GLENPOOL, Okla. — A dinner gala for a Tulsa-based evangelical political group hosted State Superintendent Ryan Walters March 6, but almost as many people attended to protest outside.
The speaking engagement at Glenpool Conference Center and City Hall wasn't the first time Walters drew protesters in Green Country, but host organization City Elders attracted even more anger.
City Elders is a conservative evangelical political movement founded in Tulsa in 2015.
Superintendent Walters, who said he met with Eric Trump "for several hours" earlier in the day, confirmed to 2 News City Elders is a group he has a great relationship with.
"I've spoken at many events like this today – both public and private," Walters said. "So look, I continue to be unapologetic that I'm going to get the message out to Oklahomans. I'm going to hear from Oklahomans. This has been a great organization that's been working to make sure Oklahoma is as good of a state as it can be. I've spoken to them a few times and I'll continue to do that."
"Ryan Walters has been a regular fixture at an admitted Christian dominionist(sic) group pushing a theonomy," Sheena Martin told 2 News.
Martin said she drove two and a half hours to demonstrate against Walters and the organization hosting him.
A member of City Elders' Senior Council told 2 News off-camera that the event was to promote "reading, writing, arithmetic, and God & family.'
Glenpool parent Amber Bain and her seventh-grade daughter, Abby, said they couldn't disagree more with City Elders and Walters being in their town.
"I definitely want people to be like, aware that what he's doing is not okay, and it's definitely not normal," Abby told 2 News.
- Previous coverage >>>PARENT PROTESTS: Ryan Walters visit to Tulsa school met with jeers
"As a community, it feels like this is not what people want," Amber Bain said.
Glenpool Public Schools Superintendent Curtis Layton confirmed to 2 News he would not attend the gala.
"I will not be attending and I do not know the agenda or topic of his presentation. I was not contacted by Superintendent Walters nor his staff about this event."
Around a hundred protesters eventually jeered attendees in the back of the city hall and conference center later in the night, making their way from the front of the building while police monitored from a short distance. Martin was one of them.
"The people of Oklahoma should be very, very, very worried that radical Christian nationalists are shoving their flavor of Jesus down our kids' throats," Martin said.
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