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Fallin Previews RNC Speech; Oklahoma Delegate Reacts To Cruz Remarks

Gov. Mary Fallin speaks during first day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Monday, July 18, 2016.
Carolyn Kaster
/
AP
Gov. Mary Fallin speaks during first day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Monday.

Gov. Mary Fallin says she plans to talk about what her party stands for during her address on the final night of the Republican National Convention.

She told MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Wednesday her speech Thursday evening will be similar to the brief remarks she delivered Monday when she talked about the party’s platform.

“If you believe in free markets and individual liberty, if you believe we don’t have fair trade in the world, if you believe we have to do more to defend our country and stand up against people who threaten our way of life. If you believe in building jobs, a strong economy, those types of things, that’s what I’m going to be talking about,” Fallin said.

The governor also says people she’s talked to in Cleveland feel the stakes are higher-than-usual in the 2016 presidential election, and that she’s noticed a different GOP this year compared to previous party gatherings.

“We are seeing a lot of people who have never been involved in politics get involved in this particular election cycle. And there are a lot of people who have come to the convention that have never been to one,” Fallin said. “As I talk to my delegates from Oklahoma, they’ll say, ‘This is the first time I’ve ever come. This is so exciting!’”

One member of Oklahoma’s delegation says U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Tex.) decision to not endorse Donald Trump was a “classless move.”

Delegate Hope Sutterfield of Duncan says she believed Cruz would announce his endorsement Wednesday night.

“I still kind of thought that he would come and say, you know, ‘We need to support the party’s nominee,’ or ‘We need to support the party’,” Sutterfield said. “And he didn’t. I think that he really hurt himself. I don’t know if he will be able to come back from that and play in national politics from now on.”

She thinks Cruz hurt himself by not endorsing Trump.

“The whole convention is about nominating Donald Trump as the nominee and he decided to go ahead and show up and speak but then refused to endorse him, and people were not happy,” Sutterfield said.

She says she is looking forward to Trump’s speech tonight, and she hopes his presentation will help unite the party.

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Brian Hardzinski is from Flower Mound, Texas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He began his career at KGOU as a student intern, joining KGOU full time in 2009 as Operations and Public Service Announcement Director. He began regularly hosting Morning Edition in 2014, and became the station's first Digital News Editor in 2015-16. Brian’s work at KGOU has been honored by Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI), the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, the Oklahoma Associated Press Broadcasters, and local and regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. Brian enjoys competing in triathlons, distance running, playing tennis, and entertaining his rambunctious Boston Terrier, Bucky.
Jacob McCleland spent nine years as a reporter and host at public radio station KRCU in Cape Girardeau, Mo. His stories have appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered, Here & Now, Harvest Public Media and PRI’s The World. Jacob has reported on floods, disappearing languages, crop duster pilots, anvil shooters, Manuel Noriega, mule jumps and more.
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