Meredith McGinnis, Oklahoma Senate District 18
These are the Downballot Diaries – stories of and from some of the people Every State Blue is supporting this cycle.
We crowdfund support for underfunded Democrats running for state legislature – typically in the reddest and most gerrymandered districts in the country. We’re redefining what it means for Democrats to run everywhere.
We support people running hard in the hardest places.
Meredith McGinnis is one of those people. This is her story.
Meredith McGinnis is a fighter. Literally. This summer, at age 39, she became Oklahoma’s Golden Glove state champion. She’s also vying to become state senator for district 18, just outside Oklahoma City.
A lawyer and single mom, McGinnis got into the political ring by researching “politics in your community” for her middle son’s scout troop. The Democratic party was texting all registered Democrats asking if they’d like information on how to run for office, and McGinnis answered ‘yes,’ thinking it would be a great way for her scouts to learn about the process. But she was the only person in her district to answer ‘yes,’ so she started getting calls from the Democratic party, trying to recruit her to run.
“I had to tell them, ‘look, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I’m about to publicly get in a fistfight in about three weeks, so I don’t know if I’m your girl.’”
Coincidentally, this was about the time Oklahoma senator Markwayne Mullin was leaving the U.S. Senate to run the Department of Homeland Security. “The Democrats said, ‘Well, Markwayne Mullin was an MMA Fighter. If Republicans have him, let’s get you. We’ll take you!’”
Soon after, at the Golden Gloves state championship bout, McGinnis won against a 19-year-old and next went on to box at the national level, where she became the oldest person to compete in Golden Gloves for a national title. “I lost. I lost very, very badly,” she says with a laugh. “But I am 39, and they cut you off at 40. So for an athlete, I’m actually considered a geriatric athlete. I had to get a hearing test. I had to get an EKG to make sure my heart didn’t go out while I was out there. I was fighting against 19-year-olds, and some of those women are probably going to the Olympics. I was just happy to be there to see what that level of competition is like.”
And now she’s finding out about another level of competition – as a Democrat running in a Republican supermajority state. “Why not me? If I’m going to complain about it, if I’m frustrated enough, why not me? Those other candidates are not more qualified. They just have always gotten the vote.”
If there’s one priority McGinnis is taking into this fight it’s that, once she wins, she doesn’t want to fight – only spar. She believes in the old Stoic belief that “a good sparring partner is your strongest asset. It makes you better.” And she believes elected representatives should be sparring across the aisle “to get better overall outcomes, to get to a better standard of care for Oklahomans. Democracy works better with strong voices on both sides challenging each other and refining our policies.”
She draws on examples from her own life. McGinnis is active in nonprofits that help incarcerated people, particularly women. She was asked to speak at an event where another guest speaker was a former Republican Speaker of the State House. Afterward, the two of them discussed trauma in the prison system and what might be done to alleviate suffering. McGinnis mentioned she had always wanted to do a book club for incarcerated women. So, working together, they overcame multiple obstacles and started a book club in the largest women’s prison in Oklahoma.
So when it came time for the kickoff event for her campaign, she was introduced by that same former Republican speaker of the house. And now, more than half her donors are Republicans.
McGinnis believes that it’s in a Republican’s favor to support strong Democratic candidates: While she will stand up for the Democratic side of issues like women’s health, she also understands that there aren’t enough Democrats in power right now to pass liberal legislation. “What Democrats are doing in the state of Oklahoma is being expert compromisers, bringing people together” to pass policies that truly help people, regardless of what party they belong to.
“Education is the number one thing,” she says. Republicans are pushing to do away with property tax, and she wants to know “what company is going to want to move their company here if there are no public schools for their employee’s kids? And we’re giving $275 million to private school vouchers while we’re last in the nation in public schools? We don’t have to raise taxes, just move the public funds back to the public schools.”
McGinnis says healthcare is another huge issue for every Oklahoman. “If you are against Medicare and Medicaid, in states like Oklahoma that means we’re shutting down hospitals in rural areas. So… people don’t even have access — even if you are insured. There’s a big risk of losing any healthcare access in rural communities. We already have more than half our counties without a practicing OB-GYN.”
And all Oklahomans are against data centers, she says. In a farming district like hers, losing water is a major issue for everyone.
So McGinnis is committed to working toward solutions for all Oklahomans. “It’ll be my job to represent everyone.” And to get that done effectively, she says she’s not afraid of sparring with Republicans: “Iron sharpens iron.”
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