Sen. Greg Treat
OKLAHOMA CITY – Republican State Senator Greg Treat will again lead the Oklahoma State Senate after he was re-elected as president pro tempore (Latin for president for the time being) last week.
Treat was elected to the Senate in 2011 in a special election. He represents Senate District 47, which covers northwest Oklahoma City and portions of Edmond, Deer Creek, and Bethany.
Treat was elected to the post in 2019 after serving as the Senate’s Majority Floor Leader. Treat will serve as president pro tempore for two years.
“I appreciate the trust my colleagues have in me to lead this body for the next two years. It has been the honor of a lifetime to hold this position since 2019 and work with my fellow senators in service to our great state,” Treat said in a media statement announcing his re-election.
Treat’s spokesman, Alex Gerszewski, said Treat would continue to work with his Senate colleagues to “resolve issues for all Oklahomans.”
“We look forward to working with the Republican Caucus,” Gerszewski said.
Treat had been challenged for Senate leader by Norman Republican Rob Standridge, a member of the Senate’s far-right Patriot Caucus. Sources told Southwest Ledger that Sandridge criticized Treat in a letter mailed before the general election in November.
The 2022 legislative session saw sharp divisions form in the Senate’s Republican Caucus between the centrist and the rightwing Patriot Caucus and between the legislative Republicans and Governor Kevin Stitt.
Treat’s re-election statement seemed to acknowledge the differences between members but Senate’s Republican Caucus, he said, would work as a team.
“While we sometimes disagree with each other, much like a family, we all respect one another and are working in the best interests of Oklahomans,” Treat said. “We are elected to the Senate by our fellow citizens to accomplish important work on their behalf. We can only succeed when we work together.”
And while several legislative proposals favored by Treat didn’t make it to the governor’s desk in 2022, a bill that would have created education empowerment accounts could get new life next year after the election of Education Secretary Ryan Walters in November.
Critics of the measure call the proposal a voucher bill for public schools and say it will harm rural districts. Still, Walter’s election could put political pressure on centrist Republicans to adopt some type of voucher-style legislation during the next session.
Republicans hold 40 of the Senate’s 48 seats and 81 of the House’s 101 seats. Most lawmakers were sworn in during a Nov. 16 ceremony conducted by Richard Darby, Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
State lawmakers will return to the Capitol for the 2023 session of the Oklahoma Legislature, which begins in February.