The Frontier Watchdogs

Never miss an investigation that changes Oklahoma.

Independent investigative journalism delivered free to your inbox.

Email address

Always free. Never a paywall.

Leave this field empty if you're human:

Republican nominee for governor Mike Mazzei has loaned his campaign another $1.8 million since August, bringing the total his campaign owes him to more than $12.8 million a week before the general election, according to new filings.

Campaign reports filed Monday, which cover the period just before the August runoff election to Oct. 19, show Mazzei also raised a little more than $2.1 million during that period in monetary contributions from individuals and political action committees. Since the beginning of his campaign, Mazzei has raised $3.6 million in monetary contributions.

With most statewide offices up for grabs this election cycle, many candidates have financed their campaigns with personal loans. Across state races, more than $32.6 million in loans were taken out by active candidate committees in the 2026 election season with Mazzei’s making up around 42% of that sum.

Mazzei loaned his campaign more money than any other candidate for statewide office this year, Oklahoma Ethics Commission data shows. His loans also account for the bulk of the $25.3 million gubernatorial candidates have lent their campaigns this election cycle.

Most of the money that has fueled this year’s governor’s race, about 62%, has come from loans from the candidates to their campaigns, including Gentner Drummond, who lost to Mazzei in the August runoff and other Republicans who didn’t advance from the primary, according to Ethics Commission data.

Gubernatorial candidates this year loaned themselves more than double the $14 million in personal loans given in the 2018 election, the last time Oklahoma didn’t have an incumbent governor running for reelection. 

State law allows candidates to loan their campaigns money and repay it with donated campaign funds, which is how Mazzei’s campaign has said in Ethics Commission filings that it plans to repay the loans. Candidates are not allowed to charge interest and there must be a written loan document. Campaigns can also borrow directly from commercial financial institutions, but a loan to a committee by any other entity is considered a political contribution.   

Mazzei has borrowed from Tulsa-based Regent Bank at least twice since he launched his gubernatorial bid. But it remains unclear whether these loans have financed his campaign. Mazzei’s campaign did not respond to questions from The Frontier about the loans.

Sean Kouplen, who served as Secretary of Commerce for Gov. Kevin Stitt from 2019 to 2021, is the president, CEO and chairman of Regent Bank and also chairs the bank’s executive loan committee.The bank’s board members also include former state tourism director Jerry Winchester.

Kouplen did not respond to a request for comment. 

NSM Enterprises LLC, mostly owned by Mazzei and his wife, Noel Mazzei, obtained a $685,959 mortgage loan through Regent Bank on Sept. 30, 2025 on the Tulsa building that houses his investment firm, Trinity Strategic Wealth, county records show. The note does not disclose the interest rate of the loan, only that it is variable. Details of the mortgage haven’t been previously reported.

The Mazzeis gave his campaign a zero-interest loan of $500,000 on the same day, and the existing mortgage on the building through Commerce Bank was released about a month later, campaign finance and county mortgage records show. 

Regent Bank, which was Mazzei’s sole depository bank for his campaign at the time, gave Mazzei another loan sometime between late December and early January, as first reported by The Oklahoman, this one collateralizing his investment firm itself.

Though the amount and terms of that loan were not revealed, campaign records show Mazzei reported a $2.25 million loan to his campaign on December 30.

In mid-October, Rep. Jared Deck, D-Norman, held a press conference announcing he had sent letters to the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, the state banking board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation expressing concerns about Mazzei’s loan from Regent Bank against his company. Deck said he was not aware of any evidence that Mazzei had used the loan to fund his campaign.

Mazzei’s campaign also did not respond to questions at that time about the loans. A campaign spokesperson released a statement calling Democrats “out of their minds over losing another governor’s race.” 

“The truth is: there is no legislative investigation, no FDIC review, and no Ethics Commission probe,” Jahan Wilcox, a spokesperson for Mazzei said in a statement after the press conference. “Mike Mazzei makes no apologies for his agenda to eliminate the state income tax, abolish property taxes for seniors and veterans, and invest his own resources in making Oklahoma a more affordable and prosperous state.”

Another lawmaker, Rep. Jonathan Wilk, R-Goldsby, has asked the Ethics Commission to examine how much information candidates are required to report when they loan themselves money, according to Oklahoma Watch. 

Deck said Tuesday that he wasn’t previously aware of the mortgage between NSM and Regent, and called for Mazzei to release documents showing the terms of the loans.

“It’s more than odd that Mr. Mazzei has refused to disclose anything about either loan. It appears he’s trying to run out the clock and hope everyone forgets,” Deck said. “It also appears he’s leveraging corporate assets to finance his campaign and, if so, how is this not a corporate contribution?”

Democrat Cyndi Munson, who faces Mazzei in the Nov. 3 election, has not reported giving her campaign any loans. Nearly half of the $3.2 million in contributions raised by Munson’s campaign since it began has come in since mid-August, mostly from individual donors.

Joe Hartman, campaign manager for Munson, said the campaign has received 18,000 donations from more than 13,000 donors, a large portion of them small donors, since it began, and that he feels the campaign has momentum going into the final week.

“This is a sign of the momentum the campaign has picked up as we continued to travel across Oklahoma and visit all 77 counties and gain the support of voters in all communities,” Hartman said.