Kevin Stitt for Governor

Kevin Stitt was not my top choice for Governor in the primary. Quite frankly, there were several GOP candidates I had in front of him. However, Stitt surged from obscurity into the runoff with Mick Cornett.

I will be voting for Kevin Stitt without reservation.

As I said back in June, Mick Cornett was the only Republican candidate that I absolutely could not vote for. He was - and is - the clear liberal in the race, even supported by a Super PAC funded by a Hilary Clinton bundler. Richard Engle penned a great column on the evidence of Cornett's liberal leanings. Cornett would be Mary Fallin 2.0, or worse. I will never vote for Mick Cornett under any circumstance.

Cornett has merely solidified my resolve in the runoff.

The vulgar and crude direction his campaign has taken speaks ill of the character of the candidate. There is no excuse for stooping to the lows that he and his campaign have taken. No amount of "it's just politics", "that's just how this is done", or attempts to shrug it off will do. It reflects back on the integrity of Mick Cornett, and I find him to weighed in the balance and found wanting.

Kevin Stitt is a businessman who has had tremendous success in building a company during trying economic times. As his company has grown, and with the arena they operate in, there have been some issues [relatively minor in the scheme of things], but he has taken responsibility and made corrections when needed. That personal responsibility could not be said for Mick Cornett and his campaign direction.

Stitt has made government transparency and accountability a major theme of his campaign, something that Mary Fallin failed to do in her eight years. I believe this is incredibly important moving forward, especially as tax collections increase and state government clamors over how to spend the new surpluses we will likely have over the next few years.

On the important issues of life, constitutional freedoms, and religious liberties, Kevin Stitt will be much more reliable than Mick Cornett, who has failed to prove during his tenure in municipal government that he would defend those principles.

During the primary, Kevin Stitt took the time to answer my gubernatorial candidate survey, which went into depth on ten different widely ranging topics. You can read that here. Mick Cornett failed to respond - the only candidate unwilling to go on record (a common thread during his campaign).

In recent days, Stitt has been endorsed by former U.S. Senator and conservative stalwart Tom Coburn, 2016 Oklahoma presidential winner Ted Cruz, and 2012 Oklahoma presidential primary winner Rick Santorum.

A Mick Cornett administration would likely be a repeat of the Fallin years, with an increasingly liberal GOP legislature growing government and raising taxes. Under Kevin Stitt, I believe we would have a Governor who is willing to hold the line and rein in government.

On Tuesday, I will be casting my vote for the only conservative choice for Governor, Kevin Stitt.