As Oklahoma’s Republican gubernatorial primary enters its final stretch, outside groups are spending heavily on increasingly personal attack ads aimed at shaping voters’ perceptions in the crowded race.
With nine Republican candidates and the possibility of a runoff, political observers say the attacks could intensify as candidates and outside groups fight to define the race before voters cast their ballots.
The ads have focused on taxes, crime, transgender healthcare and political loyalty, reflecting the influence of outside groups in Republican primaries and the stakes of winning the nomination in a heavily Republican state.
The Oklahoma Conservative Coalition has paid for several ads targeting Attorney General Gentner Drummond, former Secretary of Public Safety Chip Keating and former state Sen. Mike Mazzei.
One ad, “Oklahoma Deserves Better than Gentner Drummond,” claims Drummond “stood with the ACLU to allow transgender surgeries for minors.” Another, “Never Again,” claims Keating resigned as secretary of public safety “after violent crime spiked and domestic violence hit a 10-year high,” and Mazzei “tried to raise taxes on Oklahoma families” and “kill an income tax cut.”
A third ad, “He Knew Broadcast,” claims Keating “spent years on the board of a hospital while the hospital operated a transgender center” that provided “gender transition treatments to Oklahoma children.”
The race has also drawn attention to the use of artificial intelligence in political advertising after Oklahoma Watch reported that Make Oklahoma Great Again used a fabricated image of Mazzei with Hillary Clinton without disclosing it was AI-generated, a disclosure Oklahoma does not require.
The group also released an ad mocking former House Speaker Charles McCall’s opposition to transgender surgeries by featuring an AI-generated version of him peeling a banana.
Tyler Johnson, a political science professor at the University of Oklahoma, said negative ads can shape more than how voters view a candidate’s policies.
“Negative ads can shape how we feel about how a candidate would perform on specific issues, but they also cut to the core of our perceptions of traits like character, leadership, trustworthiness, credibility, likeability and others,” Johnson said.
In a primary, those perceptions can matter even more because voters are choosing among candidates from the same party, often with similar policy positions or shared partisan identities.
“In a primary, we remove the primary shortcut a voter might use: the D or R next to the candidate’s name,” Johnson said. “Ads could provide that information.”
Johnson said culture-based messaging can also help candidates and outside groups stand out in a crowded primary where name recognition may be limited.
Keating, who was targeted in two of the Oklahoma Conservative Coalition’s ads, said the attacks have forced his campaign to respond to claims he says misrepresent his record.
He pushed back on the ad about his hospital board service, saying his role was advisory and did not involve setting medical policy.
“They’re insinuating that sex change procedures occurred down there, and no such things ever occurred at that hospital,” Keating said.
Keating also pointed to the coalition’s endorsement of McCall as he disputed the ad’s criticism of his public safety record.
“Violent crime went up in Oklahoma because of Charles McCall and his lack of leadership,” Keating said.
Drummond, McCall and Mazzei did not respond to requests for comment.
Seth McKee, an Oklahoma State University political science professor, said the race reflects how nationalized Republican primaries have become, with culture war issues and alignment with President Donald Trump shaping candidates’ campaigns.
“Given the status of the state going for Trump three times over all 77 counties, it’s very nationalized,” McKee said.
“Everyone wants to cozy up to Trump, because this is a Republican electorate to the hilt.”
McKee said that dynamic has pushed those issues to the center of the race, both in candidates’ own messaging and in attacks from outside groups.
“The culture war is front and center in terms of how these candidates are running,” McKee said. “Some of those ads are embarrassing, but they kind of speak to what people want and what they’re opposed to.”
McKee said the intensity of the advertising also reflects the importance of the Republican nomination itself.
“Being a one-party state, you win that, you’re gonna be governor,” McKee said. “So all the stakes, everything’s on the line in getting that nomination.”
Outside spending can be difficult for voters to trace, but public records provide a limited look at the group behind several of the ads.
Oklahoma Ethics Commission records list the Oklahoma Conservative Coalition as an independent Super PAC. Its website says the group supports America First and Oklahoma First values and is “proud to endorse Charles McCall.”
Its first-quarter report showed a $75,000 contribution from Dallas donor Shane Shoulders and $48,162 in consulting-related spending. FCC records also list the group as advertiser and sponsor for a May 13-19 KFOR ad buy in Oklahoma City.
Johnson said outside groups allow campaigns to benefit from attacks without delivering them directly.
“Candidates are happier than ever to outsource the attacking to outside groups,” Johnson said. “If an outside group runs the attack ad on behalf of a candidate, the target could be damaged but it’s hard for the public to hold the group accountable as they’re often unknown.”
He said voters may dislike the ads, but still pay attention to and remember them.
“They say they hate negative ads, they say they’re tired of negativity in general, but they do pay attention to it, remember it, and learn from it in lasting ways,” Johnson said.
Keating said he expects the attacks to intensify before the June 16 primary.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think this gets any friendlier than where it is right now,” Keating said. “My guess is it’s a little more toxic.”
Gaylord News is a reporting project of the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. For more stories by Gaylord News, go to GaylordNews.net
