Shock new poll shows GOP Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt 7 points BEHIND his rival

A shocking poll from Oklahoma Monday shows incumbent Republican administration Kevin Stitt seven points behind his rival.

An investigation by an Oklahoma-based political consultancy Ascend Action and KOKH-TV shows Stitt with 42 percent support from likely voters and Republican Democrat Joy Hofmeister leads the race with 49 percent support.

Another 8 percent of Oklahoma’s likely voters remain undecided.

Hofmeister leads the way thanks to strong support among the self-employed.

The poll found that 69 percent of likely independent voters supported Hofmeister, while only 22 percent were for Stitt.

One in five likely Republican voters also said they intended to support Hofmeister, who has served as state Chief Inspector of Public Education since 2015.

Meanwhile, just 4 percent of Democrats said they would cross party lines to cast a vote for the incumbent governor.

Hofmeister switched sides a year ago to fight Stitt for governor.

Eighty-nine percent of Democrats in Oklahoma said they intended to vote for her.

Of course, in scarlet Oklahoma, there are more Republican voters than Democrats.

However, supporters of Hofmeister believe she has cross-party appeal.

While former President Donald Trump approved Stitt’s run in March, Hofmeister has tried to attract the less MAGA-affiliated sections of the Republican Party.

She has also expressed her support for keeping abortion legal.

“I am not in favor of extremism on either side of this issue. Most importantly, this is and should remain a health decision between a woman and her doctor.” she said in March.

In the same interview, she said that “tough subjects” such as the Tulsa massacre should be taught in schools.

Hofmeister, a schoolteacher who ran a tutoring company out of Tulsa, has put education policy at the heart of her campaign.

She has thrown cold water on a Stitt-backed proposal to provide education vouchers to families to spend on private school lessons and other education expenses.

Hofmeister called this a ‘rural school killer’, a message that seems to resonate with voters.

“What surprised me the most is the Hofmeister wave in some rural areas,” Hudson Talley, an Ascend Action partner, told KOKH-TV.

The poll was taken between October 10 and 12 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percent.

And while Hofmeister’s lead is out of bounds, Talley said he believed Stitt could turn a profit and catch up with her in the next three weeks.

“I have a feeling Joy may be at her ceiling and this could be Stitt’s race to lose,” he said.

Oklahoma has not elected a Democratic governor since 2006, when voters gave the Democratic administration Brad Henry a second term.