NOBLE — As voters in the most rural parts of Cleveland County prepare to elect someone new to State Senate District 15 for the first time in more than a decade, Democrat Elizabeth Foreman and Republican Lisa Standridge have clashed over funding for public libraries and the school-choice tax credit created by the Oklahoma Legislature in 2023.
In their campaigns to succeed term-limited Sen. Rob Standridge (R-Norman), both women participated in an Oct. 12 forum hosted by the Noble Public Schools Foundation to offer their differing goals for the state. While topics varied, the candidates clashed over funding for public libraries: Foreman said they must be “protected at all costs,” while Standridge questioned Norman’s need for multiple libraries.
Both candidates expressed support for Pike Off OTA, a group formed to oppose turnpike expansion around east Norman. While Standridge said the turnpike issue itself is nonpartisan, she argued that she would be more likely to get one of the group’s proposed bills heard because she would be a member of the Senate’s majority party. Foreman challenged the success of the current Senate Republican majority, of which Standridge’s husband has been a member for 12 years.
“Just to reiterate, it was February of 2022 when we found out about the turnpike, and since February of 2022, the Republican Party has been the majority party and has yet to move on any legislation to help with that,” Foreman said.
The Nov. 5 general election will mark Foreman’s first time on the SD 15 ballot, while Standridge spent the summer defeating five other Republican candidates, but not without a challenge of the election results.
Robert Keyes, Standridge’s Republican runoff opponent in the Aug. runoff, alleged regularities in the results by questioning whether a member of Standridge’s team improperly notarized absentee ballots and whether State Election Board totals differed from the State Election Data Warehouse. While Keyes, Standridge and the State Election Board agreed to terms for a dismissal of the allegations, Keyes sought to modify the order to force additional findings of fact and conclusions. That motion, however, was dismissed at the end of an Oct. 7 hearing in Cleveland County District Court.
Candidates discuss prioritizing SD 15 constituents over party
During the Oct. 10 forum in Noble, Foreman referenced her experience as a city councilor to illustrate how she can represent constituents with differing political views. Foreman joined the Norman City Council in July 2020, weeks after a controversial vote passed to redirect a planned increase in the police department budget.
“That was a very divisive time for the city of Norman. It ripped us in two, there were a lot of recalls, and it was very disruptive to try to get business done within the city. So any votes that had to do with police were very, very contentious, and when it came to refunding the police, I refunded the police. We had to readopt that budget that defunded them, and I voted against it, knowing that my party would not like it, but listening to my constituents and what they wanted,” Foreman said. “Then, in November of 2023, we had the vote for the BearCat for the City of Norman, and my party would not want me to approve it. And I was the swing vote because, three weeks prior to that vote, my ward needed a BearCat. We had a situation where someone was shooting into homes, and public safety came first. And I listened to my constituents, and I know that within my own party it was not popular, but public safety and protecting the residents was doing the right thing.”
Standridge also cited her professional experience as a pharmacist to explain how she would represent voters, although she took a different tone than her stance in a Republican runoff debate when she emphasized sticking to her guns and that “you must pick a side” at the Capitol.
“I am a good listener, and what makes me a good listener is because I’m a pharmacist. I’m an employer, I listen to my employees, I listen to patients. One of my jobs is to counsel patients on medications that they receive, so I have to ask a lot of questions, and I have to interpret those answers so I can better understand them. I’m a good listener inherently. I’m approachable,” Standridge said. “I am not somebody that is going to say, ‘It’s my way or the highway.’ I understand there’s two sides to every coin, and I like to investigate that. That’s why I like to surround myself with people that know both points of view, so I think that also is a way that you can trust me to legislate for you. Also, I want you to understand one thing about me, and that is that I am a Republican, but I am running for the state of Oklahoma. Before I cast a vote or make a decision on any kind of issue, I want you to know that I am going to ask myself, ‘Is this what’s best for the state?’ not for party.”
Asked during the forum about ways to curtail Oklahoma’s large number of emergency teacher certifications, Standridge pointed to merit pay as a strategy for teacher retention.
“Unfortunately, I believe there is a place for the emergency certifications. We’re looking at a teacher shortage. We have to do what we have to do. But let me tell you about how I think that we can keep the good teachers that we have, because I am impressed with the wonderful teachers we have here in Cleveland County, and I’ll go further to say that I think they’re the very best in the state. But we have to keep them, we have to keep them from burning out, and I think the way to do that is with merit pay,” Standridge said. “Again, I have employees, and if you have a perfect employee who is on time, a go-getter, they’re going to do stuff on their own, nothing’s going to burn them out and make them feel less than what they are than paying a person who’s quietly quitting the same amount. So I believe that if we can pay teachers based on their merit, based on their job performance — that’s what’s done in private sector — I think we can see an improvement in our schools.”
Foreman said the issue needs to be addressed at its root cause by funding education properly.
“Before I get into what to do, I want to not undermine the work that our emergency certified teachers are doing. I know a lot of them, and they are very passionate about their students, and they work very hard, and they love it,” Foreman said. “I’m thankful we have the opportunity to put people into schools to do that. (…) We need to pay them appropriately.”
The candidates proposed different solutions for schools when faced with challenging students. Foreman said schools need to be filled with trained counselors to support students with behavioral issues while Standridge said the Legislature should back schools up in disciplinary measures and mentioned school choice as an option.
Standridge: ‘Three libraries? I’m not so sure’
When asked about maintaining the library system as a resource for the public, Foreman voiced her full support.
“I’m a huge fan of public libraries. I’m sure, as most of you know, in the city of Norman, our big new $40 million library is closed indefinitely. The earliest it will probably open again is 2027. It’s probably going to take $15 to $20 million to remediate and settle all the issues and reopen it, and that is devastating to me. When they cleared out enough mold, they suited us up, and they took us through the library. The day they found mold, everybody left,” Foreman said. “So there are bags of chips still open, it looked like the apocalypse happened, the rapture — everybody went up. And it was very sad to see all of these books, three floors just untouched, because families go there, children, this is where kids learn to read. They have programs where they can do things. People who don’t have home internet who are low income, they go there to get on the internet to apply for jobs. Public libraries touch the lives of so many people, and we need to protect this resource at all costs.”
Standridge questioned the value of investing taxpayer dollars into multiple libraries for Norman, a city of about 130,000 people.
“Libraries are great for cities, especially those that might not have internet, or resources. But does Norman need two libraries? Three libraries? I’m not so sure. Do we need an eastside (library) and westside (library)? Is that money that could have been spent somewhere else, somewhere more efficiently? Maybe so. I don’t care what the budget is, I’m going to look at it and make sure we’re using the funds appropriately. Our taxpayer funds are precious, and quite frankly, the more that we can save the more we can give back to those taxpayers,” Standridge said. “Right now, I’m seeing some libraries have drag queens coming in talking to children. That’s absolutely insane, it’s not appropriate, and it’s not something I like my tax dollars paying for. I’m always looking at every budget — not just libraries — for any program that could be improved and streamlined so we can have the most efficient use of our taxpayer dollars.”
Foreman: ‘Undo the tax credit’
Asked after the Oct. 10 forum whether there were any other issues they consider priorities in the SD 15 race, both candidates offered brief remarks.
Standridge simply said she wanted to emphasize her support for the private school and homeschool parent tax credit program created in 2023.
“I’m in full support of the school vouchers. I think that’s a good thing for students, so I would never want that to go away,” Standridge said.
During the forum, Foreman had criticized the tax credit program for disproportionately helping wealthier families.
“Undo the tax credit, the parental choice, put the taxpayer money back into public schools,” Foreman said. “Sixty five percent of people that applied for that, their household income is over $150,000. They don’t need it. Give it back to public schools.”
After the event, Foreman said she wished the candidates had been asked about topics like the need for public transportation and raising the minimum wage. She also discussed immigration.
“I think targeting legislation like HB 4156 is very punitive to minorities and raises ethical and social concerns,” Foreman said. “I think we need to look at that, maybe support legislation for temporary legal status or at least 90 days and create an agency where people can try naturalize or to get a green card or something like that instead of criminalize people who are here. Because truth be told, the state of Oklahoma functions on the back of illegal immigrants.”
