Up Yours, Oklahoma

That’s the message Gov. Kevin Stitt sent to workaday Sooners last week when he finally scheduled the statewide vote on State Question 832, the proposal that if approved would raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour by decade’s end.

The election date? June 16, 2026.

That’s not a typo. Even though 157,287 petition signatures were verified – nearly 60% more than required – Stitt kicked the voting 21 months down the road.

Why? Because he could. The state Constitution gives the governor the sole authority to set the election date once an initiative petition qualifies for the ballot. Even call a special election, if the governor so chooses.

But governors also can use that power to delay, hoping to derail proposals they don’t like. In this case, Stitt and two of the state’s most powerful special interests, the State Chamber and the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, want to do everything possible to torpedo SQ 832.

They’re hoping a nearly two-year delay will kill the minimum wage momentum. And it will be finished off by those who bother to turn out in mid-June primaries in a non-presidential election year.