Jake Merrick won a special election for now-Congresswoman Stephanie Bice's open Senate seat last year. Jake is a Conservative, pro-life, pro-2nd amendment, small business owner who has served Oklahoma well since his special election. Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs (OCPA) dark money helped him in his first election. Here's the rub: After voting YES in committee, he voted NO (on the Senate floor) on a bill to send public money to private schools (voucher - SB1647). This election cycle, OCPA is using many thousands of dollars to influence voters AGAINST HIM through a different dark money group.
February 2025, ROPE became The ROPE Report - after our weekly Wednesday and Friday morning (9am) podcast begun in 2022. Instead of following only education - as we have since 2008 - we will research and write about any issue that poses a threat to our individual liberties as Oklahomans. We will no longer post to this blogspot, but will keep it active as a reference library for anyone interested. Please find The Rope Report on Facebook, X, LinkdIn, Telegram, Instagram, TikTok and at rope2.org.
6.16.2022
6.06.2022
ROPE Endorses Dr. John Cox for State Superintendent
Every election since 2010, ROPE has announced support for a State Superintendent candidate. We believe this position to be of paramount importance in the direction of education in our state. This year is no different.
Four Republican candidates are vying for the State Superintendent’s chair: Bill Crozier, April Grace, Dr. John Cox and Secretary of Education Ryan Walters. ROPE held a candidate forum at Randall University on May 9th. Mr. Crozier was unable to attend and April Grace backed out of her original commitment to appear.
5.30.2022
Whatever You Believe About War Or The Military, At Least Pause Today to Thank A Soldier Who Never Returned Home To Be With Their Family As You Celebrate With Yours
One Sunday many years ago while attending church, we had a number of opportunities to appreciate our fallen soldiers. During a particularly poignant video played for the congregation depicting service men and women and their efforts over recent history, I looked over to find my 12-year-old son sobbing.
5.26.2022
So You Think School Choice Will Solve Education Issues In Oklahoma? James Lindsay Wants You To Think Again...
![]() |
| www.alec.org/issue/education |
"School choice is going to be very popular – it’s gonna poll very well – it has an enormous…everybody’s 'spidey' sense should be tingling because of how much money’s behind the school choice lobby. Like who writes your checks? Why on earth is so much money being dumped into this school choice lobby?" James Lindsay via Unwokeable.
5.24.2022
The Frontier Newspaper Blasts Oklahoma's Every Kid Counts For Not Disclosing Its Donors, But There's More
![]() |
| https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/billionaire-philanthropists-pushing-charter-schools-and-school-vouchers-also-fund-oklahomas-secretary-of-educations-six-figure-salary/ |
Though The Frontier blasts Every Kid Counts Oklahoma (EKCO) for not disclosing their donors, the real story here appears to be that an Oklahoma non-profit embroiled in controversy on several levels has no publicly-filed 990 since 2019. Though there are Republicans who might dismiss information ferreted out by The Frontier as 'biased' or 'ax-grinding', the research I've been doing independently for some time, supports most reports made by The Frontier.




