Attorney General Gentner Drummond and former state Sen. Mike Mazzei shared a debate stage Monday night, televised statewide on News 9 in Oklahoma City and News On 6 in Tulsa, three weeks before the August 25 runoff that will decide the Republican nomination for governor.
The runoff exists because nobody won in June. In the June 16 primary, Drummond and Mazzei each took roughly a quarter of the vote in a nine-candidate Republican field — well short of the majority needed to claim the nomination outright — with their nearest rival, Chip Keating, finishing under 20 percent. Drummond comes to the runoff as the sitting attorney general, a rancher and banker who has won statewide office before. Mazzei, a Tulsa financial planner and former state senator, carries an endorsement from President Donald Trump, posted on Truth Social two weeks before primary day.
The sharpest disagreement of the night was a piece of industrial policy: the proposed $4 billion aluminum smelter at Inola, a joint project of Century Aluminum and Emirates Global Aluminium that would be among the first new smelters built in the United States in more than 40 years. Mazzei backs the project and the jobs it promises. Drummond opposes it, arguing the plant would harm the surrounding agricultural economy, including the region's hay industry.
Health care ran through much of the rest of the evening. Drummond framed his agenda around rural concerns — fixing rural roads, expanding access to affordable health care, and addressing homelessness and mental health. The two also sparred over insurance costs, immigration, taxes and how the state spends medical marijuana money, in exchanges that news accounts of the debate described as heated.
Only registered Republicans can vote in this runoff; Oklahoma's primaries are closed this cycle, and no party has opened its contests to independents. The deadline to request an absentee ballot is 5 p.m. August 10, early in-person voting runs August 20 through 22, and polls open at 7 a.m. on August 25. The winner advances to the November 3 general election against Democratic state Rep. Cyndi Munson and three independent candidates.
Sources: NonDoc: debate coverage · News On 6: smelter and data centers in the debate · KOSU: June primary results