Two state lawmakers are competing to be the Republican nominee for state commissioner of labor.

Rep. John Pfeiffer, R-Orlando, and Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, debated Thursday in McAlester. The event was organized by NonDoc Media and Griffin Media. 

The Frontier used public records and other sources to fact-check some of the candidates’ remarks during the debate. 

The winner of the Republican runoff election on Tuesday will compete against Democrat Kevin Dawson and Libertarian Mike Hall in the November general election.

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Claim: The state of Oklahoma once required a state-issued license to braid another person’s hair.
Pfeiffer said: “You used to have a license to braid hair here in the state of Oklahoma. There’s no reason.”
Fact check: True 

Lawmakers removed the requirement for a hairbraiding technician to have a license from the state’s Board of Cosmetology and Barbering in 2018. Those who supported getting rid of the license said it could be expensive and time-consuming for people who want to start their own business, and hairbraiding technicians don’t use chemicals or provide hair-cutting services. 
-Kayla Branch

Claim: An Oklahoma Department of Labor program can help businesses avoid financial penalties for violations and federal workplace safety inspections, but requires a state OSHA inspector to be embedded at the workplace for up to a few months.
Pfeiffer said: “The Labor Commission offers an OSHA program that’s funded through a federal grant. They actually embed a state OSHA inspector with a business anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months. They don’t issue fines and fees. They stay with that business, they work through those safety problems they have, help them find remedies for that and then state OSHA certify them, so when the federal OSHA inspectors show up, they show them that certificate.”
Fact check: Mostly true 

The state Department of Labor does offer a consultation program that helps businesses identify hazards and recommend solutions, without issuing citations or proposing fines. Consultations are free to employers and largely funded by the federal government, according to the program website. But Liz Searock, a spokesperson for the agency, said that the consultation team is not embedded with a business for weeks or months. 

Each visit lasts between a couple of hours and a full day, and some companies might request multiple visits, Searock said. Businesses that meet certain criteria can pursue certification through the agency’s Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program, which could qualify them for up to two years of programmed OSHA inspection exemptions. 
-Ari Fife

Claim: A bill filed by Kevin West in 2025 that placed restrictions on drag shows was made into law. 
West said: “Well, actually, one of those bills — not the bill that you mentioned — but I did get the ban on the drag shows in public passed in another version.”
Fact check: True

House Bill 1217, authored by West and Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, was signed into law by Gov. Kevin Stitt in May 2025.

The bill made it a misdemeanor to perform or allow an adult performance containing obscene material in a public place where minors could see it. Violations can carry up to one year in county jail and fines ranging from $500 to $1,000. 
-Dylan Goforth

Claim: Oklahoma is the only state that has not redone its tax code since the 1930s.

Pfeiffer said: “Every other state except for Oklahoma, since the 1930s, has sat down and completely redone our tax code, or redone their tax code. We haven’t.”

Fact check: Mostly false

Oklahoma enacted a tax code in 1965 to “revise, amend and reenact” existing tax statutes, eliminate obsolete provisions and reorganize them into a unified code, according to the legislation. Lawmakers have revisited the tax system since then, including creating a Task Force on Comprehensive Tax Reform in 2010 to recommend changes to taxes on individuals and businesses.

Pfeiffer told The Frontier someone on the state legislature’s fiscal staff had told him this around a decade ago and that he had not independently verified it. 

He made the claim while defending his vote for tax increases in 2018, arguing that Oklahoma had relied on piecemeal changes instead of modernizing a tax system that no longer matched the state’s economy. State tax-reform panels and outside analysts have identified structural problems with Oklahoma’s mix of income, sales, property and business taxes. Those include a sales-tax system that exempts many services, an increasingly important share of consumer spending, and state revenues that have been vulnerable to swings in oil and gas production.
-Garrett Yalch

Claim: State funds originally meant to incentivize the Japanese company Panasonic to build a battery plant in Oklahoma were instead set aside by the Oklahoma Legislature to keep electric bills low for a proposed majority foreign-owned aluminum smelter plant in Inola under a deal brokered by President Donald Trump.
Pfeiffer said: “The original sum of money was set aside when we were trying to recruit Panasonic to build a battery plant here. So it was already money that we had set aside that was left over from the year before. When President Trump’s team reached out to the House and said, ‘Okay, we’re cutting this deal with the United Arab Emirates. They want to build a smelter in the state of Oklahoma, but one of the things that’s stopping them is they need a set amount — or they need a set electricity rate for a set amount of time. So what this money did was go and buy an annuity that allowed us to work a deal with PSO and say, ‘Okay, here’s what this utility rate is going to be for this amount of time.’ And that was the thing that finally got this across the finish line and helped President Trump close this deal and bring the smelter here into Oklahoma.”
Fact check: Mostly true 

Oklahoma enacted House Bill 2781 in 2025. The bill was written by Rep. Trey Caldwell, R-Faxon and Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry, creating the Reindustrialize Oklahoma Act of 2025. The legislation created a new rebate program under the Oklahoma Department of Commerce to attract new industrial development and create jobs. 

Chase Horn, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce confirmed to The Frontier that money originally set to be used to attract a Panasonic battery plant before it fell through would be used for incentives for the aluminum smelter. The program will also use money that had been set aside for the 2023 Perform Act that was also designed to provide business incentives. The money is planned to be used by the state to subsidize energy costs for the smelter if it is built and approved for the program and would be paid directly to Public Service Company of Oklahoma, which will provide power to the smelter, Horn said. However, the annuity agreement did not specify a set electricity rate for the smelter, which is still to be determined.

Multiple lawmakers and political candidates other than Pfeifer, including Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate Mike Mazzei, have credited President Donald Trump for brokering the deal to  build the smelter to Oklahoma.
-Clifton Adcock

Claim: A state apprenticeship program under a bill authored by West has had some success, but has not yet been adopted in several areas of the state, and there has been a lack of promotion for it.
West said: “I mentioned the bill that I passed a few years ago. We’ve seen success in some areas with that, and then other areas are completely unaware of it, and mostly because we haven’t had leadership to promote it.”
Fact check: True

West coauthored Senate Bill 619 in 2021 with Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant. The law lets Oklahoma schools create apprenticeship, internship or mentorship programs with private or public organizations. Sophomore students age 16 or older and juniors and seniors can participate, as permitted by their schools. 

Nearly 18,300 out of 100,892 Oklahoma junior and seniors were enrolled in internship courses during the 2024-25 school year, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Education. The agency wasn’t able to determine how many schools have agreements with businesses for internship programs before publication, but a spokesperson said it’s accurate that few schools are participating. 

Tara Thompson, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma State Department of Education and Broken Arrow Public Schools, said many schools and businesses aren’t creating these programs because there’s a lack of awareness that the law exists.

There are also barriers to participating. Some companies require interns to be 18 or older, or are hesitant to bring on students because of liability risks, Thompson said. Lack of transportation to get students to job sites is another obstacle. 

A 2025 measure shifts the liability from businesses, which Thompson said may encourage more organizations to participate in the student programs. 
-Maddy Keyes

Rating system: 
True: A claim that is backed up by factual evidence
Mostly true: A claim that is mostly true but also contains some inaccurate details 
Mixed: A claim that contains a combination of accurate and inaccurate or unproven information 
True but misleading: A claim that is factually true but omits critical details or context 
Mostly false: A claim that is mostly false but also contains some accurate details 
False: A claim that has no basis in fact