A video showing Oklahoma’s newly nominated Democratic U.S. Senate candidate making a “Mean Girls”-style burn book entry about former Sen. Markwayne Mullin has gone viral, drawing widespread mockery online following her primary runoff victory.
N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas, a 31-year-old nurse, Chickasaw Nation citizen and self-described democratic socialist from Ardmore, defeated attorney Jim Priest in Tuesday’s Democratic runoff with more than 60% of the vote.
Thomas will face Republican Rep. Kevin Hern in November for the Senate seat vacated by Mullin, who left Congress in March to become President Donald Trump’s secretary of Homeland Security.
The video attracting attention this week was originally posted by Thomas in September 2025, when Mullin was still Oklahoma’s junior senator and Thomas was campaigning to unseat him.
This is N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas. She just won a runoff election in Oklahoma and is now the Democrat candidate for US Senate.
No. I’m not joking. I’m serious.
She makes AOC look like a freaking Mensa member. pic.twitter.com/p0Ms1bXUM4
— Kentucky Girl (@Kentuckygirl1) August 26, 2026
In the clip, Thomas moves around a pink bedroom while audio from the 2004 comedy Mean Girls plays in the background. She retrieves a pink notebook labeled “Burn Book,” cuts out a photograph of Mullin and tapes it onto a page.
“Markwayne Mullin is a terrible senator,” Thomas says as she writes in the book.
The video directly recreates one of the best-known devices from Mean Girls, in which members of a high school clique keep a pink scrapbook containing photographs, rumors and insults about classmates and teachers.
The clip resurfaced after Thomas secured the Democratic nomination Tuesday and quickly spread among Republican politicians, commentators and conservative social-media accounts.
“These people are cray-cray,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wrote while sharing the video Thursday.
These people are cray-cray. https://t.co/eF87KVHdCf
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 27, 2026
Actor James Woods posted the clip and wrote, “This is a candidate for the United States Senate. Care to guess her party affiliation?”
This is a candidate for the United States Senate. Care to guess her party affiliation? pic.twitter.com/uI4NE9ErzV
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) August 27, 2026
CNN commentator Scott Jennings wrote, “honestly just expecting scenes like this to be 3 of the 4 nights of the DNC in 2028.”
honestly just expecting scenes like this to be 3 of the 4 nights of the DNC in 2028. https://t.co/mEbuH4v6MU
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) August 27, 2026
The circumstances of Thomas’s campaign have changed substantially since the video was recorded. Mullin, whom Thomas originally entered the race to challenge, resigned from the Senate in March after Trump selected him to lead the Department of Homeland Security. His departure turned the race into an open-seat contest.
Hern, who has represented Oklahoma’s 1st Congressional District since 2018, subsequently entered the Senate race and won the Republican nomination.
Thomas led the five-candidate Democratic field in the June primary with about 45% of the vote but fell short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff. Priest finished second with about 24%. Thomas then defeated him in the Aug. 25 runoff.
Thomas has campaigned on Medicare for All, universal childcare, education and other progressive priorities while openly identifying as a democratic socialist.
“They’re wanting a different vision, and I have a different vision as a progressive myself,” Thomas said in a July interview. “Most countries that have socialism, they are thriving.”
She now enters a difficult general-election race in one of the country’s most Republican states. Oklahoma has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since David Boren won reelection in 1990. Posting an insane video probably isn’t going to help.
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