OKLAHOMA CITY — When Forrest Bennett steps down Dec. 1 from his seat representing House District 92, he won’t be leaving public service. He’s just changing its shape.
Elected earlier this month as president of the Oklahoma State AFL-CIO, Bennett is stepping into a role he believes could “reframe the public conversation around labor,” in part by helping Oklahomans see the dignity in all forms of work.
“Anyone who isn’t signing the checks is labor,” Bennett said in an interview with Oklahoma City Free Press Friday at the state labor federation’s Oklahoma City headquarters. “The difference is whether you’re organized or not.”
For Bennett, the move comes not out of frustration, but evolution. He entered the Legislature in 2016 as a progressive Democrat. But by the end of his five terms, he said, more of his Democratic-backed bills passed with bipartisan support than ever before — even as national and state politics turned sharply to partisan posturing.
“I realized while I have specific policy interests, my interest in government was the belief that it can be a vehicle for good,” Bennett said. “The way politics was going wasn’t going to fix itself.”
That realization — combined with the sense that labor organizing could unify people across political divides — led him to seek leadership in the state’s most prominent labor organization.
New direction for Oklahoma labor
Bennett replaces longtime AFL-CIO President Jimmy Curry, who served nearly three decades in the role. In a short interview Friday, Curry described his time in the labor movement as less about singular events than about unity.
“It’s a family,” Curry said. “Any time one of us gets in trouble, the others are there.”
Curry recalled the early days of Starbucks union efforts in Oklahoma City — particularly the store on NW 23rd Street — and said local unions’ willingness to support new organizing efforts gave him hope for the movement’s next generation.
Bennett, for his part, said he intends to expand the movement’s size and its strategic capacity.
He laid out goals that include growing the membership of existing unions, bringing unaffiliated unions under the AFL-CIO umbrella, and — critically — educating and preparing members to effectively pressure policymakers at the Capitol.
“It’s a lot harder for legislators to say no to their own constituents than to a lobbyist,” Bennett said. “I want to prepare my members to push back against that first, polished answer and know how to demand better.”
From partisan fighter to coalition builder
Bennett’s career in the Oklahoma House began on the same night Donald Trump was elected president. It was also the night he gave his first interview to Free Press, before officially announcing his candidacy, as noted in our 2016 election night coverage.
In early 2017, Bennett told Free Press he had already seen constituents “fed up watching legislators talk big about budget solutions … then sort of walk it back when negotiations actually start.”
But as the Legislature changed, so did his approach. He began working more closely with Republicans, passing legislation based on shared needs. One measure — originally authored by Bennett to cap insulin prices — was adopted later by a GOP lawmaker and passed.
“I had to learn to set my ego aside,” he said. “When you do that, it’s easier to get things done.”
Other work came from deep constituent needs. A bill requiring parents to be notified if their child is placed with another student driver in a car took Bennett years to pass — triggered by the death of a constituent’s daughter.
“That kind of legislation reminds you that there’s still a heart to public service,” he said.
Labor as the antidote to division
At the core of Bennett’s vision is a belief that organized labor can unite people across party lines around shared economic realities.
“It’s less left versus right,” he said. “It’s up versus down.”
Though Democrats and Republicans may fight on cultural fronts, Bennett sees labor issues as cutting through that noise. From baristas to state workers to plumbers, he says the struggle is not about partisan politics but about economic survival and dignity.
He also sees labor as a counterbalance to powerful lobbying interests. While in the Legislature, Bennett noted, he heard far more from lobbyists for corporate trade associations than from average people.
“Unions are the lobbyists for workers,” he said. “They’re not just in the Capitol. They show up in the workplace, in the community.”
Bennett wants to see more union members ready to organize, mobilize and push for policies that benefit working people — regardless of party.
“I want people to be able to work at a restaurant and make a career of it, if they want to,” he said. “There’s dignity in that.”
Looking ahead
Bennett’s resignation was announced Nov. 13 via a statement from the Oklahoma House, noting his departure was necessary due to an ethics conflict — his new role will require him to lobby lawmakers directly.
“My new role as president of the Oklahoma State AFL-CIO requires me to work directly with lobbyists, which means I cannot ethically be a member of the Legislature and serve in my new role,” he wrote.
A special election will be called by Gov. Kevin Stitt to fill the seat in HD 92.
Bennett says his next challenge is growing the AFL-CIO’s reach in Oklahoma. That includes reconnecting with unaffiliated unions like UFCW and some UAW locals, and reintroducing the broader public to what unions can do.
But his core hope is to make the movement more inclusive and resilient.
“The union structure is a ready-made solution,” Bennett said. “People are looking for something that matters, that connects, that gives them agency. We already have it.”
His last official day as a legislator is Dec. 1. But his organizing work — he would argue — has already begun.
Brett is the founder and former Editor in Chief of Oklahoma City Free Press. His leadership created and developed this company into a vital and valuable source of news and community in OKC.
Dickerson retired in 2026. He continues to contribute support and photography to the efforts of the publication.
