By OAKLEE FIELDER
Mike Mazzei was voted to be Oklahoma’s new governor after defeating Democrat nominee Cyndi Munson on Tuesday night.
The state of Oklahoma remained in a sea of red, as Republicans won the Senate, House, Governor, Attorney General and the Lieutenant Governor elections. Despite the Republican win in all the elections, there was a swing in every county towards the Democrats. Compared to the 2024 presidential election, the Oklahoma Governor race shifted 28.1 points towards the Democrats.
As the results came through Tuesday night, Oklahoma county ran into a wall. Voting machines in multiple locations were causing problems, and were unable to count the votes. Election Board Secretary Doug Sanderson told News 9 that these issues were not unusual, and that all ballots in the machines were in locked bins and will be counted.
Oklahoma county was not the only county to encounter issues. Cleveland and Comanche counties were experiencing technical issues as well, delaying the reports of their results. Around 10:30pm on Tuesday, the Cleveland County Election Board was up and running. When Oklahomans woke up on Wednesday morning, Comanche county’s votes had been counted and Mike Mazzei was undoubtably Oklahoma’s new governor-elect.
At 10:41pm Tuesday night, Mazzei posted on Facebook a thank you note to Oklahoma. His note includes him saying the campaign was built by the people of Oklahoma, and if you voted for another person, he wants to be your governor and to earn your trust. Mazzei said Oklahoma has unlimited potential and that he wants to prove it.
The rest of the Oklahoma elections went the Republicans’ way. Kevin Hern took the senate over Democrat N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas. In the house, Mark Tedford took District One, Josh Brecheen took District Two, Frank D. Lucas took District Three, Tom Cole took District Four and Stephanie just barely took District Five after defeating Jana Nelson by just 3,364 votes.
Although Oklahoma ran red, multiple states flipped from Republican to Democrat. Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and Maine flipped from Republican to Democrat. Mississippi’s election for senate is in a tight race, as Democrat Scott Colom leads Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith the race by just 65 votes with 95% of votes in, as of Wednesday morning. Alaska’s Senate race is also unfinished as Democrat Mary Peltola leads Republican Dan Sullivan by 626 votes with 74,000 left to count.