relations specialist and Republican attorney are competing in a June 10 special election to represent HD 71, an urban district in Tulsa running along the east side of the Arkansas River.
Amanda Clinton, a Cherokee Nation citizen, became the Democratic nominee after winning a four-candidate primary outright. Beverly Atteberry emerged the winner from a Republican runoff last month.
Although it was once a Republican stronghold, HD 71 leans left these days. Former Democratic Rep. Amanda Swope resigned earlier this year to work for the City of Tulsa, triggering the special election. Rep. Denise Brewer, who proceeded Swope from 2018 to 2022, was also a Democrat.
Asked her pitch to voters going into the general election, Atteberry stressed her legal experience and the need for more attorneys in the Legislature. She also attempted to cast doubt on her opponent’s qualifications.
“Only about 4 to 5 percent of our total Legislature is lawyers. It shouldn’t be 100 percent, of course, but there is no balance in our Legislature right now,” Atteberry said. “And I at least would provide a little bit more balance that my opponent would not provide because she’s not an attorney. She doesn’t know how to read the laws. If somebody else came to her and said, ‘Hey, what does this mean,’ another legislator or something, she doesn’t have the ability to do those things.”
Asked to respond to Atteberry’s claim she does not know how to read laws, Clinton emphasized her familiarity with tribal law.
“My opponent has run for this seat at least three times and lost every race. I’m eager to hand her a fourth L,” Clinton said. “But I’ve spent the better part of my career not only reading laws — which I have extensively — but as the top communications professional for the largest tribe in America and a $4 billion company, I am well versed in reading treaties and legal opinions all the way up to the Supreme Court. I’ve assisted tribal AG’s and attorneys on two U.S. Supreme Court cases.”
Asked her pitch to voters, Clinton stressed her professional and political experience, citing her time working with the Cherokee Nation.
“I am hands down the most experienced person in this race. I was the most experienced in the primary, and I am the most experienced in the general. I have been working in tribal governments for over 20 years,” Clinton said. “I know what a functioning government looks like, and it does not look like the state of Oklahoma.”
‘How good, functioning governments work’
Originally from Blackwell, Atteberry is a graduate of St. Gregory’s University, Oklahoma Baptist University and the University of Tulsa College of Law. After beginning her legal career in the Tulsa Public Defenders Office, she started her own practice in 1997. She ran for HD 71 in 2018 and 2020 and advanced to the Republican runoff in both elections, but this is the first time she has secured her party’s nomination for the general election.
In an interview, Atteberry called herself a consensus builder, citing her experience as the lead attorney with the Tulsa Expungement Expo, marching with teachers in 2018 and serving on the school board for Tulsa Hope Academy. Atteberry criticized her opponent for lacking experience in state government and said Clinton was not being clear on if she had also participated in the state’s protest movements of the past decade.
“They say, ‘Hey, I’ve been involved in government for 20 years.’ I’m not sure what government Amanda has been involved in, besides maybe some stuff with the Cherokee Nation, but I don’t see that she has any real experience in certain types of government stuff,” Atteberry said. “I ask people: Where were you in 2018 when the teachers walked out? Were you helping them? What were you doing in 2020 or anytime?”
Atteberry emphasized her involvement in the district as the primary difference between her and Clinton.
“I think that is the difference between me and Amanda. I’ve done a lot.” Atteberry said. “I don’t just talk about doing stuff, I actually do them.”
In response to Atteberry’s implication she did not attend the 2018 teacher walkout, Clinton provided nearly half a dozen pictures from the 2018 teacher walkout showing she participated.
Clinton was born in Tahlequah and grew up near Rose in Mayes County where she attended Kenwood Elementary and Locust Grove High School. After one year at the University of Oklahoma, she transferred to Oklahoma State University, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree.
She started her journalism career at KTKA in Topeka, Kansas, before quickly returning to Oklahoma to work for KTUL Channel 8. In 2005, she transitioned to public relations and worked for Cherokee Nation Businesses. In 2012, she was promoted to vice president of communications for both the Cherokee Nation and Cherokee Nation Businesses. In 2020, she started an independent consulting firm.
Clinton stressed that her work across all departments at the Cherokee Nation was good experience for the Legislature.
“If you would like to elect someone who has a deep knowledge of how good functioning governments work, I’m your gal,” Clinton said.
‘Always education’: HD 71 special election candidates talk priorities
Clinton said the top priority for Oklahoma is “always education.”
“Education is always top of mind for everyone. I always hear, ‘What can we do about Ryan Walters?’ He is so unpopular, not just among Democrats, but he’s unpopular among Republicans, too,” Clinton said. “So education has to be No. 1 for everyone, even if it’s not the thing that a candidate is most passionate about, it’s what I feel our constituents are passionate about.”
Atteberry also outlined education as one of her priorities, advocating for universal 3-year-old preschool and increasing the exposure of children in public schools to careers by having middle school students take field trips to visit professionals and allowing high school students to intern with businesses as part of their class schedule.
“Not all of the public schools have 3-year-old preschool, but I think all of them should,” Atteberry said. “They should all have 3- and 4-year-old preschool, and I think that is something that we need to be pushing for.”
Atteberry stressed the importance of starting education early, arguing governments used early testing data to plan for future incarcerations. Reading Partners, a national literacy nonprofit, notes the claim is untrue, but concedes a correlation between low test scores and future incarceration.
“The unfortunate reality with education is — and most people don’t realize it — when our kids take their third-grade test scores, the government takes those scores to determine how many prison beds they will need in 20 years, and that’s been going on for the last 30 years,” Atteberry claimed.
Another issue raised by Clinton involved the risks posed by abandoned oil wells under the Arkansas River.
“We have a wave park that gets shut down with some regularity because it’s not safe to get in the water. People have gotten sick from E. coli over at the wave park. We’ve got the refineries along the river,” Clinton said. “We have uncapped wells — dozens or even hundreds of uncapped wells.”
KTUL reported the existence of approximately 50 uncapped oil wells in the Arkansas River between Sand Springs and Bixby in 2024.
Early voting at the Tulsa County Election Board concludes at 6 p.m. today, with polls in HD 71, Owasso’s HD 74 and northeast OKC’s HD 97 open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the Tuesday, June 10, Election Day.
