TVLSE, Oklv. – Democratic nominee and Mvskoke citizen Dennis Baker is running to serve Oklahomans in the 1st Congressional District. Hoping to unseat district incumbent Representative Kevin Hern, Baker visited with LiveWire about his campaign and answered questions from Mvskoke citizens about his platform, policy ideas, and professional experience.
Baker began charting his political run after the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6, 2021. He described watching the insurrection unfold with the same reaction as when he witnessed the September 11 Terrorist Attacks twenty years prior. At that time, he was an FBI Special Agent working in a violent crimes task force on in-service training. Soon after, he requested to work in the Counterterrorism Division where he was responsible for supporting, coordinating, and overseeing intelligence collection.
In explaining how someone with a nearly 25-year career in law enforcement that started in the Tulsa Police Department, the former FBI agent recalls how the two events coalesce for him, stating “There’s another threat for this country, a threat of extremism, a different type of extremism. And at some level, I want to be involved. And as I began to research, as I saw how our elected representatives had voted during that event, they voted for a person to not certify a presidential election. I saw how my opponent in this race voted not to certify it. I said I want to do more and it led me, eventually, to running for office.”
The following questions were asked by viewers during the program, the Q&A has been edited only for clarity and length.
Q: It’s been 37 years since a Democrat held the 1st District seat. What is your campaign strategy for flipping the 1st District?
BAKER: When I’m on the phone trying to raise money for this campaign, I get asked that question a lot. I saw a quote yesterday that stuck with me, ‘Events don’t happen. We make events happen.’ So to me, our future, what we want to do, we have to make it happen. So I know if you’re a Democrat and you’re not engaged, you’re sitting here thinking Republicans have been here, trifecta, they have the governorship, they have both sides of the House and Senate. They have both of those. They’ve had it for over 13 years and we’re at the bottom in every metric that matters. And you’re hoping someone comes along and will change that or magically something will happen and you’re going to be waiting a long time because the people that are in this fight that want to change this, it’s us. It’s us. That’s why I’m engaged in this because we have to have people that want to change it, that believe we can change it, believe that we have a voice and will lead. And all I’m asking voters is to don’t give up. Don’t give up before you even go to the polls. Because the decisions you make in that voting booth are yours. And examine the candidates, examine the issues, decide what future you want… And I truly believe that the Republican Party has been hijacked by the MAGA movement and that Oklahoma is not going to move forward until we take it back. And I am perfectly happy with regular, non-extremist Republicans vying for office against me. That back and forth, I think I can work with those types of politicians, those types of office holders that aren’t in the extremes, that they work in the middle. It is the extremism that my campaign is positioning itself against. And I want people to see the contrast. Yeah, I’m a Democrat, but I’m an Oklahoma Democrat. And in reality, I do represent true Oklahoma values. It’s a big fight, but I’m not deterred. I wasn’t deterred by Al Qaeda. And if you really want something, you have to fight for it.
Q: Who owns the Arkansas Riverbed within the Muscogee Reservation?
BAKER: Well I know the city says that they own part of it, but here’s my thoughts: I think the (Muscogee) Tribe owns it. I think a case can be made, so you know this brings me to tribal sovereignty and McGirt, and it’s not just because I’m a member of a tribe. It’s because I’m an attorney and I understand treaties and contracts and promises and I am a supporter of tribal sovereignty. We have a treaty. We have a Supreme Court decision. We have the Supreme Court decision. It’s the law of the land. I know the City of Tulsa is fighting that. I know the State of Oklahoma is fighting that. My statement to them is to stop. Stop fighting tribal sovereignty. You’ve done it for over 200 years. Start cooperating with the tribes. We have progressive tribes here who want to move Oklahoma forward. And we’re going to get a lot more done with cooperation than spending millions fighting tribal sovereignty. And I can tell you, we have tribal leadership that will fight for tribal sovereignty forever. Forever. They’re not going to give it up. I think the average Oklahoman understands this. They want cooperation. They want the progressive things. I’ve had so many people come to me and say when we talk about tribal sovereignty and tribal citizenship that I wish Oklahoma did for its citizens what the tribes do for theirs. They see that the tribes may not be perfect, but they do care for their citizens.
Q: Are you in support of a national foreign remittance tax (like Oklahoma’s wire transmitter fee) on remittances to foreign countries that would be dedicated to funding resources allocated to support multi-language learner students in local districts like Title VI or JOM programs to help alleviate the cost and student performance burdens experienced by local school districts?
BAKER: Wow, I’ve never been asked that type of question before. It sounds like it takes a little bit of specialized knowledge to answer that accurately and I don’t want to evade any type of question but I will say this because in the FBI, you know, one of the methods that we use to track terrorism was tracking money transmitters outside the US and those are tracked. There’s a lot of money that goes from this country, and it’s from migrant workers that come here and they send money out. So yes, there is a lot of money going outside the U.S. from people earning money here or collecting money there. You know, I wouldn’t be against it, but I’d have to see exactly how that would be imposed and, you know, how fair that would be… when we have migrant workers here a lot of that money does stay here. They pay taxes, they pay into our system, and they may not get anything out of that so I don’t want to say it’s all going out, but some of it does go out.
Q: Will you support the PRO Act to protect those organizing and seeking collective bargaining representation?
BAKER: I will. Absolutely. And it’s one of my main points I make when I go out and give my five minutes, you know, elevator stump speech, is the PRO Act because our unions have been decimated. And this whole idea of Oklahoma being a Right-to-work state that’s somehow beneficial for workers is ridiculous. It’s not. I support the PRO Act 100 percent. I’ll vote for that. I know that my opponent has voted twice against it. Kevin Hern is not pro-union, I am. If we want to rebuild the middle class, we have to start with the unions and we have to start with raising the minimum wage. These aren’t far right, far left radical ideas. These are mainstream American ideas that the majority of Americans want.
Q: Will you support a bill to make mandatory anti-union hostage meetings illegal?
BAKER: You know the PRO Act will make it illegal. The bill makes it illegal because it sets those provisions out, because that’s a favorite tactic that the big corporations do. Your mandatory attendance, you go in a classroom and they tell you how bad a union is. And we have protections like that, but the Labor Relations Board and some of the laws that we had initially, bit by bit, they’ve been attacked. And as you know, hey, Oklahomans, wake up. Republicans support big business. Most of you aren’t big business owners. You don’t own a big corporation. Republicans support big corporations. They always have, they always will. Why are you voting for them? Why are you voting for people that don’t support you? You know, I support wage earners. Wage earners want their rights. They want to be able to negotiate for fair pay. All these tactics, stall tactics, it’s not right. It’s not right. And the Right To Work thing is just a mechanism. Why would anyone in Oklahoma that’s a worker that gets a salary or a paycheck, think that Right to Work does anything but take down, tear down, unions.
Q: Where do you stand on tribes violating the established precedent of denying tribal marriage licenses to same-sex couples being unconstitutional? How will you address tribes that continue this practice?
BAKER: So, let me answer that because I know when I’ve talked to tribal officials before and one of the things, you know, there is this separation about how much is too much for someone in Congress to interfere with tribal business and tribal sovereignty. On the one hand, if I’m saying we have tribal sovereignty, they have elected officials, they’re dealing with problems and I, as a member of Congress, would feel uncomfortable coming in and dictating to them. But I would certainly want to have conversations. And I always think it’s great for our country when jurisdictions align, when the laws align. So there’s a marriage equality act that was enacted, It’s a federal law. And the reason it was enacted is because people want to marry who they want to marry. It’s a freedom that we give people. We don’t want that taken away and we don’t want them to be discriminated against or a certain subset of citizens to be less equal than others. So it’s a federal law. And I would want to just jump to tribal affairs because they’re dealing with issues. I should support tribal sovereignty, but at the same time, the goal of America is for everyone to have equal protection under the law.
Q: A big part of your website is high speed rail between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, and this is something that everybody’s talking about. If you get elected, what’s the plan?
BAKER: Well, the plan is this. There is an infrastructure bill that was passed by Democrats. And we have so many jurisdictions across this country and California is one good example. They have a plan, a project to put a high speed rail in from San Francisco down to Los Angeles. And we see this across the country where the municipal governments come up with a plan, and they get the money to do it. And it increases business, it’s forward thinking, it’s big. But let me tell you this, at the City of Tulsa, I hope there’s a mayor that says, “We want progress,”and we have someone in Congress at the federal level that says, “We support infrastructure money helping Oklahomans.” But you know what? If the city of Tulsa doesn’t want to do it, I’m going to go to the Muscogee Nation. Maybe they want to do it. Maybe they want that rail to stop right at their casino. That’s what they want. Because this is a reservation and I don’t like it when people are no longer forward thinking and think that, why can’t we have high-speed rail here? Every other place has it. And if we’re going to look down the road, not just the next election or because we want to stay in office, but maybe investing in Oklahoma, investing in Tulsa, investing in this. This is a reservation. This is the reservation with the biggest city on it in America and the tribes working together. We’re going to accomplish so much and we’re going to plan it out for 10 years and if people don’t want to be a part of that then go away, go away, quit dragging us back. We want to move ahead. It’s about our future, doing big things. It’s about our kids.
To learn more about Dennis Baker and his campaign, visit his website, DennisLBaker.com
