Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, has taken pains to boost his national profile and get in President Donald Trump’s good graces. It’s made Oklahoma politics awkward in the process.

Intraparty tension had been building throughout Walters’ tenure but finally came to a head when Gov. Kevin Stitt replaced members of the Oklahoma State Board of Education, including Walters’ allies, arguing the committee was too political.

Walters responded by forming a Trump Advisory Committee, which he described in a news release as a “DOGE-style education oversight group,” to which he appointed two of the former board members. Stitt later turned up the temperature in a press conference where he accused Walters of “running for another office and trying to get headlines” and criticized his proposal to collect information about students’ immigration status.

Republicans in the state’s congressional delegation have been left watching with interest.

“I’m praying for peace,” Rep. Josh Brecheen told NOTUS after Stitt criticized Walters. “From what little I know about their relationship, I know that they have respect for each other.”

Stitt is term limited, and the vacancy he’s leaving behind is sure to draw several Republicans looking to rise in the political ranks. Walters has not announced a gubernatorial campaign and did not answer questions from NOTUS about his future plans.

But he’s not missed an opportunity to cast himself as an ally to Trump, arguing last week that Stitt had “joined the swampy political establishment that President Trump is fighting against.” In a statement to NOTUS, Walters pivoted to the cost of educating undocumented immigrants, arguing that “not only is the Governor ignoring a mandate from … President Trump, he’s going against the will of Oklahomans.”

Stitt’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

“Clearly, the governor and the secretary of education in Oklahoma were closely aligned, and now they seem to have some substantial and major differences of opinion,” Rep. Frank Lucas told NOTUS. “It’s fascinating to watch.”

Not all of Oklahoma’s lawmakers wanted to weigh in.

“I’m not going to get involved in that,” Rep. Tom Cole told NOTUS. “It’s obviously not something we work with. That’s between the governor and the superintendent.”

Meanwhile, Walters’ political reputation may be taking a hit. At least one poll showed his favorability underwater in the state as of this month The number of Republicans who described Walters as “unfavorable” went up about 20 percentage points among registered Republican voters since September 2022, and about twice as many Republicans said they had a “strongly unfavorable” impression of him rather than a “strongly favorable” one, according to CHS & Associates, a Republican polling firm that released the poll Tuesday.

Walters may use this situation to his advantage in order to make a run for governor and try to message himself as “the most Republican Republican,” Tyler Powell, an Oklahoma-based political adviser, told NOTUS.

“[Walters] wants to be viewed as a martyr, he wants to be viewed as someone who is right on this,” Powell said.

The superintendent was elected in 2022, and his tenure has been filled with far-right proposals, many of which have been aimed at blurring the line between church and state. They also rarely fail to mention President Donald Trump.

He made national headlines for mandating that public schools teach the Bible to fifth through 12th graders, and that one be kept in every classroom. He sought bids for thousands of copies fitting the description of the “Trump Bible.” He required schools to play a video of him praying for Trump and another video announcing a Department of Religious Freedom and Patriotism.

Much of Oklahoma is also playing a parlor game around what all this tension could mean for Walters’ future.

“It’s political season, right?” Rep. Kevin Hern told NOTUS. “It’s about who’s going to run for governor, who’s been the governor and who is going to be the next OSU president. All those things really matter.”

Hern added that he knows both Stitt and Walters well, and while he’ll leave it to the pair to settle their differences, “scrimmages from time to time, it sharpens the sword.”

This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS, a publication of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute, and Oklahoma Watch.