Democrats have seemingly found another candidate who could name their favorite drag queen at the drop of a hat.
Last month, Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was asked to name his favorite drag queen and did so instantly, naming an entertainer who has described himself as “a drag performer that works with children.”
The following weekend, Oklahoma’s Democrat gubernatorial candidate Cyndi Munson spent her Saturday dancing with children in a city park at a festival that featured several drag queens.
It’s unclear whether Munson can actually name her favorite drag performer as quickly as Talarico, but spending one of the final weekends before Election Day campaigning at a pride festival suggests that possibility is not off the table.
The September 19 event, “Pride in the Park,” was hosted by Muskogee Equality, an organization “dedicated to uplifting and empowering 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals and marginalized communities” that hosts various pride events in the Muskogee community. A flyer for the gathering featured Munson alongside several drag queens who also headlined the event.
Munson, who has served as an Oklahoma state representative since 2015 and as the House minority leader, is running for U.S. Senate against Republican Mike Mazzei, former Oklahoma state senator and Secretary of Budget. Trump-endorsed Mazzei won the Republican nomination in a close race against Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond.
Munson has never married and does not have children, yet at the event is seen dancing with a young child that is not her own as a drag queen performed for attendees by lip-syncing to a rendition of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”
The audience included several children, many waving pride flags or dressed in rainbow clothing. Other attendees are seen holding Munson campaign signs and pride flags. And children were not only present at the event — they were active participants.
During the performance, a child dressed in rainbow tie-dye approached the drag queen, running and leaping as the crowd cheered, and handed the entertainer cash — a move often associated with strip clubs and replicated at drag shows.
Attending a pride festival featuring multiple drag performers was itself a telling campaign choice for Munson. But what was even more revolting was the presence and participation of children, and how enthusiastically Munson embraced that.
At a different point in the event, Munson addressed the crowd from a stage decorated with pride flags, and praised the children present at the event as the child whom she previously danced with ran around behind her on the stage.
“Thank you for just showing up and being together, and showing the world that we can be kind, we can love,” Munson told the crowd. “We’ve got kids running around who are seeing the future.”
Munson told attendees they embodied “kindness and love and togetherness” because of their presence at the event. But the policies with which Munson has associated herself on transgender issues have often received a considerably different reception from Oklahoma voters.
Following Munson’s address, a drag queen dressed in a crimson sequined bikini with thigh-high red boots, called Keisha Kye, took the stage and gave Munson an enthusiastic endorsement, as Kye embraced Munson before declaring her the “new next governor of Oklahoma” and his “new hero,” adding “I love you, Cyndi.”
Kye’s support of Munson did not emerge in a vacuum. Throughout her decade in office, Munson has repeatedly supported LGBTQ causes and touted her legislative record on the issue.
In June, Munson celebrated the beginning of pride month by touting her legislative record, saying she “voted against every anti-LGBTQ bill” brought before her in the legislature. Part of that record includes her 2023 “nay” vote on a bill that would ban sex change procedures for minors, which Munson said she “proudly debated against” before voting against the legislation.
In February, Munson pushed back on House Bill 3130, which expanded Oklahoma’s existing ban on sex change procedures for minors, and questioned Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore about his “obsession” with enforcing restrictions on “gender-affirming care” for children.
“I want to know what the obsession is with targeting these children, with targeting families,” Munson asked West after he introduced the bill. “I have worked with you for nearly a decade, so I know parental rights are important to you. So why continue to push legislation like this that gets in the way of the very thing that I know, and that many folks in this room know value around parental rights?”
“My obsession on this is about protecting these children who are not able to make informed decisions,” West said in response. “There’s a lot of things we don’t let minors do for those very reasons, and this will now be one of those things that’s added to that list because these are life-altering decisions that they’re making.”
But recent polling shows Oklahoma voters favor restrictions on several of the transgender policy issues Munson has opposed. A 2024 survey found 53 percent of Oklahoma voters favored laws banning sex change drugs and transgender medical treatment for minors, while 70 percent said support for transgender rights in government and society had “gone too far.”
A separate University of Oklahoma poll from this year found 74 percent of Oklahomans support requiring students to use school bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding with their biological sex.
Republican opponent Mazzei, meanwhile, sided with Oklahomans on this issue and celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to keep biological men from competing in women’s sports in public schools and has expressed his support for bans on sex change procedures.
“Mike Mazzei believes boys should not compete in girls’ sports or enter girls’ locker rooms, and given how Cyndi Munson spent her weekend, it’s clear they have very different values,” Jahan Wilcox, spokesman for Mike Mazzei told Townhall. “Munson’s record and actions prove she is just as liberal as the Democratic Socialist running for U.S. Senate in Oklahoma, which is why she needs to be defeated.”
Munson hasn’t been in touch with her voters on these issues during her decade in office, and as she campaigns for governor, she continues to prove she would side with the radical left as governor. That’s hardly expected to go over well in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the office of governor since 2006.
Maybe Keisha Kye is Munson’s favorite drag queen, maybe not. But Kye calling Munson “my new hero” aligns with Munson’s decade-long radical record. What happened in Muskogee last weekend was not some one-off occurrence on the campaign trail. Instead, it’s a vivid illustration of who Munson is and what policies she supports.