LAWTON – If she is elected governor, Oklahoma House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson will not support reducing the state’s personal income tax rate, she said.
Cutting income taxes does not protect the state’s revenue source, and it typically benefits people who are in higher tax brackets, Munson said in a short interview. She added that she is currently working on a couple of bills that would provide more targeted forms of tax relief, including legislation to expand and modernize the state’s Sales Tax Relief Credit.
“Those two things would really, really go a long way for tax relief,” she said.
Munson, who represents House District 85 in the Statehouse, launched her gubernatorial campaign with a kickoff rally April 23 at the Prairie Building on the Comanche County Fairgrounds. Her supporters flocked to the building to hear her discuss her background, her platform and her decision to seek the governor’s office. Personal history A native of Lawton, Munson is the daughter of a Vietnam War veteran and a South Korean immigrant, according to her campaign’s website. She and her sister were raised by her single father, who worked several jobs while serving in the U.S. Army.
After graduating from Eisenhower High School, Munson attended the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. She later earned a graduate degree in political science from the University of Nebraska.
Munson spent more than 10 years working for nonprofit organizations, according to the website. Her career included a stint as community programs manager for the Girl Scouts of Western Oklahoma, which provided leadership programs for girls in low-income schools, juvenile detention centers and public housing.
She also worked at a nonprofit whose mission was improving children’s lives through shared reading with their incarcerated parents.
Munson was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 2015, becoming the first Asian-American woman in the Legislature, according to the website. As the minority leader, she pushed for increasing state aid to public schools, protecting survivors of sexual assault and providing tax relief to Oklahomans, among other measures.
“Cyndi has fought against the most extreme measures in the Legislature, such as the strictest abortion ban in the country, attacks on trans kids, mandating the teaching of Bibles in public schools, and attacks on tribal sovereignty,” according to the website. ‘Invest in its people’ The Oklahoma’s Promise scholarship program, which provides free in-state college tuition to low-income and working families, made it possible for Munson to graduate from college in four years, she said during the rally. She was the first person in her family to earn a college degree.
“I’m here today because Oklahoma’s leaders invested in someone like me,” she said. “I want Oklahoma to be a state that continues to invest in its people and help all of the other little Cyndis – which is what I say all the time – o ut there who want to work towards their dreams.”
Munson said her background inspired her to seek public office more than a decade ago because she wanted to be a voice for people who needed it the most.
She added that she visited with thousands of voters – Republicans, Democrats and independents – during her legislative campaigns.
“I have had some of the toughest conversations on those doorsteps,” she said.
“But I also connected with people on what we could agree on and focused on what would bring us together and not divide us.”
Munson said if she becomes Oklahoma’s next governor, she would prod lawmakers to fund public schools to the regional average and boost teachers’ salaries. She also said she would propose an amendment to the state Constitution, which would be put to a public vote, that would ensure every Oklahoman has access to abortion care and the health care they need.
“Oklahoma families should make their own health care decisions with their doctors and decide when and how to have a family,” Munson said. “Not their state government.”
Lawtonians running for governor Munson is not the first Democrat with Lawton ties to seek the governor’s office.
Fred Roy Harris, who grew up in Walters and graduated from the University of Oklahoma, practiced law in Lawton after earning his law degree, according to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. He founded the law firm of Harris, Newcombe, Redman and Doolin in 1956.
Harris later served in the Oklahoma Senate from 1957 until 1964.
In 1962, Harris sought the Democratic nomination for governor and finished fifth in the primary election, according to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Then in 1964, he became the youngest U.S. senator- elect in the state’s history when he won the race to complete former Sen. Robert S.
Kerr’s unexpired term.
Harris served in the U.S. Senate until 1973.
He retired from politics three years later and became a political science professor at the University of New Mexico.
Harris died Nov. 25, 2024, in New Mexico.