Updated: The Tulsa Republican Club (TRC) has been dissociated from the Republican Party of Oklahoma (OKGOP) by the State Executive Committee, the governing body of the party with all 77 Counties represented. They took this unusual formal action based on TRC’s public and private acts and statements asserted to be contrary to Republican principles.
OKGOP Chairman Charity Linch offered the TRC organizer, Charity Marcus, an opportunity to speak to the group and resolve all dispute, but she has not accepted the offer as of this writing. This story, however, focuses on the factual errors of TRC’s history posted on their web site as captured in the following graphic.
The Tulsa Republican Club website is available at this link. (After the first publication on this story on the author’s subscription site, TRC made some changes but… there remain several disputes.)
It was Paul Thornbrugh not “Tom” who started the club named the Tulsa Republican Men’s Club. Paul came to Tulsa in 1965 to work for Mapco as the Director of Governmental and Political Affairs. Paul was known as “Mr. Republican” and identified by Voices of Oklahoma, an Oklahoma Historical Society project, as a patriot, public servant, politician, and businessman.
Host John Earling interviewed him October 14, 2014, that extensive interview is online at this link. https://voicesofoklahoma.com/interviews/thornbrugh-paul/
While you can tell in the interview that John Erling is a leftist host, he did a good job on this interview of Paul and the gallery of photographs includes many more than I had seen on his study wall. Paul knew Presidents and once danced with a First Lady. He was gracious, smart, kind to the young, and above all he treasured his family. He was one of this writer’s political mentors. Paul was 97 when he passed May 17, 2018.
He started several political clubs in his time. That is something Marcus TRC fails to understand. Political groups are always forming and changing, and anyone can be a Republican – it is a self-selecting affiliation by individual registration.
Old lions may disagree with details, but false fabrications by Marcus TRC illustrate the necessity of truthful documentation. All the current drama could have been avoided if Marcus TRC had not lied, attempting to achieve historic credibility they do not deserve. Start a club under a new name and get busy building up your own branch of the local party rather than dividing it into some childish self-aggrandizement or consultant cash flow.
Charity Marcus had worked with Ronda Smith and her 9/12 group and she ran for Chairman of the County party but was defeated in 2025 by Melissa Myers and grassroots activists. Marcus has frequently been a campaign consultant for Democrats, has been involved in some questionable nonprofits, and has engaged as a spokesperson for reparations.
Divisions within the Tulsa GOP have always existed and the current ones reflect decades-old power struggles dating back to the Ronald Reagan era. At that time, Paul Thornbrugh was the influential spokesperson for the Tulsa GOP and, along with his “sidekick” Warren Roberts, was part of Mayor Jim Inhofe’s inner circle.
This group’s gathering spot was the Summit Club, which hosted the meetings. A significant schism occurred after Inhofe’s fourth mayoral term ended in an upset defeat by Terry Young. Thornbrugh and Tom Cole pressured Inhofe to run for mayor again, but he refused, determined not to be controlled by them. Instead, he declared his candidacy for Congress, directly challenging their preferred candidate. Inhofe’s congressional victory created a lasting factional split.
Update: After publication, Terry Simonson wrote to highlight that he “was Chairman of the Tulsa County Republican Party between 1992 and 1998 (at the time the longest serving Chairman and who never had an opponent at the county conventions). We had two camps: one lead by Paul Thornbrough and one lead by Art Rubin – moderate and conservative [respectfully]. Yet with great patience and diplomacy and inclusion, I was able to keep the party at peace and get Republicans elected at all levels.” He agreed with the core assertion of the story that “a divided party is not really new.”
The dynamic repeated when Pat Highland was elected to OKGOP Vice Chairman from 1989 to 1991, and “upended” the established order. The same happened in Tulsa County in 2025 as the grassroots elected Melissa Myers as Tulsa County Chairman thus returning the party to traditional Republican values.
In response to losing their power base, Thornbrough and Roberts’s faction back in the day, left the Tulsa Republican Men’s Club and formed a rival organization, the Republican Assembly. Initially, this group served as a home for the more liberal wing of the party. Over time, however, the Republican Assembly has morphed into a more hard-right-wing, conservative operation. Then the club maintained a degree of order and inclusivity, allowing disruptive figures like former City Councilor Chris Medlock to present minority reports, a practice that contrasts sharply with the current environment.
When the Tulsa Republican Men’s Club at the Summit Club dropped “Men’s” from the name in 2008, the Conservatives re-activated the club, incorporated, added County to the name, and established bylaws for the Tulsa County Republican Men’s Club (TCRMC). The first page of those bylaws follow.
You will notice that this writer is not named as a supporter. I was thought to be a more liberal Republican at the time maybe because I regularly attended the downtown club. The most famous of the downtown meetings, however, was a presentation by then new OKGOP Chairman Randy Brogdon (listed above) in 2015 where my simple question “for humor” drove Brogdon to tell me I had reason to “fear his temper.” That threat did not work to Brogdon’s advantage.
That original Tulsa Republican Club eventually folded.
I am now the Third Vice President (membership) of the real TCRMC that has all its paperwork in order.
In 2025, immediately after losing her campaign for County Chairman, Charity Marcus began the effort to claim the historic club utilizing the false history noted above. The old club had a Facebook page that credited Paul, but apparently getting the name right was not important to Marcus TRC. They did manage to take the logo.
This writer and several other long-term members of the original Tulsa Republican Club were not invited to join the new effort. In short, many believe the new club is just a strategic maneuver to create public notice and legitimize themselves. I call it the “Not Republican Club,” but it would have worked without dispute as a new club.
Ronda Smith, former Tulsa County Chairman, Stan Stevens, a disgraced former official from Washington County, and Bob Jack a failed candidate for Tulsa County Commissioner (District 3) whose campaign illegally conducted ballot harvesting are reportedly assisting Marcus in her efforts. After voter rejection at the 2025 Tulsa County Republican Convention, they are attempting to resurrect an old name for the ousted faction, which many contend is simply anger if not enragement over their loss of perceived political power.
For the State Executive Committee, as I understand it, the core issue is that this new group has allegedly misrepresented itself to elected officials as an “official Tulsa GOP club.” This is completely improper because the group is not chartered according to party rules. However, there are other Republican Clubs that are not properly chartered, but their public acts, personalities, and statements are not as problematic.
On the brighter side, very few people are engaged in local party politics. Local people can make a difference and candidates knocking doors and talking with constituents win races. But campaigns are wise to recruit new people for their teams. Long term party folk can bring their networks, but also their agendas.
All other issues aside, in one way the upstart Marcus TRC is remarkable: They unified Oklahoma Republicans in all 77 counties against them.
About the author: David Arnett’s beginning in print journalism was not planned in 1985 but covered by Rebecca Martin writing for the Columbia Journalism Review in 1987. After 11 years in print, he established TulsaToday online in 1996 and Straight Up on Substack in 2022 providing email subscriptions both free and paid. In April 2026, he began the YouTube Channel, Straight Up Dave. Arnett is identified nationally as a “Veteran Oklahoma Political Journalist.”
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