Via press release early Tuesday morning, former Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall announced his bid for governor, becoming the second major candidate to declare for the 2026 GOP gubernatorial ballot.
In his announcement, McCall touted the Legislature’s “conservative” accomplishments under his tenure as speaker — which lasted from 2017 through 2024 and amounted to the longest tenure for any speaker in state history. McCall praised the House for passing tax cuts, stringent immigration laws and constitutional carry of firearms, saying that the Legislature “built a stronger Oklahoma rooted in an America First agenda.”
“I am incredibly proud of what we accomplished, but there is much more left to do. From deporting every single illegal to building the BIGGEST, BOLDEST economy in the nation, our fight is far from over,” McCall said in his press release. “I know without a doubt we can continue our work to turn Oklahoma into the conservative model the rest of nation strives to be.”
McCall also stated Oklahomans’ “freedom is under attack” by “the left and outside forces,” though McCall did not specify what those forces may be now that conservatives control not only all of Oklahoma’s top elected posts, but the executive and legislative branches of the federal government as well.
“I truly believe God put President Trump back in the White House to save our great country, and I am going to do everything I can alongside him to make America great again and keep Oklahoma great,” McCall said.
A member of Atoka County’s most powerful family, McCall serves CEO and chairman of the board of AmeriState Bank. He served as Atoka’s mayor from 2005 to 2012 before running for House District 22. If McCall’s bid for governor is successful, he would become the third former speaker in state history to make his way from the House chamber to the governor’s office, joining William “Alfalfa Bill” Murray and Leon “Red” Phillips.
McCall eventually plans to host an in-person formal campaign announcement where he will “fully lay out a vision for even greater prosperity,” according to the press release. McCall joins Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who announced his candidacy last month, in the race to secure the Republican nomination in 2026.
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Drummond, who held his position for the last two years of McCall’s tenure, clashed briefly with the former speaker last year when McCall moved to disapprove a Drummond-negotiated consent decree involving the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. However, one of Drummond’s most notable decisions as attorney general helped McCall avoid further scrutiny for a bizarre tag agency reform scheme that drew a criminal indictment against former Rep. Terry O’Donnell, McCall’s closest friend in the Legislature and his during-session roommate at an OKC high-rise apartment. Shortly after becoming attorney general in 2023, Drummond took over the prosecution of O’Donnell and decided to dismiss the felony charges, despite saying, “Terry’s guilty.”
Other potential candidates rumored to be weighing a run for governor include Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, former state Sen. Mike Mazzei, Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell and Chip Keating, a former Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper and the son of former Gov. Frank Keating. Leisa Mitchell Haynes of Choctaw has also announced her candidacy.
Walters publicly speculated McCall would seek the governorship at a dramatic press conference in front of the House chamber last August amid calls for an investigation into Walters’ handling of appropriated funds. Walters accused McCall of orchestrating an attack “on who he views as his biggest political opponent in that governor’s race in 2026.” Walters, however, has not announced his own candidacy.
Poll gives Drummond early advantage in favorability, name recognition
McCall’s announcement dropped the same day as Cole Hargrave Snodgrass and Associates‘ first 2025 edition of the Sooner Survey, which polls Oklahomans on their perceptions of public officials and candidates. It is way too early for poll results to reflect how the actual race may turn out — Drummond was the only candidate who had publicly announced his campaign at the time the poll was conducted — but the CHS poll (embedded below) shows Drummond with a major early lead over McCall, Walters and Keating in terms of favorability, with 49 percent of Republican respondents indicating a favorable opinion of the attorney general. Thirteen percent indicated an unfavorable opinion of Drummond.
Walters, on the other hand, had a 30 percent favorable opinion rating among the Republicans polled, and 36 percent indicated an unfavorable opinion. Walters polled better among those identifying themselves as “Trump Republicans,” who awarded him a 38 percent favorable opinion rating against a 27 percent unfavorable rating. But he did poorly among those identifying as “traditional Republicans,” 23 percent of whom saw Walters as favorable against 46 percent who saw him as unfavorable.
McCall had more respondents view him favorably than unfavorably, with 12 percent indicating a positive opinion of the former speaker and 6 percent seeing him unfavorably. However, McCall struggled with name recognition among those polled, with 66 percent of respondents saying they had never heard of him.
Keating, too, had low name recognition with 66 percent of respondents indicating they had never heard of him. He sported an 8 percent favorability rating, with 5 percent of respondents viewing him unfavorably.
Of course, with 16 months to go until the June 2026 Republican primary, name recognition and polling numbers are likely to change. In January 2018, for instance, then-candidate Kevin Stitt was polling at 3 percent in the governor’s race he ultimately won that year.
Review the CHS Sooner Survey
