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Oklahoma gubernatorial candidates Mike Mazzei and Cyndi Munson met in Oklahoma City on Oct. 1 for a debate hosted by OETA. The Frontier used public records and other sources to fact-check some of the candidates’ claims. 

WATCH THE DEBATE

Claim: There are nearly 4,000 emergency-certified teachers in Oklahoma classrooms around the state.
Munson said: “The reality is this: We are not meeting the needs of what it takes to operate a classroom today and we have nearly 4,000 emergency-certified teachers in our classrooms teaching all across the state.”
Fact check: True

The Oklahoma State Board of Education approved 3,928 emergency certifications for the 2025-2026 school year, according to data from the Oklahoma Department of Education. 
-Kayla Branch

Claim: Data centers that use “closed-loop” cooling systems use as little water as a 200- to 300-room hotel.
Mazzei said: “They (data centers) need to use advanced closed-loop cooling systems, so the water is restrained to what I understand to be similar to the needs of maybe a hotel every night with two or 300 rooms.” 
Fact check: Mostly true

While water usage for a data center with a “closed loop” cooling system varies based on factors including size, system type and climate, a closed-loop system is believed to reduce water usage by up to 70% compared to evaporative cooling systems, though it often means higher power usage.
-Clifton Adcock

Claim: Munson voted against a $250 million incentive deal passed by the Legislature to go toward the planned Inola smelter. 
Munson said: “I voted against the $255 million tax giveaway to a foreign corporation” 
Fact check: Mixed

Oklahoma state officials announced a deal in May 2025 with Emirates Global Aluminum, a private company in the United Arab Emirates, to build an aluminum smelter in Inola. The memorandum of understanding between the company and Gov. Kevin Stitt’s office states that the deal was contingent on the state approving a series of tax exemptions and incentives, including a package of $255 million that was “expected to be approved” by the Legislature. 

Munson voted against HB 2781 that year, which created a rebate program and revolving fund for businesses that create at least 700 new direct jobs and outline a plan to spend at least $2 billion on qualified capital expenditures. Legislators said at the time the program would revive American manufacturing and support a “landmark $4 billion investment” by Emirates Global Aluminum. But Munson did vote for SB 1000, another bill passed that year that transferred $255 million to the program’s revolving fund. 

Rebecca Corbett, a spokesperson for Munson’s campaign, said in a text message that Munson “has been consistent in her opposition to the project and will continue to do so as Governor.” 
-Ari Fife 

Claim: The proposed Inola aluminum smelter will employ similar technology to European smelters that have made those facilities completely safe.
Mazzei said: “America is asking Oklahoma to be at the center of reshoring a critical material, and it’s an honor to play a big part in protecting the men and women who fight for our freedoms. Now, none of that matters if the plant isn’t safe, but we’ve done extensive research and found that the latest technology has helped the plants in Europe be completely safe.” 
Fact check: Mixed

Oklahoma Primary Aluminum, the company that wants to build the smelter, and the Oklahoma Department of Commerce announced in September that the facility would have a lower emissions rate than nine of 11 top international facilities, which are mostly in Norway and Iceland.

But the Inola smelter is projected to be larger than other plants in Norway and Iceland and produce more emissions on an annual basis, The Frontier previously reported.   

Norwegian and Icelandic smelters are capped by the government at relatively low fluoride emissions into the air.
-Clifton Adcock

Claim: There are no obstetrician-gynecologists at healthcare facilities in many Oklahoma counties.
Munson said: “When it comes to what’s happening to women across the state of Oklahoma, in 52% of our counties, women don’t have access to an OB/GYN.”
Fact check: Mostly true

In 2024, 51.9% of Oklahoma’s 77 counties were considered maternity care deserts, according to a report from the March of Dimes. That figure dropped to 48.1% in 2026. March of Dimes defines maternity care deserts as locations with no hospitals or birthing centers with obstetric care or obstetric clinicians. 
-Ashlynd Baecht

Claim: The state’s Medicaid system is overrun with “waste, fraud and abuse” with an audit a few years ago finding billions in questionable expenses.
Mazzei said: “The first thing we have to address with healthcare is the waste, fraud, and abuse that’s in the current system. There was an audit done several years ago that discovered 1.6 billion dollars of questionable expenses in SoonerCare every year, and unfortunately, nothing was ever done about that.”
Fact check: Mixed 

State Auditor Cindy Byrd, who is running for state treasurer, claims on her campaign website that she previously conducted an audit on Medicaid eligibility that uncovered “a projected $1.6 billion in payments made on behalf of recipients whose eligibility was not adequately verified and $30 million on expenditures made on behalf of ineligible enrollees.”

Byrd did conduct an audit in 2020 that found the Oklahoma Health Care Authority often failed to independently verify the income of people receiving Medicaid benefits. Auditors estimated that $845 million in claims were paid to people whose eligibility hadn’t been verified. But that did not mean those people were actually ineligible or that the payments were fraudulent.

The audit examined one fiscal year and did not establish that $1.6 billion was being lost “every year.”

Mazzei said “nothing was ever done,” but auditors wrote that the Oklahoma Health Care Authority began making changes to improve income verification in 2020 before the audit was released. 

In July 2026, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond opened an investigation into OHCA’s handling of an alleged scheme that potentially resulted in thousands of fraudulent enrollments. 
-Garrett Yalch

Claim: At its current population level, Oklahoma should have tens of thousands more housing units available than it does.
Source: “We have a supply and demand issue on top of our affordability crisis. We are 80,000 units behind for our current population for Oklahomans to access affordable housing,” Munson said.
Fact check: True

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Oklahoma has a shortage of over 84,000 rental units for households with or below extremely low income. As of 2024, there were only 40 affordable units per 100 households at or below that threshold. Across the state, 85% of Oklahomans with extremely low income spend more than a third of their income on rent and utilities, and 71% spend more than half of their income on those expenses, according to the coalition.
-Maddy Keyes

Claim: In its most recent session, the Legislature put $500 million into private school vouchers, a Trump dream account and a sovereign wealth fund operated by an ally of Gov. Kevin Stitt.
Munson said: “Just in this last legislative session, half a billion dollars went to private school vouchers, a Trump dream account, and a sovereign wealth fund that helped the governor’s buddy.”
Fact check: Mostly true

House Bill 3705, authored in 2026 by House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, and Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, raised the cap on Parental Choice Tax Credits for students enrolled in private school from $250 million for fiscal year 2026 to $275 million for fiscal year 2027 and subsequent fiscal years. 

Additionally, the 2026 measure House Bill 4071, by Rep. Trey Caldwell, R-Faxon, and Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry, created the Oklahoma Dream Accounts Investment Program Act, providing one-time $250 contributions to about 50,000 eligible Oklahoma children as part of a Trump administration program to create investment accounts for kids. That adds up to $12.5 million. 

House Bill 4072, also authored by Caldwell, as well as Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry, created the Taxpayer Endowment Trust Fund Act. The fund takes $200 million of existing state savings and “locks it away” to grow. Stitt, as a member of the Invest In Oklahoma Board, voted in February to contract with 311 Capital Management LLC to advise on the state’s investments. Bond Payne, Stitt’s former chief of staff and one-time business partner, launched the management firm poised to direct more than $2 billion in various state funds. 

Attorney General Gentner Drummond in May refused to approve the investment contract and wrote in a letter that if the contract was executed, he would file a suit immediately.

Together, the three measures signed by Stitt in 2026 amount to $487.5 million.
-Maddy Keyes

Rating system: 
True: A claim that is backed up by factual evidence
Mostly true: A claim that is mostly true but also contains some inaccurate details 
Mixed: A claim that contains a combination of accurate and inaccurate or unproven information 
True but misleading: A claim that is factually true but omits critical details or context 
Mostly false: A claim that is mostly false but also contains some accurate details 
False: A claim that has no basis in fact