The race for Oklahoma governor, which will probably wind up with Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, versus State School Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, a Republican-turned-Democrat, highlights a heavy slate of candidates for statewide offices.
Here is some information on those candidates.
Governor
In the race for governor on the Republican primary ticket, the candidates are incumbent Gov. Kevin Stitt, Mark Sherwood, Joel Kintsel and Moira McCabe.
The Democrats in the Democrat primary will be State School Superintendent Joy Hofmeister and Connie Johnson.
Evrin Stone Yen is the only Independent candidate and Natalie Bruno is the Libertarian candidate. Both will appear on the November 8 ballot beside the Republican and Democrat nominees.
Stitt, a Republican seeking a second term, has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who recently held a fundraiser for Stitt in Florida.
A successful businessman, Stitt has been diversifying Oklahoma’s economy and reformed medical care in the state. He stood up to the Indian tribes in renegotiating the gambling compact between the Indians and the state.
Stitt just signed a bill that has been called the toughest abortion law in America.
Mark Sherwood is a naturopathic doctor and retired Tulsa policeman.
This is his first run for office and the centerpiece of his campaign is abolishing abortion in Oklahoma.
He wants a forensic audit of the 2020 presidential election and he wants to stop illegal immigration at America’s southern border.
Joel Kintsel is the director of the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs. He was the parliamentarian for the Oklahoma House for 14 years and served in the Oklahoma Army National Guard from 2000 to 2009.
Moira McCabe wants to make birth control more available to ease abortion. She wants a cap on how much hospitals can charge patients and she wants to increase production of oil and natural gas. She is against federal overreach and for protecting rights in the Second Amendment.
She wants to rein in the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority due to mismanagement.
Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, a self-described lifelong Republican, switched to the Democrat Party to run against Stitt for governor.
Hofmeister is upset about the quality of state schools. She is supported by teacher unions.
Democrat Connie Johnson is a former state senator. This is the second time she has run for governor after losing in 2018 to Drew Edmondson. Johnson was a senator from 2005-2014.
She wants to improve education, do prison reform, and abolish the death penalty.
Libertarian Natalie Bruno is a marketing director. In her first run for public office, she wants to leave vaccination and masking decisions up to individuals, treat abortion as an individual decision, make health care more affordable, expand Oklahoma’s marijuana industry, improve education and reform the state’s criminal justice system.
Former Sen. Dr. Ervin Yen switched his party registration from Republican to Independent to insure he would be on the November ballot.
He was a registered Democrat until he switched to the GOP in 2009. He was a state senator from 2014-2018. He lost his re-election bid in 2018. Yen is pro-abortion and disagrees with how the state handled the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
Lt. Governor
No one filed against Republican Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell or Democrat Melinda L. Alizadeh-Fard so they both advance to the November 8 general ballot. The Libertarian candidate Chris Powell will also be on the ballot November 8.
Pinnell was first elected in 2018. From Tulsa, he was the Republican Party Chairman for Oklahoma from 2010-2013 and was director of state parties for the Republican National Committee from 2013 to 2017.
Pinnell, who advises the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department, is an advocate for state tourism and small business. He has taken an interest in recruiting more adults to become foster parents.
Powell was the Libertarian candidate in 2018 but he got less than 4% of the final votes. Powell was in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1985 to 1995. He has worked for the Oklahoma City Police Department since 2009 and he sits on the Bethany City Council.
Alizadeh-Fard owns the Law Office of Melinda Alizadeh-Fard. She was as an associate immigration attorney for Stump and Associates in Oklahoma City since 2017. She spent 13 years as an administrative law judge and was general counsel for the Oklahoma Public Employee Association from 2004 to 2006.
State Auditor and Inspector
No Democrats filed for State Auditor and Inspector so the race on November 8 will be between incumbent State Auditor Cindy Byrd and Stephen W. McQuillen. Both are Republicans.
Cindy Byrd has been on a campaign to eliminate government waste, fraud and abuse while making sure that local government runs as it should.
McQuillen has been the fixed asset accounting manager for the Tulsa Public School District since 1998. He has a his master’s in finance from Oklahoma Wesleyan University in 2016.
From 2004 to 2006, he was a volunteer auditor and treasurer of the Philippine American Association of North Eastern Oklahoma.
Attorney General
Attorney General John M. O’Conner will face Gentner Drummond in the June 28 Republican primary and the winner will advance to the November 8 election against Libertarian candidate Lynda Steele. No Democrats filed.
Stitt appointed O’Conner in July of 2021 following the resignation of former Attorney General Mike Hunter.
Former President Trump had previously nominated O’Connor to be a federal judge but Democrats blocked his nomination and he never got a confirmation vote.
O’Connor , who is from Tulsa, who has been with the law firm Hall Estill since a 2018 merger with his prior firm, Newton, O’Connor, Turner & Ketchum.
O’Connor has sought the overturning of controversial McGirt ruling concerning the Indian tribes and reservations. He asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and stop legalized abortion. And he filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s unconstitutional vaccination mandates for federal contractors.
Drummond, who ran for attorney general in 2018 and lost, is a former U.S. Air Force captain who has been the senior attorney at Drummond Law Firm since 1988 and principal shareholder and director of Blue Sky Bank since 2003. Drummond lost to Hunter in the Republican runoff election with 49.95% of the vote.
Drummond wants to protect Second Amendment Rights, protect the state against federal overreach and protect victims of sexual assaults by clearing the state’s rape-kit backlog.
Steele, who is in the Oklahoma Army National Guard, started a group call Furnishing Fatherhood.
State Treasurer
The Treasurer’s office is an open seat. Three Republicans – Todd Russ, Clark Jolley and David B. Hooten – filed on will be on the June 28 ballot. The winner of the GOP primary (or August runoff) will face Democrat Charles De Coune or Libertarian Gregory J. Sadler.
Former State Sen. Clark Jolley was chairman of the Senate Appropriations and Budget Committee during part of his three his terms. Former Gov. Mary Fallin named him state Secretary of Finance and later appointed him to serve on the Oklahoma Tax Commission.
Jolley wants to be more active in finding owners of the Unclaimed Property Fund. He doesn’t want counter culture to affect the state’s finances.
Todd Russ has been in the Oklahoma House since 2009 and has more than 35 years of banking experience. He is the chairman of the House Appropriations and Budget Transportation Subcommittee..
This year, Russ co-authored Senate Bill 1503 SB 1503, which bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
David B. Hooten previously ran as a Democrat for the House of Representatives in 2004, but he was stricken from the ballot due not meeting voter registration requirements. In 2014, he ran for State Senate as a Republican, but he finished with about 11% of the vote. In 2016, Hooten beat Oklahoma County Clerk Carolyn Caudill and won re-election in 2020.
De Coune previously ran for Oklahoma County Court Clerk in 2020, but lost to Rick Warren, getting only about 43.2 percent of the vote. In 2018, he ran as an Independent for state treasurer but lost the general election to current Treasurer Randy McDaniel, getting only about 28.4 percent of the vote.
In 2020, Sadler ran for District 17 of the Oklahoma State Senate, but lost to Republican Sen. Shane Jett (Shawnee) with about 23.5% of the vote in the general election. Sadler works for a local printing company.
State School Superintendent
The State School Superintendent office will be an open seat. Four Republicans – John Cox, April Grace, Ryan Walters and William E. Crozier – filed and will square off in the GOP primary. The winner of the Republican (or runoff if needed) will face Democrat Jena Nelson.
Walters was appointed secretary of education by Stitt in 2020 after being named the executive director of Oklahoma Achieves in 2019. The organization was merged into Every Kid Counts Oklahoma, where Walters serves as CEO, in 2020. Every Kid Counts Oklahoma distributes some federal COVID-relief dollars for the Stitt administration.
Walters previously taught advanced placement history at McAlester High School and Millwood High School in Oklahoma City and was an Oklahoma Teacher of the Year finalist in 2016.
Walters asked the Stillwater Public Schools to end a bathroom policy that allows students to use the bathrooms they wish instead of according to the God-given sex. Walters has supported O’Connor and Stitt’s regarding HB 1775, which bans the teaching of Critical Race Theory in public schools.
April Grace has served as superintendent of Shawnee Public Schools since 2016. She has been a teacher, building administrator and assistant superintendent for 30 years. She was named 2021 State Superintendent of the Year by the Oklahoma Association of School Administrators, as well as OASA District 9 Superintendent of the Year.
John Cox has twice before run for state superintendent. In 2016, he ran as a Democrat against Hofmeister and received 44.2 percent of the vote. In 2018, he ran against Hofmeister as a Democrat again, but received only 33.9 percent of the vote. Hofmeister is a now registered Democrat and Cox is a registered Republican.
Cox has 35 years of experience in the state’s public schools and has served as the superintendent of Peggs Public Schools for the last 23 years.
William Crozier, a retired veteran, previously ran for the office of state superintendent in 2006. Back then, he that he wanted to make schools safer by creating bullet-proof textbooks. Crozier also ran for lieutenant governor in 2010, receiving only about 6% of the Republican primary vote.
Jena Nelson has taught at Deer Creek Public Schools for five years and has spent 16 years in public education teaching subjects such as English and theater. She is the student support coordinator and teaches academic enhancement at Deer Creek Middle School.
Labor Commissioner
Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Leslie Osborn will face State Rep. Sean Roberts and Keith Swinton in the June 28 Republican primary. The winner will face Democrat Jack Henderson and Libertarian Will Daugherty on November 8.
Commissioner Osborn, was previously was in the Oklahoma House (2008-2018), was first elected labor commissioner in 2018. Her stated goal is ensuring safe workplaces.
Roberts from Hominy is term limited. One of the most conservative legislators in the House, Roberts asked the State Election Board for an independent audit of the 2020 election results in Oklahoma County and two other counties.
Swinton previously ran for labor commissioner in 2018. He works as a project engineer for Ready Services, LLC.
Jack Henderson is a former city councilor from Tulsa. He was re-elected several times but in 2016, he lost to fellow Democrat Vanessa Hall-Harper.
Daugherty is a manager for FirstLight Home Care in Oklahoma City.
Corporation Commission
Corporation Commissioner Dana Murphy is stepping down so there is an open seat for the three-member Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
Four Republicans – State Sen. Kim David, Justin Hornback, Harold D. Spradling and Todd Thomsen – have filed for the Republican primary. The winner will face Democrat Margaret Warigia Bowman and Independent Don Underwood in the general election.
David is term limited. She owns a small business in Porter. She supported Stitt’s reforms concerning Medicaid.
Spradling has run unsuccessfully for Corporation Commissioner twice before. He lost to Commissioner Bob Anthony and Commissioner Todd Hiett.
Thomsen was in the Oklahoma House from 2006-2017. After leaving the Legislature, he was managing director of community relations for Epic Charter Schools.
Republican Justin Hornback of Broken Arrow and Independent Don Underwood of Inola are also running.
Bowman is an associate professor of law at The University of Tulsa College of Law where she teaches water, natural resources and administrative law
State Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready, a Republican, won another term as no one filed against him.