Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is preparing to launch a bid for governor at an event in Osage County on Monday, a source familiar with the matter told NOTUS.
Drummond’s announcement would mark the beginning of what is expected to be a heated primary for the governor’s mansion in ruby red Oklahoma.
The state’s gubernatorial primary is scheduled for June 2026 and is likely to attract several of the Oklahoma political world’s highest-profile names. With Gov. Kevin Stitt term-limited — Stitt came into office in January 2019 — ambitious Republicans in the state finally have an opportunity to move up the ranks.
Although Drummond is only in his first term as attorney general, he’s been a lawyer for about 30 years. His time in office has been defined by a focus on government transparency, and he was at the helm of a number of high-profile criminal investigations, including one involving the Swadley’s Foggy Bottom Kitchen scandal and another into the use of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund.
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He has also made it a focus of his time in office to combat illegal marijuana operations in the state. And he has antagonized Stitt over issues concerning Oklahoma’s Native American tribes, such as the gaming compacts and fallout from the McGirt decision. He even empaneled a number of grand juries to investigate past members of Stitt’s administration.
Drummond, who supports the death penalty, rose to national prominence in 2023 when he started making the case that Richard Glossip — a death row inmate in Oklahoma convicted for ordering the 1997 killing of Barry Van Treese, a hotel owner — should receive a new trial. Drummond claimed Glossip’s constitutional rights were violated, and the case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard arguments in October of last year.
Additionally, at the beginning of his tenure as attorney general, Drummond requested more time between executions so as to not overburden the state.
Prior to his political and law career, Drummond was a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force. And he comes from one of Oklahoma’s wealthiest families.
Drummond first ran for office in 2018, when he lost to then-Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter — who abruptly resigned in the wake of reporting by The Oklahoman about an alleged extramarital affair. In 2022, Drummond also ran again against Attorney General John O’Connor, who Stitt appointed following Hunter’s resignation.
The primary was decided by less than a percentage point, as Drummond barely edged out O’Connor.
Drummond’s name has long been floated as a potential future governor, alongside state Superintendent Ryan Walters, former Speaker of the Oklahoma Statehouse Charles McCall and former Oklahoma Secretary of Public Safety Chip Keating.
Former Oklahoma state Sen. Mike Mazzei also announced on Jan. 4 in a Facebook post that he intends to run.
Meanwhile, other prominent figures in Oklahoma politics have already turned down running for governor.
Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern was eyeing the race but announced last month that he would not run, concerned about cutting into the GOP’s paper-thin majority in the House. Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford’s name was also floated, but Lankford has said it’s not what God called him to do.
“I’ve probably answered a hundred times to people, ‘No, not running for governor,’” Lankford told Oklahoma City’s News 9. “But this continues to be able to bubble up in all these places.”
The race is poised to be a very expensive statewide election. Drummond and McCall are both millionaires who have the ability to self-fund, and Drummond has already shown a willingness to throw his own money into political races.
In both his 2018 and 2022 bids for attorney general, Drummond contributed more than $1 million of his own money.
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Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS. Em Luetkemeyer is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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