As America’s eyes turn from the presidential election to the presidential transition, questions about whom Donald Trump will choose for positions in his administration abound, with several scenarios carrying possible implications for Oklahoma’s 2026 election cycle.
In Oklahoma, the growing belief that Trump may appoint Sen. Markwayne Mullin to a Cabinet position — secretary of the interior, for instance — has spurred ambitious politicians and their advisers to map out different ways the dominoes might fall. Beyond Mullin’s prospects, Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters has long been seen as angling for a Trump appointment, and even Gov. Kevin Stitt could be in line to join the administration despite his 2023 endorsement of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Republican presidential primary, which drew a jeering social media post from Trump.
“I don’t think people should assume that Gov. Stitt will not be offered a position in the Trump administration,” a prominent Republican politico in Oklahoma said on the condition of anonymity.
‘Does he want to give up a U.S. Senate seat?’
While Stitt and Walters may have their own pathways to the national political scene, Mullin’s potential appointment as secretary of the interior has drawn the most ink and intrigue thus far.
With Republicans anticipating a comfortable three-seat majority in the 2025 U.S. Senate and Oklahoma’s relatively simple process to fill Senate vacancies with an appointee from the same political party, Trump could view a Mullin appointment as one that will not disturb the balance of power in Washington, and the two are friends .
“President Trump is a friend of mine,” Mullin told Gaylord News in August. “First and foremost, he’s a friend.”
In July, Vice President-elect JD Vance headlined a fundraiser for the Trump campaign in Oklahoma City, which was attended by Mullin, Drummond, Choctaw Nation Chief Gary Batton and Stitt, who reportedly picked Vance up from the airport. Beyond that drive up Lake Hefner Parkway, however, Mullin’s connections with the incoming president and vice president seem to surpass Stitt’s.
“I don’t think people realize how close Mullin is to Vance in particular, and the president loves him. The president loves Markwayne,” the prominent Republican politico said. “I think Markwayne Mullin could be secretary of the interior if — here’s the big if — he wants it. Does he want to give up a U.S. Senate seat?”
If Mullin, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, ultimately receives and accepts an offer from Trump to become a Cabinet secretary, his selection would trigger a gubernatorial appointment to fill the remaining two years of the unexpired term he won in a 2022 special election. Then, the Senate seat would appear on Oklahoma’s 2026 ballot as scheduled, but possibly as an open seat with no incumbent running thanks to a peculiar and dubious requirement in state law.
Secretary of the what?
If appointed secretary of the interior, Mullin would be the second tribal citizen to hold the position. The U.S. Department of the Interior‘s current secretary — Deb Haaland — became the first tribal citizen ever to lead the agency, which oversees 11 bureaus, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Parks Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Adjusted in anticipation of U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe’s 2022 retirement — which spurred the special election won by Mullin — a pair of Oklahoma statutes outline the complex rules for filling Senate vacancies based on when the vacancy occurs. Although complicated, the particular circumstances stemming from a Cabinet appointment for Mullin would direct Stitt simply to appoint someone to fill Mullin’s vacancy until the seat comes up for election in the 2026 midterms.
When a U.S. Senate vacancy occurs, Title 51, Section 10 requires the governor to appoint someone to fill the remainder of the term, and within 30 days it instructs the governor to call a special election under certain circumstances. The appointee must sign “an oath affirming that the person will not file as a candidate for the office when it next appears on the ballot.” However, the provision about calling a special election for a vacant U.S. Senate seat is subject to Title 26, Section 12-101, which states that “if the vacant office is already scheduled to be filled for a full term at the next available regularly scheduled election, then no special election shall be called.”
Because Mullin’s Senate seat is already up for consideration in 2026, whomever Stitt appoints would serve until that election concludes.
Whether an appointee’s prescribed “oath” declining a 2026 candidacy complies with the U.S. Constitution, however, is another question being studied and debated in Oklahoma political circles.
“It is certainly a statute that I have been asked about several times over the past few weeks,” said A.J. Ferate, a former chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party and election law attorney with Spencer Fane LLP.
While Ferate declined to offer his legal opinion about the unusual “oath” statute, he acknowledged that its enforcement could prove a steep hill to climb.
“There may be some interplay between the federal Constitution and state law that needs to be studied,” Ferate said.
But like any good issue of political intrigue, different attorneys can have different perspectives.
“There are Oklahoma criminal laws that provide penalties, like perjury, for violating oaths of office and other oaths and affirmations,” said Geoffrey Long, an attorney familiar with state election law who formerly worked for the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. “So if I were considering signing an oath that I plan to later break, I would want some strong assurances that Oklahoma criminal law doesn’t result in my criminal prosecution.”
Markwayne Mullin Cabinet decision: ‘If he moves, all heck breaks loose’
As the rumor mill churns, it’s half-off your best guess in Speculation City.
If a Mullin ascension comes to pass, Stitt’s appointment decision for a U.S. Senate vacancy could drastically affect Oklahoma’s gubernatorial race, U.S. Senate race and congressional contests in 2026.
“If he moves, all heck breaks loose,” the prominent Republican politico said of Mullin.
Among the numerous questions being bandied about in Oklahoma political circles are:
- Could Stitt appoint himself to the U.S. Senate?
- Would Stitt appoint someone else with the promise they not run in 2026 to pave a clearer pathway for his own campaign?
- Would Attorney General Gentner Drummond forgo a 2026 gubernatorial campaign for the chance to return to the U.S. Senate where he worked as an aide in the early 1990s?
- If Stitt were appointed to a Trump administration position — to the presumed thrill of tribal leaders — whom would Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell appoint to the Senate after he became governor?
- Who could be eyeing a 2026 U.S. Senate campaign already?
In answering that last question, Drummond, Pinnell, U.S. Rep Kevin Hern (R-OK1) and U.S. Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK5) have all had their names bandied about barrooms and group texts as potential Republican Senate candidates. On the other side of the aisle, former U.S. Rep. Kendra Horn might seem the most sensical choice to repeat a bid for the office, although Oklahoma Democrats’ glum statewide prospects are hardly helped by a reeling national party.
Of course, if Mullin stays put in the venerable Senate, the pieces on Oklahoma’s 2026 political chessboard will continue to move in other ways. Drummond, Pinnell and Hern have all been kicking proverbial tires on gubernatorial runs, with a Hern campaign for either the Senate or the governor’s office perhaps pushing Pinnell to pursue Hern’s 1st Congressional District, unless he could gain an incumbent’s leg up with a Stitt departure for DC.
House Speaker Charles McCall (R-Atoka) is also a rumored gubernatorial candidate, as is Walters, who has bashed McCall in recent months over the Legislature’s scrutiny of Walters’ OSDE administration.
The only person who has already formed a 2026 gubernatorial committee with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission is long-shot Republican Leisa Mitchell Haynes, a former city manager who told the McCurtain Gazette that, “God told me in third grade that I would be a governor.”
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Ryan Walters praying PR contract pays out?
As questions swirl about Trump’s transition decisions, he could also change Oklahoma’s 2026 electoral landscape by appointing Walters as U.S. secretary of education or an associated position.
For those seeking signs of Walters’ potential political future, Russell Vought‘s landing spot in the new administration bears watching. Although he was floated for months as Trump’s possible chief of staff — before the incoming president chose Susie Wiles for that role — Vought is still widely rumored for a top-level spot in Trump’s second White House.
Vought served as director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget during his first term. Since Trump left office, Vought has reportedly remained close to the president and was a chief architect of Project 2025, a collection of hardline conservative plans and proposals that Trump claimed to be unassociated with during the election. Currently, Vought is president of The Center for Renewing America, a think tank established in 2021 “to renew a consensus of America as a nation under God with unique interests worthy of defending.” As the organization launched, he penned a Newsweek essay defending and defining his version of “Christian nationalism.”
Vought was the husband of Mary Vought, the president of Washington, D.C.-based Vought Strategies, until August 2023. In March, a joint report by Oklahoma Watch and KOKH Fox 25 revealed that Walters had used Oklahoma State Department of Education funding to secure a contract with Vought Strategies to boost his national image.
Russell Vought and Mary Vought divorced in August 2023. Although Oklahoma Watch and Fox 25’s reporting only showed a contract beginning in March, an OSDE spokesperson called the March contract an “extension.” The two outlets said emails show Vought Strategies had been doing work for the department as far back as Aug. 10, 2023. Mary Vought’s divorce from Russell Vought was finalized Aug. 24.
Walters’ decision to hire Vought Strategies — given its past association with a potential high-level Trump administration figure — has drawn further attention amid rumors that Walters covets a position in the Trump administration. Last year, Walters endorsed Trump and said he had joined his “team for reelect,” although it is unclear what work Walters actually did for the campaign. Along with other Trump-aligned conservatives, Walters has advocated for abolishing the federal Department of Education.
Another Walters initiative has been viewed as an attempt to get closer to the incoming president. Since the summer, Walters has been steadfast in his commitment to place a copy of the Bible in all Oklahoma classrooms so teachers can use it as an instructional resource. Although it was recently and abruptly canceled, the State Department of Education’s request for proposals to purchase Bibles contained specifications that matched only two Bibles — one of which is Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” Bible. Trump endorsed that Bible and gets paid royalties from its sales.
While it drew the ire of some state legislators, Walters’ contract with Vought Strategies could be paying off for his political aspirations. In a story published Monday morning that featured numerous in-line videos of Walters appearing on Fox News shows, Fox News reporter Charles Creitz reported that Walters “is rumored to be on the short list for secretary of education.” If such an appointment were to occur, Stitt would determine Walters’ replacement as state superintendent.
Trump is set to be sworn in as the United States’ 47th president Monday, Jan. 20. Although he reportedly had been superstitious and unwilling to discuss transition decisions prior to the election, Trump’s campaign spokeswoman told the Washington Post on Wednesday that personnel decisions “will be announced when they are made.”
(Correction:Â This article was updated at 2:17 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 12 to correct Mary Vought and Russell Vought’s marital status. NonDoc regrets the error.)
