Jena Nelson may be the candidate Oklahoma Democrats have been waiting for

Jena Nelson walks out to cheers at Millwood High School in Oklahoma City, to formally announce her campaign to unseat Stephanie Bice and represent Oklahoma’s 5th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. (Photo from Jena Nelson’s personal Facebook page)

I’m confident.

I don’t hate Jena Nelson’s chances to unseat Republican Stephanie Bice, thereby reclaiming Oklahoma’s 5th district for the Democrats, who, if you remember, actually held the seat for two years as recently as 2020.

One, she could have been the person leading the state education department, yet fell to Ryan Walters trying to become state superintendent.

Though she lost, it ought to make her a curiosity, even to lifelong Republicans, many of whom have to be thinking, “We could have had her,” because Walters is an all-stripes offender, ignoramus and disaster. And if they’re paying closer attention, perhaps she’ll have a better chance of reaching them.

Two, the gig Nelson will leave behind should she earn a new one in the nation’s capital, is director of programs for the Oklahoma Faith Network, a left-of-center faith-based operation aimed at actually doing God’s work, rather than doing the opposite: justifying hatred, bigotry and disdain for the lest fortunate, like the loudest performative faux Christians, who care nothing about good government or problem solving, only getting reelected, all of whom are Republicans.

And, because so many such politicians have scared their voters into believing the only moral vote is a vote for them — laughable on its face, though it’s taken hold in our misguided state — perhaps they’ll give Nelson a chance because, for crying out loud, she represents the Oklahoma Faith Network.

Three, she might be the most popular candidate for any office in the 5th district already. Despite her loss to Walters she nonetheless led everybody in votes received from Oklahoma County voters, who happen to make up the vast majority of 5th district voters.

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The great Murray Evans, of The Oklahoman, offered the numbers in a recent story and here they are:

In the state’s most populous county, Nelson received 124,500 votes, clipping attorney general Gentner Drummond’s 123,851 count, Walters’ 96,282 and governor Kevin Stitt’s 93,466.

So, she really could win.

Now let’s hope she runs the kind of campaign that will make the most of that chance.

In Nelson’s press release announcing her candidacy, she said this:

“Between skyrocketing grocery costs, the highest insurance rates in the nation and non-stop housing expense growth, it’s simply too expensive for everyday Oklahomans to live right now. But while working families struggle, Stephanie Bice and the other MAGA Minions in D.C. are solely focused on helping billionaires get richer. That’s not OK.”

Also this:

“Almost half of the children born in Oklahoma depend on Medicaid and we just witnessed our elected officials throw their hands up and vote to gut essential services for the most vulnerable among us. It’s incredible to drive down I-35 and see billboards bought by billionaires thanking them for this decision. It’s time to hold leaders like Stephanie Bice accountable for their actions.”

Also this:

“When I ran for State Superintendent in 2022, I told the truth about Ryan Walters and what he would do to our children, our communities and our families. I did not lie, and now I’m sharing the truth about what Stephanie Bice has done to our state. While the political machine thought they silenced us, they were wrong. Because here’s what they don’t understand: When you attack Oklahomans, we fight back. This isn’t just about an election — it’s about the very soul of Oklahoma and the heart of democracy.”

Does her tone, live on the stump, live up to the stridency of the words attributed to her in a press release? Here’s a clip from KOCO-5 of her in action and, spoiler, she does.

So it would seem she has the stuff to do what most Democrats either don’t have the stomach for, believe their donors don’t have the stomach for, or just don’t have it any them at all, and that’s to viscerally and authentically go after their opponents, because their opponents are doing awful things; and go after their opponents’ voters, because their minds need changing.

Just by passing Trump’s big beautiful ridiculous and impossible bill, senators James Lankford and Markwayne Mullin, and reps Bice, Tom Cole, Josh Brescheen, Kevin Hern and Frank Lucas, who profess to represent our state, have made Oklahoma poorer, less healthy and less educated, all the while adding trillions to the national debt, while bowing to the president like he’s a king or a god, when all he really is is a self-absorbed predator.

It must be visceral.

It must be authentic.

It can’t be performative.

It has to be real.

Bice, what she represents, the sides she’s taken and the consequences of those decisions, must be called out, harshly and not politely. And her voters must be told what they’ve actually signed up for and how they’ve been conned out of their best interest.

There is no playing it safe because playing it safe is for losers and previous Oklahoma Democratic office-seekers ought to know that better than anybody.

Nelson appears to have learned that lesson.

It’s a good start.

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