Oklahoma picks its Republican nominee for governor on August 25, and the margin that produced that runoff is smaller than most people think.

The June 16 primary put Attorney General Gentner Drummond at 25.9 percent and former state senator Mike Mazzei at 25.5. Nine candidates ran. Between them the top two hold barely half the primary vote, which means the other half belongs to candidates who are now out of the race and to voters nobody has locked down.

A correction is owed here first. This paper's July 11 dispatch reported that margin as 26.5 to 25.9. The reported figures are 25.9 and 25.5 — a gap of four-tenths of a point, not six. We regret the error and are stating the right numbers rather than letting the wrong ones stand by omission.

Governor Kevin Stitt is term-limited, which is what opened the field to nine people in the first place. In a state where the last Democrat elected governor was Brad Henry in 2006, the Republican contest is the one that decides the office in practice, and both campaigns know it.

The endorsements have split along a line worth naming plainly. President Trump and U.S. Rep. Josh Brecheen have endorsed Mazzei. The Oklahoma Fraternal Order of Police has backed Drummond, who is also running on eight years of statewide office and the name recognition that comes with it. Those are different kinds of assets, and they persuade different rooms.

The desk's judgment, offered as judgment: in an August runoff, the asset that matters is whichever one physically moves people to a polling place. Runoff turnout is not a smaller copy of the primary electorate. It is an older, more organized, more committed slice of it, and it rewards a campaign with a list and a phone bank over a campaign with a good week of coverage. That is why runoffs surprise people who read primary percentages as a ranking.

For a household in a rural county, the horse race is the least useful part of this. Four things will be sitting on a governor's desk in 2027, and neither campaign has said much about any of them.

Utility cost allocation. Two large-load tariffs are pending or coming before the Corporation Commission, and how they apportion the cost of new generation and new transmission will show up on residential bills for a decade.

Medicaid administration. Six-month renewals for the expansion population begin this December, and the work requirement follows in 2027. The state agency running that transition answers to the governor.

Drought. The wheat crop came in at roughly half of last year, and ranchers are selling cattle they intended to keep.

Tribal jurisdiction and compacts, which have generated more litigation than settlement for six years and will not resolve themselves.