Tulsa Standard

Tulsa Standard recently had an opportunity to interview Oklahoma Republican gubernatorial candidate Ervin Yen to discuss his candidacy and and ask his opinions on issues regarding how incumbent Gov. Kevin Stitt handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yen was a member of the Oklahoma State Senate from 2014-2018. He represented District 40. In 2021, he changed his partisan affiliation to Independent from Republican. 

"I am running for governor because I am tired of two things most politicians do," Yen told Tulsa Standard. "Their primary objective is to get re-elected, not to do what is best for our state and the people of our state. They also make deals that are financially beneficial for their buddies, but at the expense of the taxpayers. These two things actually make me embarrassed to say I am a politician. I also do not believe we should have a governor who is anti-vax. I want to do what is right. That's it."

"I am sick and tired of the far right extremists running the Republican party. As a Republican, I was receiving weekly emails saying Republicans must be against mask mandates, against vaccine mandates, and must believe Trump really won the election. I vehemently disagree with all three statements. I firmly believe most Oklahomans are moderate conservatives, but unfortunately the state Capitol is filled with far right conservatives, or at least they appear to be that way. I want to give the Oklahoma voters a better alternative. Perhaps, I can change the attitude of the leadership of the Republican party as well."

In April 2022, Tulsa World reported that Independent Yen filed his candidacy to challenge incumbent Gov. Stitt. Yen criticized Stitt on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying “The current administration has failed terribly with this pandemic."

Yen is a physician and gave his opinion on how Stitt handled the pandemic. 

"The COVID response in Oklahoma has been abysmal," Yen told Tulsa Standard. "We are currently the third worst state in the U.S. for COVID deaths per capita since this pandemic started. If you look at the data since the vaccines became available (in December of 2020), we are the number one worst state for deaths per capita. That is not surprising since only about 57% of our population is vaccinated. For the last several weeks, we have had about  50-100 COVID deaths every week. At a minimum, the state should be publicizing these numbers and including what percentage of these deaths were in unvaccinated people – nearly all, I am certain."

"We should have had a temporary statewide mask mandate in June of 2020, when COVID cases shot up after we opened everything back up and again in June of 2021 after the CDC said vaccinated people could unmask. Unfortunately, in Oklahoma, everyone, including the unvaccinated, took their masks off. We could have avoided 70% of the deaths, because that is how effective reasonable masks are. NPR says if Oklahomans had gotten fully vaccinated, we could have decreased our deaths by nearly 6,000. That is 6,000 out of the nearly 16,000 deaths we have had so far."

Sooner State News reports that Stitt has been accused of misappropriating federal COVID relief funds to pay other unrelated expenses and engaging in wasteful spending related to the pandemic.

"Spending $2 million of taxpayer money unsuccessfully trying to get N-95 masks from a Tulsa piano bar owner is inappropriate. Spending another $2 million purchasing hydroxychloroquine that was useless against COVID was also inappropriate. Allowing misuse of COVID federal relief funds to be spent on car stereos, dishwashers, and Chaise lounges should not have happened. It was and is the state government's job to make sure these funds were spent appropriately. These are not just allegations, they are facts. Spending taxpayer money should be done in as responsible a manner as possible and that includes being as transparent as possible."  

"I think corruption is an incredibly important issue with Oklahoma voters, especially when you are talking about large amounts of taxpayer moneys going to enrich certain friends of the administration. Just look at the sweet deal that Swadley's was given. In may opinion, this is one of the worst parts of 'politics as usual.' I believe the voters will make sure their voices are heard loud and clear in the election this year."