Bitter Oklahoma governor’s runoff tests Trump’s endorsement power

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The Hill's Headlines - Sunday, August 23, 2026

The Hill's Headlines - Sunday, August 23, 2026

President Trump faces one of the last major primary tests of his endorsement power on Tuesday in Oklahoma, where his pick for governor is battling in a tough runoff. 

His pick, Republican Mike Mazzei, finished less than a percentage point behind rival Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond in the initial June GOP primary, as a divided field kept either from winning outright.  

As the runoff approaches, Trump has doubled down against Drummond in hopes that Mazzei, a former state senator and state budget secretary, can make it over the finish line in the red state, where the primary winner is all but assured to win the governor’s mansion this fall. 

Along with the special runoff for Senate in South Carolina the same day, Oklahoma marks one of the final midterm primary gauges of the president’s political power amid his lackluster approval numbers — and it comes after five of his gubernatorial picks in open primaries lost so far this cycle. 

“This is a classic test,” said Seth McKee, a political science professor at Oklahoma State University. “Because this endorsement is doing the heavy lifting in this race.” 

Trump’s decision to back Mazzei came as a surprise to some, after signs that Drummond, a rancher, and other Republicans were poised to be frontrunners for the seat being vacated by term-limited Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), teeing up the first wide-open Republican primary since 2018. 

“It’s really this test of: Can a Trump endorsement get a dud over the finish line?” McKee said. 

“I think we were all a little bit shocked when we saw that Trump endorsed Mazzei on this one. That moved him clearly into front runner status, and it happened at a time when the other campaigns were attacking each other, and not really Mazzei,” said Tyler Powell, an Oklahoma-based political advisor who is not involved in the gubernatorial race. “So Mazzei kind of came in slightly unscathed into the race with the momentum.”  

Since then, Mazzei’s “been purely relying on the Trump endorsement” as his pitch to voters,........

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