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Cleta Mitchell
Cleta B. Deatherage Mitchell (née Deatherage; born September 16, 1950) is an American lawyer, former politician, and Republican elections activist. Elected in 1976, Mitchell served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives until 1984, representing District 44 as a member of the Democratic Party. In 1996, she registered as a Republican. Since then, she has worked as a Republican lawyer and activist focused on elections, asserting, without evidence, that Democrats win elections only by cheating.
After Democratic candidate Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Mitchell aided Donald Trump in his efforts to overturn the election results and pressure election officials to "find" sufficient votes for him to win. After participating in a telephone call in which Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to alter the election results in Georgia (which was won by Biden), Mitchell resigned as a partner at Foley & Lardner. In 2021, she set up an escrow fund to funnel money to companies conducting a pro-Trump "audit" into Arizona's 2020 election. Since then, she has pushed for election law changes in Georgia that would hinder quick reporting of election results and make it easier to delay certification of election results.
Cleta Mitchell was born as Cleta Deatherage on September 16, 1950, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She attended Classen High School her junior and senior year. In 1971, Mitchell was one of the five original conveners of the Oklahoma Women's Political Caucus. She received a B.A. in 1973 and a J.D. in 1975, both from the University of Oklahoma.
As a student she was a proponent of the women's rights movement and campaigned for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and for legal recognition–then denied in Oklahoma–of a homemaker's contribution to the value of a married couple's estate. She considered US Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine her role model. She was also one of the first women to run for student president at the University of Oklahoma, but lost the election.
Mitchell served as a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1976 to 1984, as member of the Democratic Party. In her second term, Mitchell was the first woman to chair the Oklahoma House Appropriations and Budget Committee. During her tenure, she supported women's rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, and progressive education reform.
She also served on the executive committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures. She was a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics in 1981. In 1984, she was listed in Time as one of the most promising Democratic women.
Mitchell returned to politics and ran unsuccessfully for Oklahoma lieutenant governor in 1986. Former Oklahoma Governor David Walters said her loss in the Democratic primary to Robert S. Kerr III "precipitated a real turn on her part."
In 1991 she moved to Washington, D.C., to become a pro-term limits activist; that year, she was named executive director of the Term Limits Legal Institute. She was co-counsel for the petitioners in the U.S. Supreme Court case U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, in which the Court held that the federal Constitution precluded state governments from imposing term limits for federal office.
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Cleta Mitchell
Cleta B. Deatherage Mitchell (née Deatherage; born September 16, 1950) is an American lawyer, former politician, and Republican elections activist. Elected in 1976, Mitchell served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives until 1984, representing District 44 as a member of the Democratic Party. In 1996, she registered as a Republican. Since then, she has worked as a Republican lawyer and activist focused on elections, asserting, without evidence, that Democrats win elections only by cheating.
After Democratic candidate Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Mitchell aided Donald Trump in his efforts to overturn the election results and pressure election officials to "find" sufficient votes for him to win. After participating in a telephone call in which Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to alter the election results in Georgia (which was won by Biden), Mitchell resigned as a partner at Foley & Lardner. In 2021, she set up an escrow fund to funnel money to companies conducting a pro-Trump "audit" into Arizona's 2020 election. Since then, she has pushed for election law changes in Georgia that would hinder quick reporting of election results and make it easier to delay certification of election results.
Cleta Mitchell was born as Cleta Deatherage on September 16, 1950, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She attended Classen High School her junior and senior year. In 1971, Mitchell was one of the five original conveners of the Oklahoma Women's Political Caucus. She received a B.A. in 1973 and a J.D. in 1975, both from the University of Oklahoma.
As a student she was a proponent of the women's rights movement and campaigned for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and for legal recognition–then denied in Oklahoma–of a homemaker's contribution to the value of a married couple's estate. She considered US Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine her role model. She was also one of the first women to run for student president at the University of Oklahoma, but lost the election.
Mitchell served as a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1976 to 1984, as member of the Democratic Party. In her second term, Mitchell was the first woman to chair the Oklahoma House Appropriations and Budget Committee. During her tenure, she supported women's rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, and progressive education reform.
She also served on the executive committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures. She was a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics in 1981. In 1984, she was listed in Time as one of the most promising Democratic women.
Mitchell returned to politics and ran unsuccessfully for Oklahoma lieutenant governor in 1986. Former Oklahoma Governor David Walters said her loss in the Democratic primary to Robert S. Kerr III "precipitated a real turn on her part."
In 1991 she moved to Washington, D.C., to become a pro-term limits activist; that year, she was named executive director of the Term Limits Legal Institute. She was co-counsel for the petitioners in the U.S. Supreme Court case U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, in which the Court held that the federal Constitution precluded state governments from imposing term limits for federal office.
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