Oklahoma Senate Democrats to focus on wages, schools, basic needs in 2025

Sen. Carri Hicks, left, and Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt, both Democrats from Oklahoma City, attend a news conference on Monday at the Oklahoma State Capitol to outline their caucus’ policy priorities for the year. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma Senate Democrats unveiled on Monday a set of policy priorities focused on worker wages, education funding, health care and the public’s voice in government.

Members of the minority caucus said too many Oklahomans struggle to make ends meet, especially for housing and medical care, and their public schools need more support.

“We know this state has a lot of potential,” Minority Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, said. “We believe in this state, love this state. That’s why we’re committed to doing the work we need to do to make this a more prosperous state where more people can thrive.”

Senate Democrats filed two bills to raise the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 an hour, one proposing an increase to $13 an hour and another suggesting $15 an hour. 

Kirt said the legislative process would be “a great way to set a minimum wage increase that works,” but if the bills fail, the public could step in.

Voters will have the chance on June, 16, 2026, to pass a minimum wage increase when State Question 832 is on the ballot. The state question would gradually raise Oklahoma’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. Wages would rise even more if the cost of living goes up in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index.

“If the Legislature doesn’t take action, the people are going to,” Kirt said in a news conference at the state Capitol. “We hear it every day from people who are struggling to get by.”

The Senate Democrats took issue with Gov. Kevin Stitt choosing an election date so far away for SQ 832. In August, organizers for the SQ 832 initiative petition turned in almost double the number of signatures required to put it on the ballot.

Senate Bill 214 from Sen. Regina Goodwin, D-Tulsa, would set a deadline for a state question to come before voters. The governor would have to put a state question on the ballot no more than 250 days after the matter is certified for a statewide vote.

“The bill that I offer this session basically says that when the people speak, we need to listen to the people,” Goodwin said. “We cannot undercut their will. And when the election is set two years down the road, that does not benefit the people of Oklahoma.”

Goodwin, in her first Senate term after serving 10 years in the House, also filed a budget request to increase state funding for Langston University, Oklahoma’s only historically Black college. 

Land-grant HBCUs like Langston experienced chronic underfunding when compared to majority-white institutions, according to a 2023 report from the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Goodwin and Sen. Nikki Nice, D-Oklahoma City, have asked the Legislature to increase its appropriation to Langston to shrink the $400 million disparity that the federal government identified.

Education issues featured prominently in the policy goals of the minority caucus.

Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, filed SB 142 to increase teacher salaries by $3,000. 

The head of the Senate Education Committee, Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, is seeking an even greater raise. Pugh’s SB 201 would reset the minimum teacher salary at $50,000 — up from $39,601 — and raise wages by the thousands for more experienced educators.

“I’m for his deal,” Hicks said of Pugh’s bill. “Let’s throw all our weight in support behind increasing the funding (for schools), particularly for salaries.”

Doing so, she said, could help retain qualified educators and “bend the dangerous curve” of schools having to increasingly rely on emergency certified teachers and adjunct instructors who don’t have traditional classroom training.

Hicks also is seeking to limit copays for prescription medications through SB 34, along with other healthcare-focused legislation.

However, the Democrats hold only eight seats in the 48-member Senate, meaning their bills must gain Republican support to have any opportunity to advance.

Kirt said her caucus’ members, who represent mostly urban areas in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, are willing to collaborate across the aisle and have Republicans carry some of their bills, particularly on education.

Both parties in the Senate have new leadership this year after prior leaders reached their term limits. Sen. Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, will head the Republican majority as president pro tem.

Kirt, who succeeds former Sen. Kay Floyd as minority leader, said she and Paxton have a “great personal relationship” despite disagreements on priorities. She said the civility between them could help in accomplishing shared goals.

“We are eight out of 48, and we are very cognizant of that,” Kirt said of the Democratic minority. “But we also know the responsibility we have. We represent half a million people, and we also represent voices across the state that are not heard regularly. So we always do, despite the odds, pass meaningful legislation.”

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