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U.S. Rep. Kevin Hern easily won Oklahoma’s GOP nomination for U.S. Senate on Tuesday in a show of President Donald Trump’s status as Republican Party kingmaker.
In another big open race on the ballot in Oklahoma, Attorney General Gentner Drummond and Mike Mazzei, a former state senator endorsed by Trump, advanced to an August runoff.
With Trump’s early backing, Hern is seeking the Senate seat once held by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Trump’s endorsement kept Hern’s most serious potential rivals out of the primary, arriving even before Mullin was confirmed as a replacement for fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Hern won more than 50% of the vote in a five-person field to avoid an Aug. 25 runoff. He is favored to win the seat in November because Democrats haven’t won a U.S. Senate race in Oklahoma since 1990.
A bigger test of Trump’s influence — which has usually proved potent in Republican primaries this year — played out in the race to succeed outgoing Gov. Kevin Stitt.
Trump endorsed Mazzei last month, wading late into a primary that included several prominent Oklahoma Republicans.
The winner of the GOP runoff will face Democrat Cyndi Munson, Oklahoma’s House minority leader, who won her party’s nomination.
In a solidly Republican state, the open races for two of Oklahoma’s biggest offices set off a political scramble.
Mullin left the Senate to join Trump’s cabinet and replace Kristi Noem, whom the president fired in March over mounting criticism over her leadership at the Department of Homeland Security. Republican Alan Armstrong, an energy executive, is filling the Oklahoma Senate seat for now, but state law prohibits him from seeking a full term as an interim appointee.
Stitt, who been governor since 2019, cannot run again because of term limits — and Trump has seemed eager for him to go.
As head of the National Governors Association, Stitt drew Trump’s ire earlier this year over a dispute over invitations to White House events at the group’s annual meeting. The fallout led to Trump attacking Stitt on social media as a “RINO,” meaning Republican in Name Only.
John Hanna, The Associated Press
