Governor hopefuls vie for conservative votes at GOP forum

Alex Gladden and Maria Guinnip

The Oklahoman USA TODAY NETWORK

State GOP leaders say Oklahoma is the most conservative state in the nation and are looking to gubernatorial candidates to uphold the state’s red agenda.

Seven of the state’s nine Republican candidates jockeyed to convince voters they are the most conservative at a soldout event hosted by the Republican Party Saturday, Feb. 28, in Oklahoma City.

“Guys, we are the most conservative state in the union,” Republican Chairwoman Charity Lynch said as the event began. “When I go to the RNC, I get to brag to them. All 77 counties voted for Trump three times, and then we’ll have a few of them that try to argue that they are the most conservative, and I say, ‘Yeah, but I can carry a gun in my purse without permission.’” In a solidly red state like Oklahoma, the primary often determines who will be the next governor. Lynch said the state GOP will not endorse a candidate until after the first primary vote on June 16.

Should a runoff primary election be needed to determine the party’s top candidate, it will be Aug. 25. The general election will be Nov. 3.

Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt has served in the position since 2019 but has reached his term limit, opening the job to a newcomer. Attendees at the GOP forum cited concerns about property taxes, data centers and education as some of their top priorities for a new governor to address.

“I’m like any other taxpayer in the state,” said Leon Farris, the chairman of

the Stephens County Republicans. “I’d like to pay less taxes, but I don’t want my schools and sheriff’s offices decimated.”

Attorney General Gentner Drummond, former state Sen. Jake Merrick, former state Sen. Mike Mazzei, oil and gas industry vet Chip Keating, entrepreneur Leisa Mitchell Haynes and small business owner Kenneth Sturgell attended the event and reiterated their commitment to key conservative values.

Former House Speaker Charles McCall was unable to attend and recorded a video detailing his conservative agenda.

‘Oklahoma First’ a key message for gubernatorial candidates

Throughout the panel, candidates emphasized the importance of state sovereignty and putting Oklahomans first.

Drummond said he valued local control, where you can talk across the table with all parties involved. “Washington doesn’t control Oklahoma,” he said.

He described wielding the 10th Amendment as his sword and shield in his role as attorney general, and that he was ready to take that same mindset into the gubernatorial role.

Merrick proposed reestablishing a state guard to return power and autonomy to Oklahomans, not wanting to rely just on the National Guard, which remains subject to federal oversight.

“We will determine our own destiny,” Merrick said.

Keating also committed to upholding conservative ideals, emphasizing the need to elect a “strong conservative over at 23rd and Lincoln that’s gonna push back.”

He called for reforms to the state’s highest civil court, referring to the Supreme Court of Oklahoma as the “liberal trial bar” that has overturned various conservative legislative pushes.

Haynes agreed with Keating’s ideas to rein-in the courts saying, the court’s justices “think they are more powerful than the voters.”

Keating demanded a “total overhaul” of state government to make it more efficient by streamlining the number of state agencies.

Other candidates echoed this sentiment, promising to cut back regulatory arms and agencies to get back to “common sense politics.”

Stitt explains his legacy as candidates pledge new ideas

Most candidates pledged to enact new policies and ideas as governor, though some said they agreed with certain economic policies of Stitt, particularly his pushes to cut taxes and build the state’s savings account.

The governor opened the GOP forum with remarks about his two terms in office.

“When I ran for governor eight years ago, I was running against the establishment,” Stitt said. “I had never held public office before. I had never ran for anything, but I was tired of Oklahoma not winning.”

He noted his work to eliminate the grocery tax and building the state’s savings as some of his largest accomplishments.

Stitt’s speech at the event came off the heels of a public clash with President Donald Trump, which spurred backlash from Oklahoma Republicans, including many of the candidates running for governor.

But at the Saturday, Feb. 28, event, few of the candidates hoping to replace Stitt took aim at his record in office. One exception was McCall in his prerecorded message.

“The executive branch has failed to execute the conservative policies that the Legislature passed, and as governor, I will fix that,” McCall said in the video.

“I will make government agencies accountable to you rather than entrench bureaucracy. It’s time for a conservative, pro-Trump governor.”

Pledge to protect religious freedom, address Sharia law

Ensuring protections for Christianity tied together several questions posed at the forum, as well as many of the candidates’ messages to voters.

When asked about the Islamic concept of Sharia law and upholding religious freedoms, Mazzei said that Oklahoma needs a governor who “doesn’t just say they have a Christian worldview. We need a governor who governs with a Christian worldview.”

He said that as governor he would work with the Legislature to ban Sharia law, a ban that courts have overturned in the past.

He also said he would designate the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations and trans-national criminal organizations, while mandating that law enforcement officers are trained to identify “Shariainfluenced violence.” Candidates were also asked about a 2025 controversy at the University of Oklahoma. Undergraduate student Samantha Fulnecky made a complaint to university officials after receiving a zero on an essay grade for an assignment that she quoted the Bible. The complaint resulted in the university removing the instructor from teaching.

The candidates were asked what they believed the governor’s role to be in protecting religious freedoms across public college campuses.

Keating underscored the power of regents appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate, when addressing what he described as the multitude of issues across the state that have led to the allowance of religious freedoms being attacked at schools.

He said that tenure needed to be reevaluated, especially when regents and institutions are not mandating rules that are protecting students’ rights to religious freedom.

Mazzei said the state needed to fully weed out diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and “radical woke-ism.”He referenced the University of Oklahoma, saying the school did not actually scrap DEI but rebranded it.

As governor, Mazzei pledged to sign an executive order forbidding and prohibiting “DEI based radical woke-ism” in school curriculum, offices and activities. Mazzei also proposed holding a tribunal where presidents of OU, Oklahoma State University and the University of Central Oklahoma would explain to lawmakers how they are each eradicating and eliminating DEI from campuses.

Merrick described a multitude of “DEI policies and the LGBTQ agenda” as seeping into rural schools, based on how teachers are trained at the state’s big universities. “We need to go upstream of where this starts,” he said.

Merrick, who once taught at Southwestern Christian University in Bethany, said he only stands behind one agenda – “protect[ing] the constitution and God-given rights of Oklahomans.”

Candidates say data centers necessary, but must be regulated

Merrick emphasized the importance of the state being on the cutting edge of AI technology. Still, he said it is important that tech companies pay their own way if they want to build data centers in Oklahoma.

Merrick said that, as governor, he would require tech companies to build data centers outside neighborhoods and town centers and would mandate they use their own energy systems and create closed-loop water systems to cool their centers.

Mazzei opposes tax benefits for data centers and said he would require them to pay for their own electricity and water.

Keating said he would push to have data centers use water produced as a byproduct of oil and gas extraction. Both industries could benefit, he said.

Drummond noted Trump’s mission to dominate AI industries and said he would not let Oklahoma be left behind. He touted a tariff on data centers that said he implemented as attorney general.