Kelly Forbes for Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor · November 3, 2026
Dr. Kelly Forbes: ready to move Oklahoma forwardForbes offers the broader, more people-centered vision for the office: grow Oklahoma by strengthening public education, health access, workforce pathways, small businesses, tourism, and trust in state government. The sourced comparison below shows why he is the stronger choice over T.W. Shannon.
Pro-Forbes editorial guide. Research updated Sept. 12, 2026. Comparative conclusions are editorial opinions based on the facts and sources disclosed here. “Not found” means a position was not located in the cited campaign materials and interviews reviewed—not that a candidate has never addressed the subject elsewhere. Video links preserve the candidates’ own words and surrounding context.
Oklahoma needs a lieutenant governor who will promote the whole state, connect economic growth to the conditions families and employers actually face, and rebuild trust through collaboration and accountability. Forbes presents that vision clearly and consistently.
The office combines a few constitutional powers, votes on important state boards, and a public platform that depends heavily on persuasion and partnership.
The lieutenant governor is Oklahoma’s constitutional backup governor, president of the State Senate, chair of the Tourism and Recreation Commission, and a voting member of multiple statewide boards. Those formal duties provide visibility and a seat at important decisions, but the office’s everyday impact comes largely from convening partners, promoting Oklahoma, and advancing an agenda with the governor and Legislature. Official duties ↗Oklahoma Constitution ↗
What the office cannot do aloneThe lieutenant governor cannot enact legislation, appropriate money, set tax rates, or independently command state agencies. The Senate writes laws and the Legislature appropriates funds; most large campaign promises therefore require legislation, board votes, agency action, or cooperation from the governor. Senate overview ↗Senate rules ↗
The lieutenant governor exercises the governor’s powers when the governor leaves Oklahoma. The Constitution also transfers the office when the governor dies, resigns, is removed, is impeached, fails to qualify, or cannot perform the job, for the remainder of the term or until the disability ends.
Constitution, Art. VI §16 ↗State office summary ↗The lieutenant governor is formally Senate president, presides over joint legislative sessions, and casts a vote when the Senate is tied. In modern practice, the president pro tempore is the chamber’s daily presiding officer and operational leader, so the lieutenant governor does not control committees or the ordinary flow of legislation.
Official duties ↗Senate leadership overview ↗2025–26 Senate rules ↗The lieutenant governor chairs the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Commission. That makes tourism the office’s clearest continuing policy portfolio and gives the officeholder a platform to market destinations, culture, events, and Oklahoma itself.
Official board list ↗Current office model ↗As a member of the State Board of Equalization, the lieutenant governor participates in certifying how much revenue is available for legislative appropriation. That affects the budget framework, but the Legislature still decides how the money is appropriated.
Membership list ↗How certification works ↗The officeholder serves on bodies dealing with school-trust lands, Capitol improvements, archives and records, workers’ compensation, linked deposits, film and music, and Native American cultural and educational affairs. These are votes within boards—not unilateral control.
Complete official board list ↗The lieutenant governor is a member of the Oklahoma Broadband Governing Board. State law gives that board responsibility for approving grant and incentive programs, overseeing the office budget, and approving the statewide broadband plan and its updates.
Membership list ↗Title 74 broadband law ↗A governor may assign the lieutenant governor extra executive work. The current officeholder, for example, has served as Secretary of Workforce and Economic Development. Such a cabinet assignment is discretionary rather than an automatic power of the office.
Current assigned portfolio ↗State executive overview ↗The office can promote Oklahoma, spotlight an issue, host employers and community leaders, assemble public-private partnerships, and advocate to lawmakers. Recent practice has included business recruitment, small-business promotion, workforce initiatives, and a statewide brand campaign. Forbes’s collaborative platform is designed for this influential part of the job.
Examples from the current office ↗Forbes priorities ↗How sources are used: Candidate websites and interviews establish announced positions, not proven outcomes. Biographical claims from a campaign are labeled; public records and reporting receive more weight. The matched Oklahoma Decides interviews were conducted by the State Chamber Research Foundation and reflect a business-policy emphasis, not a direct debate or endorsement.
A clear recommendation based on office fit, breadth, coalition-building, and the priorities each candidate has chosen to publish.
Forbes brings the experience this office needs: His work across education, small business, community service, multilingual programs, and the arts prepares him to promote Oklahoma, convene diverse partners, and connect economic growth with the everyday conditions that help communities thrive. His agenda shows how tourism, schools, health access, housing, workforce development, small business, and honest government reinforce one another.
Forbes priorities ↗ Forbes on incentives and outcomes, 7:25 ↗ Shannon background ↗The recommendation rests on what each candidate says the lieutenant governor should do, the constituencies each agenda serves, and the kind of leadership each campaign puts first.
The lieutenant governor chairs the Tourism and Recreation Commission and has a natural statewide platform for promotion and partnership. Forbes starts there: sell Oklahoma’s outdoor destinations, history, Route 66 centennial, arts, Native cultures, and 2028 Olympic moment, then connect that visibility to business and workforce recruitment.
Forbes tourism priority ↗Role and tourism, 1:53 ↗Official duties ↗Forbes does not treat recruitment as a ribbon-cutting exercise. His platform links stronger small businesses and CareerTech pathways with affordable housing, food security, public education, and access to health care. That is a fuller theory of growth: employers need skilled workers, and workers need communities where they can afford to live and stay healthy.
Economy, education, and health priorities ↗Opportunity and enterprise, 9:40 ↗Forbes has worked as a teacher, school administrator, federal-programs director, dual-language leader, adjunct professor, consultant, small-business owner, arts participant, and nonprofit board member. That mix gives him firsthand contact with rural, suburban, and urban communities rather than a view shaped mainly inside the Capitol.
Forbes biography ↗KSWO profile ↗Doctoral record ↗A lieutenant governor advances most priorities by persuading, convening, serving on boards, and building agreement with people who hold other powers. Forbes’s repeated emphasis on listening, common ground, transparency, and cross-sector partnership is therefore practical as well as temperamental.
Convening power, 7:45 ↗Common ground, 12:19 ↗Accountability priority ↗Shannon proposes adding statewide infrastructure leadership and the transportation-secretary role to the office. That portfolio is not an automatic power of the lieutenant governor; it would depend on the next governor choosing to assign it.
Shannon interview, 7:13 ↗Official duties ↗Shannon emphasizes infrastructure, lower taxes, reduced regulation, markets, school choice, and CareerTech. The reviewed platform does not offer comparable plans for rural health access, affordable housing, food insecurity, teacher retention, or a detailed ethics agenda—all subjects Forbes puts before voters.
Shannon campaign ↗Full Shannon interview ↗Compare Forbes priorities ↗The Shannon homepage leads with President Trump’s endorsement, the phrase “Built for the Fight,” his work in the Trump administration, and a commitment to keeping Oklahoma conservative. Forbes foregrounds Oklahoma services, communities, and cross-party work. Forbes’s emphasis better matches an office built on statewide representation and persuasion.
Shannon homepage ↗Forbes on collaboration, 12:19 ↗Forbes offers a broad, partnership-driven plan built around the office’s existing authority and influence. He is prepared to use tourism leadership, statewide promotion, board service, and coalition-building from day one—making him the clear choice.
The clearest differences in priorities, governing style, and fit for the office.
These are timestamped passages from the candidates’ full Oklahoma Decides interviews. They are presented with links to the complete interviews so viewers can check the surrounding context.
Forbes starts with authority the lieutenant governor already has: tourism leadership, statewide promotion, convening, and business recruitment.
Oklahoma Decides, 1:53 ↗Shannon’s signature idea is conditional: he would ask the next governor for a separate transportation-secretary assignment.
The contrast: Forbes explains how he would use the office voters are electing him to hold; Shannon’s centerpiece requires another officeholder’s approval.
Oklahoma Decides, 7:13 ↗Forbes argues that enterprise depends on real opportunity, then identifies housing, affordability, health care, and education as enabling conditions.
Oklahoma Decides, 9:40 ↗Shannon relies on a market-first answer: remove government impediments and invest where private demand already points.
The contrast: Forbes names the practical barriers families and employers face; Shannon leads with a broad economic ideology.
Oklahoma Decides, 10:21 ↗Forbes says Oklahoma can move forward by reducing infighting and by listening and finding common ground across party lines.
Oklahoma Decides, 12:19 ↗Shannon criticizes political gamesmanship in the interview, while his campaign homepage prominently uses the phrases “Trump Endorsed,” “Built for the Fight,” and opposition to “the radical left.”
The contrast: Forbes makes cross-party collaboration central to his campaign identity, while Shannon’s homepage gives greater prominence to national partisan alignment.
Oklahoma Decides, 12:28 ↗Shannon campaign messaging ↗A sourced comparison of the priorities each candidate has chosen to put before voters.
Campaign themes translated into the available tools—without pretending the lieutenant governor is the governor.
Forbes pairs statewide ambition with the listening, partnership, promotion, and public-service instincts this office demands. His priorities reach classrooms, clinics, main streets, rural communities, working families, entrepreneurs, and every part of Oklahoma’s story.
Educator · consultant and small-business owner · arts and community advocate
Professional photograph credited by the source to Diana Miller Photography.Forbes’s case is that the lieutenant governor should be a visible, collaborative ambassador who connects tourism and business recruitment to workforce, public services, affordability, culture, and community trust. It is the broader platform and the better match for an office built around promotion, convening, and partnership.
Campaign site ↗Candidate profile and portrait ↗Oklahoma Decides · State Chamber Research Foundation · approximately 15 minutes
Forbes discusses tourism, workforce, education, small business, incentives, diversity, health care, housing, and collaboration. The business-sponsored format emphasizes economic policy.
Watch on YouTube ↗The lieutenant governor should be Oklahoma's public-facing “cheerleader” and begin with tourism.Oklahoma Decides, 1:53 ↗
Treat educators as professionals and make Oklahoma a place where teachers want to build careers.Oklahoma Decides, 5:03 ↗
Support entrepreneurs and existing businesses, but judge incentives by strategic value and return.Oklahoma Decides, 6:16 ↗
His closing model is to listen, learn, lead authentically, and look for common ground.Oklahoma Decides, 14:00 ↗
Former Oklahoma House speaker · banking and tribal-enterprise executive · former transportation commissioner
Professional photograph from the Shannon campaign.Shannon's case is experience: he has worked in the Legislature, transportation oversight, Chickasaw enterprises, community banking, and federal rural policy. He would preserve the lieutenant governor's tourism role, ask for a transportation portfolio, and use conservative market policy to pursue growth and reduce generational poverty.
Campaign site ↗KSWO profile ↗Oklahoma Decides · State Chamber Research Foundation · approximately 16 minutes
Shannon discusses poverty, markets, education standards, core industries, infrastructure, tourism, the governor relationship, taxes, and CareerTech. The business-sponsored format emphasizes economic policy.
Watch on YouTube ↗Continue tourism promotion and ask the next governor to add statewide infrastructure and transportation leadership.Oklahoma Decides, 7:13 ↗
Create “more taxpayers, not more taxes” by containing government growth and attracting investment and residents.Oklahoma Decides, 14:20 ↗
Raise expectations, expand accountable school choice, and promote CareerTech to make Oklahoma more competitive.Oklahoma Decides, 14:44 ↗
Infrastructure offers common ground across party, geography, public safety, and economic development.Oklahoma Decides, 13:27 ↗