Cyndi Munson, a Democratic candidate for governor of Oklahoma, was in Watonga Monday. Munson was born in California but grew up in Lawton. She is the first Asian American woman elected to the Oklahoma Senate.
During the brief stop in town, Munson outlined her priorities for the state and answered questions from the largely red crowd, remaining on topic and on point.
Instead of tax relief benefiting large corporations and the wealthy, Munson wants to increase programs like the childcare tax credit, sales tax relief credit, and earned income tax credit, programs that are already on the books that help lower and middle income earners, while opposing to further income tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest. All of this can be done, she said, without raising taxes or making regular Oklahomans pay more.
Her plans include a moratorium on construction of new data center projects until guidelines are in place to keep big tech companies accountable when building these data centers. She will end corporate giveaways to large out of state corporations that don’t bring good jobs and seek only profit when moving to Oklahoma.
Munson has opposed the Inola aluminum smelter project from day one, voting against the over $200 million in taxpayer dollar giveaways to a foreign corporation to build the smelter. She also opposes corporations using AI to determine the price of groceries based on an individual’s behaviors when shopping.
Munson said she knows that the tribal nations in Oklahoma are sovereign nations that determine their own future for citizens. She will work to heal the fractures between the state and tribes, traveling across the state visiting with the tribal nations, their leaders, and their citizens and is working to visit all 39 tribes before the end of her campaign. Her plans include restoration of a cabinet position for a Secretary of Native American affairs and make it a permanent position, so the relationship between the State of Oklahoma and the tribes can continue to grow.
She believes in an “all of the above approach” to energy, meaning that she will support oil, natural gas, and renewable energy production. She also acknowledges the need to balance that approach with protecting the private property rights of landowners and ensuring that these industries are good stewards of the land and natural resources. She recognizes that water is a precious resource and will stand up to big corporations and others who want to waste it.
For more information on Cyndi Munson and her campaign for governor, go to cyndimunson.com. Her name will be on the General Election ballot November 3.