By Karen Hardin
On August 22, Osage County GOP Chair, Shawna Myers was ousted by a majority vote by the County Committee. This was the second part of a meeting to remove Myers who had been accused of using her position and acting unilaterally, to interfere in Osage County elections. A few days after her removal, and before she could be removed from the Osage GOP bank account, Myers allegedly paid for over $400 worth of purchases on Temu using the GOP account.
The root issue noted in the resolution to remove Myers was her use of the GOP logo, platform and position to campaign against the incumbent sheriff and two other Republican candidates with a Townhall Forum/Debate she organized. But it wasn’t a typical forum. The candidates would not be debating their opponents, who were not invited, but the Osage District Attorney, Mike Fisher. That’s odd in itself, but even more so when it was revealed that the sheriff and two candidates Myers invited, whom she was actively campaigning against, had submitted evidence to the courts of alleged corruption by the district attorney that could result in felony charges against him.
Numerous Osage GOP members encouraged Myers to cancel the Townhall saying it “wasn’t a good look for the GOP” and was election interference. However, Myers insisted it was to allow both sides to share their views.
However, her texts with a long-time Osage County GOP member below revealed an agenda:
“They have caused this division…They are making serious accusations that is election interference. Not me having a Town Hall asking everyone to come to the table and show what they claim is true.
I will interject with Emily (DeLozier running for County Clerk) what Emily said about Bart (Perrier, Shawna’s pick for Sheriff) and his daughter because I am disgusted with her and what she said. I will defend a candidate (Bart) and call out what she (Emily) did. And it will be public.”
Clearly, Myers was using the Townhall, which took place just days before the election, to support the candidates she wanted and discredit candidates she didn’t.
Myers ignored multiple requests from both County Committee members and long-term Osage County GOP members to postpone the Townhall until after the election. When she refused, the calls for her removal continued to grow.
The original meeting for Myer’s removal took place July 9. After the credential report was submitted, Shawna called for an amendment to the report to introduce a list of ten people she added to the committee. The ten new people were not elected in the 2023 precinct elections, but added afterwards by Myers. According to the rules, a precinct chair/vice-chair can be added on off years when elections are not held, but only if approved by both the chair and vice-chair. Myers insisted Vice-Chair Cathy Miller approved the list. Miller states she had never seen the list prior to the July 9 meeting where Myers tried to insert them as county committee members who could then vote on whether she stayed as Chair or not. The credentialed precinct chairs and vice chairs had also never seen the list nor received notice of any newly appointed precinct officers.
Osage County District Attorney, Mike Fisher, who politically benefitted from Myer’s Townhall Debate, was not only present at the first meeting, but interjected himself several times and threatened GOP members present stating: “If any of the sergeant-at-arms touches anyone in this room, that is assault and battery, and I will prosecute that charge.” During his time as a witness for her, he contradicted Myers’ texts in which she had stated she initiated the call for the Townhall. But in his testimony, he said he called for the Townhall and “any of you suggesting otherwise is either ignorant or lying.”
Fisher, as the district attorney, had no jurisdiction/authority in the Republican Party internal meeting. Despite being asked multiple times to leave, Fisher along with other disruptive guests refused to comply.
Prior to the meeting, Myers had sent out emails inviting witnesses and guests to attend. The small venue booked for the meeting was not sufficient for the committee members and the number of people she invited. County Committee members with authority to vote were allowed entrance first followed by people who actually lived in Osage County. Several individuals who attended, but didn’t live in the county, had to remain outside. One exception was Stan Stevens, executive director of OKGOP and his wife, Tulsa County Vice Chair Jenifer Stevens.
The meeting grew contentious almost immediately as Myers’ efforts to include her list of county committee members was voted down in a majority vote. As the meeting grew heated, there was a vote to go into closed session, which would have allowed only county committee members to remain. However, District Attorney Fisher and other county officials refused to leave which resulted in no guests leaving. Unable to continue the meeting due to the disruptive individuals, the meeting adjourned without debate (testimony of those calling for removal) and a vote.
A second meeting convened Aug 22. DA Fisher did not attend that meeting, perhaps because of the release of a news article the day before exposing his actions from the previous meeting.
Myers and her husband, who is a precinct vice-chair, both refused to credential in at the second meeting, which disqualified them from speaking or even being in the meeting. From the outset, Shawna attempted to take control of the meeting. Much like the playbook Nathan Dahm used to prevent his removal, Myers told everyone the meeting was illegitimate, a waste of everyone’s time and encouraged them to go home. At one point she even insisted the police said everyone had to go home in an unsuccessful attempt to close the meeting.
At the beginning she jumped on stage and threatened those in attendance stating, “I just want to say right now for the record, anybody that touches me, you’re going to be hit and the cops will be called. Just letting you know.”
Myers continued to talk over the vice chairman by reading from the OKGOP rules. The Sergeant-of-Arms called 911 as the vice chairman asked committee members to move into a storage room which had been cleaned out and set up as a meeting room in the event the committee voted to go into closed session. As at the first meeting, Myers’ guests refused to leave and in order to stop the closed session, slammed the door shut preventing those who had entered from leaving and preventing others from entering. The sheriff’s deputy ended up removing her from the meeting.
Shortly thereafter, her husband, who had also refused to credential in, declined to leave when asked repeatedly and began to disrupt the meeting until he was also ushered out.
The meeting finally progressed with 11 testimonies given during debate followed by the vote to remove Myers as chair. During the vote, another disruption happened in the middle of the room, when one of Myers’ family members attempted to address the body. However, the vote finally took place with a majority voting to remove. In the end it was unanimous vote for her removal.
At both meetings, Myers’ invited GOP establishment leaders to come to her aid. This included Tulsa County Chair Ronda Vuillemont-Smith, OK State Executive Director Stan Stevens, his wife, Tulsa County GOP Vice-Chair Jenifer Stevens, and Wagoner County Chair Matt Vermillion and his wife, Martha Vermillion.
Ronda stationed herself in the second meeting to video the events and inserted herself when Myers’ team went out-of-control such as with Martha Vermillion. Vermillion lost control and aggressively approached another GOP member, Patti Lyle, who was also videoing the events. Each time the video panned Vermillion, she gave her the finger. After Myers had been removed by deputies, Martha can be seen in the video jumping up and heading toward Patti. Lyle instinctively blocked Martha’s arm as it came at her. Martha can then be heard whining. This is the third time Vermillion has lost control and attacked another GOP member. The first attack can be seen here. The second here. And the most recent here.
A couple of days after Myers was removed, she released a Rumble video claiming she was still Chair. She also sent an email to OK GOP State Chair Nathan Dahm (attachment #1) claiming the same and “apologizing for any confusion or inconvenience my Vice Chair, Cathy Miller, may have caused. Her recent attempt to remove me as County Chair has certainly led to some tension, and unfortunately, this is manifesting in continued misunderstandings.”
It appears Myers is continuing to look outside the county for someone to save her rather than abiding by the rules. However, the State GOP Chair has no jurisdiction in this issue and as stated in GOP rules, the Osage County Committee is the supreme authority in this matter. Only after a new chair is elected would the State Committee, not the State Chair, have authority to seat the new Osage County Chairman.
Will the rules be followed? We have seen the current Oklahoma GOP Chair attempt to override the rules and insert his own decisions repeatedly. Such as after the January 2024 State Committee meeting, when he insisted the majority vote to censure Senator Lankford if his border bill passed was illegitimate. Or when he attempted to override the outcome of the Washington County elections and prevent the seating of the duly elected Vice-Chair. And again, like Shawna Myers, he interfered in the meeting for his own removal telling people not to come and that it was a waste of their time and tried to prevent a vote once the meeting took place.
A meeting to elect a new chair in Osage County will be held Sept. 5.
View entire 8/22/24 meeting here.
Editor’s note: You can see more of Karen Hardin’s work on AwakeOklahoma.com Special thanks to her for allowing us to share this article via OKGrassroots.com
