Thu, 27 Oct 2022 05:20:44 CDT
The latest episode of the Road to Rural Prosperity takes us to Lawton, Oklahoma where the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association hosted a Guberantorial Forum ahead of the November General Election. According to a statement from the two groups that was read ahead of the event- "After the general election matchups were in place- the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association discussed the need to learn more about the positions on a variety of rural issues of the two leading candidates for Governor. The groups decided that a Forum with those candidates would help inform their membership and all of rural Oklahoma leading up to the November 8th general election. The groups extended an invitation to both the Republican and Democratic nominees for Governor on September 26th. The GOP nominee and incumbent- Governor Kevin Stitt replied and confirmed right away."
However, Democratic Nominee Joy Hofmeister was a no show. The statement explained to the audience "The Democratic candidate, State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister was contacted at the same time as the Governor but was non committal- On the 10th of October- both campaigns were provided with a list of topics that we might cover in this Forum- topics that are important in rural areas of our state and in many cases- have not been front and center in other public conversations between the candidates- most notably the NonDoc KWTV online debate of a few days ago. Contacts continued with the Democratic nominee and were made via email, text, phone calls and in person- but no definitive answer came from the Democratic nominee until yesterday.
"At that time, via email- the campaign signaled that Democratic challenger was busy today and that she would not be participating."
Both groups were disappointed that the Democratic nominee was not there- but expressed appreciation that the Governor made time to talk rural issues with the farm and ranch community.
Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays was the moderator for the Forum- and today's Podcast episode is the audio from the event- the conversation that Hays had with the incumbent Governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt.
You can also click here for the link to Soundcloud where you can listen to the Forum- or look for the Road to Rural Prosperity whereever you listen to Podcasts.
