HRC Releases New Poll Showing Majority of Oklahomans Want Ryan Walters Removed, as HRC Launches Aggressive “Remove Ryan Walters” Campaign to Protect Oklahoma’s LGBTQ+ Youth[...]

Today, the Human Rights Campaign launched "Remove Ryan Walters," a 360° campaign to hold Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters accountable for his failed leadership and dangerous rhetoric and policies that have left Oklahoma's 2SLGBTQI (two spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex+) students feeling unsafe in the state's schools.

HRC also released new polling from Change Research that found a majority (55%) of likely 2024 Oklahoma voters disapprove of the job Ryan Walters is doing as Oklahoma's Superintendent of Public Instruction, including 42% who strongly disapprove-compared to just 29% of Oklahomans who approve. More than half of those polled (52%) want the state legislature to impeach and remove Walters, and another 11% believe he should be investigated. Walters is especially unpopular among parents/guardians of K-12 public school students: 58% would like to see Watlers impeached and removed, and 75% say he is not a good role model for Oklahoma's students. The survey is of 665 likely general election voters in Oklahoma, 58% of whom identify as Republican. Read the full poll here.

As part of today's launch, HRC created RemoveWalters.com, a new website dedicated to exposing Walters' many failures atop Oklahoma's State Department of Education, two new reports on his record of mismanagement and hateful rhetoric, and a new paid digital ad that will ensure Oklahomans understand how Walters is failing their kids and the state. Already, HRC's "Remove Walters" petition has collected nearly 50,000 signatures.

As part of the campaign, HRC will be joining many of our Oklahoma partners on the ground in a week of action next week that will focus on the failures of Walters and his counterparts in the Oklahoma legislature. These actions will take place at the Oklahoma Capitol Building, where HRC is activating its members around Freedom Oklahoma's Lobby Day and People's Hearing, at the state Department of Education meeting next Thursday, and through support for Rainbow Youth Project and Freedom Oklahoma's events in honor of Trans Day of Visibility. HRC will also be providing on-the-ground trainings for supporters and a training for parents about how to file an official complaint for civil rights violations with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. In the weeks ahead, HRC will continue to put pressure on Walters through more in-person actions, paid ads and videos, reports, social media campaigns, and more.

Elements of the new campaign include:

The campaign comes in the aftermath of the tragic death of Nex Benedict (he/they), a 16-year-old nonbinary student of Choctaw heritage, who died one day after a brutal assault in a high school bathroom, and after a year of experiencing harassment and bullying at their Owasso, Oklahoma, high school. Nex's death has been mourned by people across Oklahoma and the country and exposed Walters' long history of discriminatory and bullying behaviors. It has also brought to light Walters' tenure of incompetence, scandal, and mismanagement running Oklahoma's public schools system-with Oklahoma K-12 education currently ranking 49th in the country under his "leadership."