Oklahoma School Official’s Bid To Buy Classroom Bibles Appears Suspiciously Specific

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s right-wing state school superintendent, set off a firestorm when he said he planned to spend $6 million to buy Bibles for every classroom in Oklahoma.

But then the bid specifications for that planned buy, which may not even be funded, came to light, and observers noticed a peculiarity: The type of Bible Walters is seeking appears suspiciously similar to the “God Bless the USA Bible,” a $59.99 King James Version endorsed by GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump and country singer Lee Greenwood .

“It appears to me that this bid is anything but competitive,” former Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson, a Democrat, told The Oklahoman newspaper .

“It adds to the basic specification other requirements that have nothing to do with the text. The special binding and inclusion of government documents will exclude almost all bidders. If the bid specs exclude most bidders unnecessarily, I could consider that a violation.”

The controversy is the latest in a long series for Walters , a former state teacher of the year who won election in 2022 to the superintendent’s office in part by repeating the lie that students were identifying as cats in schools and asking to use cat litter in bathrooms.

Walters has been seen as a likely GOP candidate for governor in 2026 in the deeply Republican state, and his courting of controversy could plow the way by raising his public profile.

In August, Walters held a news conference outside the state Capitol’s House chamber to defend himself against an attack by an Oklahoma lawmaker and to deny he was angling for higher office. But his remarks may have fanned speculation.

“This is a clear attack on who he views as his biggest political opponent in that governor’s