By Barbara Hoberock, Mary A. Smith, Aristotle Orsini and Jack Hancock. Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond will face former state Sen. Mike Mazzei in the Aug. 25 GOP gubernatorial runoff.
Neither candidate secured 50% plus one in Tuesday’s primary election which featured nine Republicans.
Drummond earned about the same percentage of votes as Mazzei, who garnered an endorsement from president Donald Trump.
“I will give all of you every ounce of my energy and effort to win Aug. 25 and become the official Republican nominee to be the next governor of Oklahoma,” Mazzei told his supporters at his Bixby watch party. “Now, let’s go win.”
He also took shots at Drummond, whom he said should have run in the Democratic primary.
“Together, when we choose faith and freedom, we can launch a wave of growth and opportunity for the next generation,” Mazzei said.
Drummond said the state faces real challenges that require more than campaign slogans.
“I will not change my beliefs to win an election,” Drummond told his supporters at a Tulsa watch party. “I will not rewrite my principles to satisfy political insiders and I will not sell one audience one thing and another audience something different.”
He said the people of Oklahoma know the difference between a politician and a fighter.
Chip Keating and Jake Merrick came in third and fourth respectively.
Former House Speaker Charles McCall, despite loaning his campaign $5.6 million, came in a fifth.
Drummond is serving his first term as attorney general. He is a lawyer, rancher and banker from Hominy who is campaigning on public safety and his military background as a fighter pilot.
Mazzei is a Tulsa financial planner and former member of the Oklahoma Senate. He also served as Gov. Kevin Stitt’s budget secretary. He is campaigning on eliminating the income tax and abolishing property taxes for seniors and veterans.
The primary race has already included a historic level of money, with GOP gubernatorial candidates loaning themselves more than $22 million.
It was also notable for the degree of negative ads lobbed by candidates and special interest and dark money groups.
House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson easily defeated former state Sen. Connie Johnson and Arya to secure the Democratic nomination.
Munson garnered about 75% of the vote. “I’m very grateful, you know, when you work hard and you put yourself out there, and you get the results that you’ve been working for, it feels good,” Munson said.
Munson worked in nonprofits before being elected to the Oklahoma House.
Munson, who serves as House minority leader, has been a vocal critic of some of the Republican House leadership’s more controversial measures, including measures that outlawed or made it more difficult to obtain an abortion. She is campaigning on making life more affordable for working Oklahomans.
Johnson, a former state senator, made her fourth failed bid for statewide office. She has supported criminal justice reform and ending the death penalty.
Munson was the leading fundraiser among the three Democrats.
Munson said she is different from the top two GOP gubernatorial candidates.
“They are part of the same broken political system that got Oklahoma where it is today,” she said. “They tried to buy this election by giving their campaigns millions of dollars, pandering to Washington, D.C., politicians and Trump, and fighting over silly and extreme issues instead of focusing on what can help everyday Oklahomans.”
Munson advances to the Nov. 3 general election where she faces the winner of the Republican runoff.
Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, is serving the final year of his second term and could not seek reelection.
