Associated Press

The race to replace controversial Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt narrowed Tuesday after Stitt’s former budget secretary Mike Mazzei narrowly defeated Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond for the Republican nomination in a primary runoff election.

Mazzei, a Tulsa businessman, will now face Oklahoma House Minority leader and Democrat Cyndi Munson in the Nov. 3 general election.

In a 10-week runoff campaign that spawned more than $14 million in television and digital advertising, Mazzei received support in the final days from President Donald Trump, who called Drummond a “FAKE Republican” in a lengthy Truth Social post on August 18.

Mazzei touched on the Christian faith that he said sustained him after a serious automobile accident in 2008 and promised that the Bible would be one of his filters for making decisions.

“If you had told me 10 years ago that today I would be standing in front of you as the Republican nominee for governor, I would have never believed you,” he said. “My story is certainly a testimony that with God, all things are truly possible.”

Mazzei, who beat Drummond by 0.56 percent, is now favored to replace term-limited Stitt, as a Democrat hasn’t won the governor’s race since 2006.

The stakes are high in Indian Country as Stitt, Cherokee, is considered by many tribal leaders in the state to be the worst in Oklahoma’s history in terms of his relationship with the state’s 38 tribes.

Mazzei has promised to work with tribal nations and negotiate tribal compacts if elected and has expressed support for the Supreme Court’s decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma that effectively recognized eastern Oklahoma as a federally recognized Native reservation. 

Stitt has been outspoken against tribal compacts for tobacco and car license tags, and tribal gaming compacts. He vetoed several compacts, despite overwhelming support by the state’s legislature, slowing the process for establishing the tobacco, car tag and gaming compacts between Oklahoma and tribal nations. 

Oklahoma has nearly 330,00 American Indian and Alaska Natives – about 8.4 percent of the state’s population, according to the 2020 Census.

In the U.S. Senate race in Oklahoma, a Chickasaw citizen and nurse, N’Kiyla “Jasmine” Thomas, beat fellow Democrat Jim Priest, an attorney, in the runoff election for their party’s nomination. Thomas will now face Kevin Hern, Republican, who currently holds the state’s U.S. House of Representatives District 1 seat and won his party’s nomination for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Markwayne Mullin, Cherokee.

Mullin left office to serve as U.S. secretary of homeland security under President Trump.

In the runoff election for state labor commissioner, Republican candidate Kevin West defeated John Pfeiffer, Cherokee, for the GOP nomination.

ICT’s Kevin Abourezk contributed to this report.