A Closer Look At Governor Kevin Stitt's D.C. Office

Early in his first term, Governor Kevin Stitt announced that he planned to invest taxpayer dollars in opening an office with full-time staff in the nation's capital, something no Oklahoma governor had done since the early 1990s.

Opening the office, Stitt says, fits with his belief in the importance of engaging with the federal administration, whether Republican or Democratic. He has made a point of encouraging his cabinet secretaries to meet with their federal counterparts and with the state’s congressional delegation by making regular visits to Washington, and his DC office helps make that happen.

"I can’t say enough great things about the DC office," said Governor Stitt in an interview earlier this year.

Leading the two-person office is Enid’s Christina Gungoll Lepore, who summed up its purpose when she first arrived almost two and a half years ago.

"The Governor wanted to open this office to make sure that Oklahoma is on a level playing field with other states that have boots on the ground here," she said in April 2021.

Since then, it has been a nearly nonstop Oklahoma-to-DC parade of cabinet secretaries: Energy, Health, Public Safety, Agriculture, and Transportation.

"There’s a lot going on right now and we want to make sure we’re not missing something," Secretary of Transportation Tim Gatz in December 2022.

They don't want to miss an opportunity to get federal funding, which accounts for about 40 percent of Oklahoma's budget.

One particularly big get that Stitt believes is at least in part due to his administration's stepped-up DC presence is the $85 million grant to rebuild the I-44-Highway 75 interchange in Tulsa.

"I know what a messed-up juncture that was," said Stitt, "that’s going to be transformational for Oklahoma."

The annual cost of the DC office is about $350,000 ($345,000 in FY 2022), with the funding responsibility divided among a half dozen state agencies and the Governor's office. Stitt says it's giving the state an advantage.

"Because we have these relationships and Christina‘s here," Stitt said, "we’re winning those ties, which was exactly my vision when I set this office up."