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Tag: senior advisor

  • Stitt appoints three new officials to fill roles in his administration

    Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks at a press conference on June 5, 2025 at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice)

    OKLAHOMA CITY — Gov. Kevin Stitt on Thursday appointed three officials to his administration, all of whom he has previously named to other positions in Oklahoma state government. 

    Stitt appointed Donelle Harder as Oklahoma Secretary of State, David Ostrowe as chief operating officer and Dustin Hilliary as his senior advisor. 

    “We successfully launched this administration by bringing a fresh set of eyes from Oklahoma’s business community, and we will finish the same way,” Stitt said in a statement. “These three outstanding Oklahomans bring diverse strengths: Dustin’s trusted leadership and negotiation prowess, David’s operational acumen, and Donelle’s strategic vision.”

    The appointments follow the resignations of Josh Cockroft, who serves as secretary of state and Stitt’s chief policy advisor, and Rick Rose, the head of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services and Oklahoma’s chief operating officer. Cockcroft’s resignation is effective Oct. 2 while Rose plans to depart Sept. 26.

    Donelle Harder is pictured. (Provided by the Oklahoma Governor’s Office)

    Harder previously served as Stitt’s senior advisor and deputy Secretary of State and worked as his spokesperson and campaign manager. She also previously worked as former U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe’s spokesperson. 

    In the private sector, she sold her regional public relations and marketing firm to Pinkston in 2022, and she became one of the company’s senior vice presidents. 

    “I’m honored to serve as Secretary of State and support Governor Stitt’s administration again,” Harder said in a statement. “I look forward to sharpening our strategic approach and ensuring this administration remains effective and focused on delivering good government for the people of Oklahoma.”

    Her appointment is effective Oct. 1. 

    Ostrowe will return to Stitt’s administration as the chief operating officer and secretary to “drive cabinet coordination and support agency directors.”

    David Ostrowe is pictured. (Provided by the Oklahoma Governor’s Office)

    David Ostrowe is pictured. (Provided by the Oklahoma Governor’s Office)

    He currently serves as president and CEO of O&M Restaurant Group leading brand expansions across states. 

    During Stitt’s first term, Ostrowe served as Oklahoma’s first Secretary of Digital Transformation and Administration. He was indicted by former Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter in late 2020 for allegedly bribing a state official. Ostrowe was accused of threatening to cut funding from the state Tax Commission if commissioners didn’t waive penalties and interests on a tax debt. 

    Current Attorney General Gentner Drummond dismissed the charges with prejudice, meaning they can’t be refiled, and apologized to Ostrowe on behalf of the state after he took office. He said Ostrowe should not have been indicted and did nothing wrong.

    “In Governor Stitt’s first administration, we worked with passion to deliver digital transformation and make government more efficient and transparent,” Ostrowe said in a statement. “I am honored to return as COO to help finish that mission and continue advancing good government for all Oklahomans.”

    Dustin Hilliary is pictured. (Provided by the Oklahoma Governor’s Office)

    Dustin Hilliary is pictured. (Provided by the Oklahoma Governor’s Office)

    Hilliary, Stitt’s new senior advisor and chief negotiator, also serves as the vice chair of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. It was not immediately clear if he would continue serving in both roles. 

    He is co-CEO of Hilliary Communications, which provides telephone and broadband service to customers in Oklahoma, Texas and Iowa. Hilliary is also co-publisher of the Hilliary Media Group, a media holding company, and operates a real estate development company.

    “It is an honor to serve Oklahoma and to work alongside Governor Stitt in his final term to advance policies with the Legislature that put our state on a strong path today and for future generations,” Hilliary said in a statement.

    The salaries of all three appointees were not immediately provided by the Governor’s Office. 

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  • A Food Fight at the Kids’ Table

    A Food Fight at the Kids’ Table

    Suddenly, it just tumbled out: “Honestly, every time I hear you I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.”

    That was former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley’s rebuke of businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, easily the best line of Wednesday night’s messy and awkward GOP primary debate. Ramaswamy, for his part, produced his own meme-worthy quote during a heated exchange with Senator Tim Scott: “Thank you for speaking while I’m interrupting.”

    Such was the onstage energy at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum: Chaotic, sloppy, largely substance-free. Seven candidates desperately fought for fresh relevance; none of them came away with it. Rather than pitching themselves as the candidate who can beat former President Donald Trump, these Republicans seemed to be operating most of the time in an alternate universe, in which Trump was absent not just from the stage, but from the race.

    Eight years ago, so many candidates were vying for the Republican nomination that the party took to splitting primary debates into two sessions: the main event and the undercard. The latter contest was mocked as the “kids’ table” debate. So far this time around, there’s only one unified debate night. Nevertheless, Trump has such a commanding lead over his challengers that, for the second debate in a row, he hasn’t even bothered to show up and speak. Voters have no reason to believe he’ll be at any of the other contests. Trump counter-programmed last month’s Fox News debate by sitting down for a sympathetic interview with the former Fox star Tucker Carlson. On Wednesday, Trump delivered a speech in Michigan, where a powerful union—United Auto Workers—are in the second week of a strike.

    All seven candidates who qualified for the debate—individuals with honorifics such as “governor,” “senator,” and “former vice president”—spent the evening arguing at the kids’ table. Barring some sort of medical emergency, Trump seems like the inevitable 2024 GOP nominee. As Michael Scherer of The Washington Post pointed out on X (formerly Twitter), the candidates on stage were collectively polling at 36 percent. If they were to join forces and become one person (think seven Republicans stacked in a trenchcoat), Trump would still be winning by 20 percent.

    Read: A parade of listless vessels

    How many other ways can you say this? The race is effectively over. So what, then, were they all doing there? A cynic would tell you they’re merely running for second place—for a shot at a cabinet position, maybe even VP.

    One candidate decidedly not running for vice president is Former Vice President Mike Pence, who has taken to (gently) attacking his old boss. Nor does former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie seem to want a sidekick or administration gig. Christie has staked his entire campaign on calling out Trump’s sins, and, so far, it’s not working. Earlier on Wednesday, Christie shared a photo of himself at a recent NFL game, with a cringeworthy nod to new Kansas City Chiefs fan Taylor Swift: “I was just a guy in the bleachers on Sunday… but after tonight, Trump will know we are never ever getting back together.”

    At the debate, Christie stared directly into the camera like Macho Man Randy Savage, pointer finger and all, to deliver what amounted to a professional wrestling taunt. “Donald, I know you’re watching. You can’t help yourself!” Christie began. “You’re not here tonight because you’re afraid of being on this stage and defending your record. You’re ducking these things, and let me tell you what’s going to happen.”

    [Here it comes]

    “You keep doing that, no one up here’s gonna call you Donald Trump anymore. We’re gonna call you Donald Duck.”

    “Alright,” moderator Dana Perino said.

    The crowd appeared to laugh, cheer, boo, and groan.

    The auto-worker’s strike, and criticisms of the larger American economy, received significant attention at the debate. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum laid the strike “at Joe Biden’s feet.” Pence came ready with a zinger: “Joe Biden doesn’t belong on a picket line, he belongs on the unemployment line.” (Another Pence joke about sleeping with a teacher—his wife—didn’t quite land.)

    Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, once seen as Trump’s closest rival, stood center stage but spent most of the night struggling to connect as all the candidates intermittently talked over one another. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, perhaps trying to fight back against those who claim he lacks charisma, frequently went on the attack, most notably against Ramaswamy, who, in the previous debate, claimed his rivals were “bought and paid for.” Later, Scott attacked DeSantis for his past controversial comments about race: “There is not a redeeming quality in slavery,” Scott said. But he followed that up a moment later with another sound byte: “America is not a racist country.”

    Read: The GOP primary is a field of broken dreams

    However earnest and honest Scott’s message may be, it was impossible to hear his words without thinking of the man he’s running against. So again: What was everyone doing Wednesday night? In an alternate reality, a red-state candidate like Scott, Haley, or Burgum might cruise to the GOP nomination. In a way, Fox Business, itself, seemed to broadcast tonight’s proceedings in that strange other world. The network kept playing retro Reagan clips as the debate came in and out of commercial breaks. And those ads? One featured South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem—not a 2024 presidential candidate, but certainly a potential VP pick—making a pitch for people to move to her sparsely populated state. Another ad argued that the Biden administration’s plan to ban menthol cigarettes would be a boon to Mexican drug cartels. What?

    It was all a sideshow. Trump’s team seemed to know it, too. With just over five minutes left in the debate, the former president’s campaign blasted out a statement to reporters from a senior advisor: “Tonight’s GOP debate was as boring and inconsequential as the first debate, and nothing that was said will change the dynamics of the primary contest being dominated by President Trump.” For all of Trump’s lies, he and his acolytes can occasionally be excruciatingly honest.

    John Hendrickson

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