In partnership with NonDoc, The Frontier fact-checked some claims Republican gubernatorial candidates made during the May 28 debate at Cameron University in Lawton. Candidates Gentner Drummond, Chip Keating, Charles McCall and Mike Mazzei qualified for the debate based on their performance in a recent poll.
The Frontier used interviews, public records and news archives to verify information.
Claim: Drummond has no inherited wealth.
Drummond said: “At 14, I went to court and was emancipated, I moved out of my household, and I’ve disclaimed any inheritance. Everything I have is made by my own sweat, hard work and grit now.”
Fact check: Mostly false
Records show Drummond refused at least part of his inheritance from his father, but some land in Osage County was still passed to him from his family, making the claim that he has no inherited wealth untrue.
Gentner Drummond is a descendant of the banker and rancher Frederick Drummond, a Scottish emigrant who arrived in Osage County in the late 1800s and helped establish the town of Hominy as a commercial center.
A 2025 state financial disclosure form shows that Gentner is at least a partial owner of Drummond Ranch LLC, which holds thousands of acres of land in Osage County. Property records show several large tracts of land were transferred over the years to Drummond Ranch LLC from the Leslie F. Drummond and Sons Partnership. Gentner’s father, Leslie Drummond, died in 2010, and Gentner and his brother, Jonathan Drummond, were in line to inherit most of their father’s estate, according to probate court records. But the brothers renounced 40% of the Leslie F. Drummond and Son’s Partnership, as well as part of their grandmother’s estate, giving those assets to their mother, according to a 2011 court order. Gentner and his brother were to inherit any remaining property. Real estate records show that some land held by Gentner’s mother was later transferred to Drummond Ranch LLC around the time of her death in 2017.
Drummond has also grown his personal wealth through ownership in several businesses apart from his family’s ranching operation, including a law firm, Blue Sky Bank, Postoak Lodge & Retreat and Drummond Communications. He consistently said over the years that he was legally emancipated at age 14 to purchase his first piece of land. He said in a 2022 Tulsa World article that the purchase involved land that his family had leased for 75 years. Drummond’s campaign said he was emancipated in 1977, but that court records to prove this are only available on microfiche.
-Brianna Bailey
Claim: Mazzei never supported the national popular vote.
Mazzei said: “Let me be clear: I never supported the national popular vote. And I never voted to get rid of the Electoral College.”
Fact Check: Mostly false
Mazzei voted for Senate Bill 906 in 2014, which would have awarded Oklahoma’s electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote once states with a majority of electoral votes passed similar measures. The bill was labeled as an “Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote.”SB 906 passed out of the Senate but was not heard in the House.
As of April, 19 jurisdictions have joined the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The compact would not get rid of the Electoral College, but could effectively invalidate it if jurisdictions with at least 270 electoral votes join.
“The bill in question would not have abolished the Electoral College,” said Andrew Speno, a spokesperson for Mazzei’s campaign. “Twelve years ago, Mike, along with many of his conservative colleagues, misinterpreted the intent of the bill. Once it was clarified, they actively worked to quash the bill before it went to the House.”
-Brianna Bailey
Claim: Drummond made a campaign contribution to Joe Biden.
Mazzei said: “As far as Mr. Drummond is concerned, check the Federal Election Commission records, you’ll find a Drummond contribution to Joe Biden.”
Fact check: True but misleading
Federal Election Commission records show Drummond making a contribution of $1,000 to Biden’s presidential campaign through ActBlue, a Democratic Party fundraising platform, in August 2020. But Drummond’s campaign chairman said the contribution was actually made by Drummond’s wife, Wendy, and mistakenly listed Gentner as the donor.
Drummond’s campaign sent The Frontier a copy of a Sept. 4, 2020, email from Wendy Drummond requesting that ActBlue change the name on the contribution to hers or reverse the charge. Federal election records indicate that the Biden for President principal campaign committee refunded Gentner Drummond $1,000 on Sept. 8, 2020.
Wendy Drummond donated $1,000 in 2020 to the Lincoln Project, a PAC whose website says it aims to “stop Trump, break MAGA and save America,” and $110 to ActBlue. Gentner gave $5,000 that year to the Committee for Advancing Freedom, a super PAC that “fights for free market, pro-business policies that will restore American prosperity, fuel job creation, and cut the regulatory burden choking economic growth,” according to its website.
Gentner donated $38,400 to the Republican National Committee and $50,000 to the Trump 47 PAC in 2024, according to federal records. He also gave $5,000 that year to the Save America PAC and $6,600 to the Never Surrender PAC, two committees sponsored by Trump.
-Ari Fife
Claim: Drummond dismissed criminal cases against two Oklahoma attorneys accused of operating schemes to allow out-of-state traffickers to operate black-market marijuana farms in Oklahoma.
Keating said: “Let’s talk about Logan Jones and Matt Stacy, who are the face of straw buyers for illegal Chinese grows, and guess what, our AG took those cases away and dismissed them.” Later, Keating added that the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics referred the Stacy case to federal prosecutors.
Fact check: Mostly false
Matt Stacy and Logan Jones were two attorneys accused of creating and running “straw owner” schemes that allegedly allowed out-of-state residents to hire Oklahomans to pose as owners of marijuana businesses to circumvent a state rule requiring 75% local ownership. Stacy was first indicted by a state multi-county grand jury on 34 felony counts, including manufacturing marijuana, conspiracy and offering a false or forged instrument in October 2022. The case was being prosecuted in Garvin County, but Drummond announced in February 2023 that his office was taking over the case. In a separate case, a federal grand jury indicted Stacy in April 2024, along with two other individuals, on counts of drug conspiracy and maintaining a drug-involved premises, to which Stacy pleaded not guilty. Both the federal and state cases are ongoing, though there has been little movement in the state case since 2024. A pretrial conference in Stacy’s state case is scheduled for Aug. 24 and his federal case is set for trial in October.
Jones pleaded no contest to seven felony charges in state court in connection with the scheme and surrendered his law license in December 2024. He received a 10-year suspended sentence and a $1,195 fine. Jones was not charged in federal court. However, Keating is correct that the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics forwarded the Stacy case to federal attorneys for prosecution. Bureau Director Donnie Anderson told The Frontier that his office referred the case to the federal government given Stacy’s political connections in Oklahoma. In 2020, Stacy was appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt to help the Oklahoma State Department of Health coordinate a hospital surge plan during the COVID-19 pandemic.
-Clifton Adcock
Claim: The largest tax increase in state history was House Bill 1010XX, passed under McCall’s leadership as House Speaker in 2018, and oil and gas executives warned that its passage would have serious consequences for the state’s energy industry.
Keating said: “The point is that is the largest tax increase in state history. Larry Nichols, Harold Hamm both warned the legislators that they would regret that decision.”
Fact check: Mixed
The Legislature approved House Bill 1010XX in 2018 to fund a teacher pay raise. It was the first time the Legislature had fully voted to raise taxes since 1990, which was also to fund education.
McCall voted in favor of the bill. At the time, the state had repeatedly struggled with massive budget deficits and was staring down the barrel of a teacher walkout over low pay. House Bill 1010XX, which included raising taxes on oil and gas production, was anticipated to generate more than $474 million in state revenue in its first year.
Increases in oil and gas drilling and production resulted in the state receiving significantly more in revenue than anticipated after the tax increase, likely making House Bill 1010XX one of, if not the largest, tax increases in state history. Most of the state’s energy industry opposed the tax increase, with Continental Resources founder Harold Hamm calling the tax increase a “deterrent” to Oklahoma oil and gas activity. The state’s major energy leaders unsuccessfully offered their own revenue plan that included a smaller increase to the gross production tax. That measure failed to garner enough votes for passage. At the time House Bill 1010XX was making its way through the legislative process, the oil industry was also fighting in court to prevent a ballot measure that would have raised the gross production tax on all wells even further. In early 2026, Devon Energy, following a merger with Coterra Energy, announced it was moving its headquarters to Houston but would keep a significant presence in Oklahoma. That announcement was followed by an announcement that Expand Energy, formerly Chesapeake Energy, would also be moving its headquarters to Houston. Though neither company said the move to Houston was a result of the gross production tax increase eight years earlier, the Oklahoma Petroleum Alliance claimed it was one of the reasons for both companies’ departure.
-Clifton Adcock
Claim: As House Speaker, McCall passed the largest tax cut in state history.
McCall said: “We cut personal income tax, we cut the corporate income tax, we eliminated the grocery tax, the franchise tax, and the marriage penalty. That’s where the largest tax cut in state history came, not these other bills that have been thrown around.”
Fact check: Mostly true
In 2024, McCall co-authored House Bill 1955, ending the state’s portion of the sales tax on groceries and reducing state revenue by over $400 million per year. State leaders at the time said this was the single-largest tax cut in state history, according to local new reports and press releases.
McCall’s campaign said it knew of no other single tax cut that had a larger fiscal impact.
McCall also supported other major tax-reduction measures in recent years, including bills to cut individual and corporate income taxes in 2021 and end the franchise tax in 2023.
-Kayla Branch
Claim: If a criminal case against an Oklahoma City police officer accused of assaulting a 72-year-old man during a traffic stop had been adjudicated, he would have been able to keep his state certification to be a police officer.
Drummond said: “The DA in Oklahoma County charged him with a felony. Had that been adjudicated, he’d still be an officer and a CLEET-holding, certified officer. The deal that we struck with him is he had to resign his CLEET certification and never be in law enforcement again.”
Fact check: Mixed
The Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office charged former Oklahoma City police sergeant Joseph Gibson with aggravated assault and battery in December 2024 for body-slamming Lich Vu, who sustained serious injuries.
Drummond took over prosecuting the case and dismissed the charge four days later.
Vu’s health deteriorated after the incident, and he eventually died, his attorney announced in October 2025.
Gibson would have lost his police license if he had been convicted of the felony charge. CLEET, the state’s law enforcement certification agency, revokes police licenses following convictions for felonies, domestic abuse, or crimes of moral turpitude. But “adjudicated” just means a case has been resolved. He might not have been convicted. Gibson could have also have been found not guilty at trial or possibly pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. Gibson still holds an active police license today, and CLEET lists him in good standing.
But Gibson isn’t currently working as an officer. He filed an application for disability benefits in the line of duty with the Oklahoma Police and Pension Retirement Board in March 2025, which was approved in May 2025, according to local news reports. Drummond’s campaign team said that because of Gibson’s disability status he is no longer eligible to work as a police officer.
-Ashlynd Baecht
Claim: Gov. Kevin Stitt spent more than $70 million challenging the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 McGirt decision.
Drummond said: “The governor spent over $70 million trying to convince the Supreme Court they were wrong seven years ago. That doesn’t work. We’ve wasted money, we’ve wasted time.”
Fact check: Mixed
Drummond’s Campaign Chairman Matthew Parker said he doesn’t know how Drummond arrived at the $70-million figure he cited during the debate, though Parker said it’s documented that Stitt has spent “millions” challenging the McGirt Decision.
The Legislature budgeted $10 million in 2022 for legal disputes between Oklahoma and tribal governments, as well as for litigation efforts to address marijuana holdings by foreign investors and to fund a new unit at the state attorney general’s office to fight “federal overreach,” but only a little over $374,000 has been used for state-tribal litigation as of Fiscal Year 2025. The state agreed to pay outside counsel up to $1.4 million to challenge the McGirt decision in 2021. And $3.3 million was pulled from the Tribal & Gaming Revolving Fund for legal fees for multiple lawsuits between the state and tribes, according to a 2023 report from the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency.
The Attorney General’s Office creates annual reports documenting private attorney contracts made by state agencies, but the governor’s office has declined to report that spending to the Attorney General, according to Thomas Schneider, deputy general counsel for the Attorney General’s office.
The Frontier asked the governor’s office why they don’t report private attorney contracts to the Attorney General’s Office, but did not receive a response before publication.
“The lack of visibility into contracts has been a dangerous blind spot for the state,” said Regina Birchum, executive director of the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency.
The Frontier requested from Gov. Stitt’s office the amount spent hiring outside counsel for cases relating to the McGirt decision, but did not receive a response before publication.
Tevis Hillis, a spokesperson for Stitt, said Drummond “needs to defend his facts,” but did not provide details on legal spending.
The Governor’s annual budget is around $3.5 million, said Abegail Cave, another spokesperson for Stitt’s office.
“There’s no world in which the governor could have spent $70 million on litigation,” Cave said.
-Maddy Keyes
Claim: Mazzei once proposed the largest tax increase in state history.
McCall said: “He introduced the largest tax increase in state history to raise your personal income taxes, a $539 million fiscal impact.”
Fact check: Mostly true
Mazzei’s bill, Senate Bill 1073, was filed in 2016 and would have increased Oklahoma’s top income tax rate from 5% to 5.25%, reversing a tax cut that had already taken effect and generating an estimated $539 million in additional revenue over two years.
However, it’s not clear if it would have truly been “the largest tax increase in state history” at that time. Oklahoma’s 1990 education reform package included a $560 million tax increase over five years, according to KGOU and Oklahoma Policy Institute.
-Dylan Goforth
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
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