Earlier this month, political candidates began filing their 2026 pre-runoff campaign finance reports with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission.
Required for anyone running for public office, the reports provide a detailed look at campaign finances, fundraising and expenditures. Basically, they document how much money candidates have raised, where they raised it from, and — in the case of Mike Mazzei — how much they’re willing to spend to buy themselves an election.
I guess that’s the big takeaway from this tweet by Oklahoma Watch’s Paul Monies:
To one-up Paul, I’d actually say that’s a f*ckload of money to loan to a statewide campaign in Oklahoma, especially leading up to a primary.
Here’s a full screenshot that shows his current financial situation:
Seriously, nearly $11 million.
Think of all the cool and good things you could buy with that much change, and this guy is wasting it to be the Governor of Oklahoma? What a dork! I’d at least be trying to buy a political office in a place with nicer weather.
If Mike is able to score 100,000 votes in the primary, that would come out to roughly $100 per voter. That seems absurdly high. Then again, Oklahoma voters are a rare prize, so maybe that’s the going rate.
For what it’s worth, Mike isn’t the only gubernatorial candidate attempting to use his wealth to buy the governorship.
Charles “Chiquita” McCall has loaned $5.6 million to his campaign:
Yep, McCall has loaned his campaign over $5.6 million and, according to recent polling, is still in fourth place. For that much money, you’d think he could at least afford to buy a personality, a message, or third place. It’s almost like introducing yourself to voters via a transphobic campaign ad was a bad strategy.
On the topic of third place, Chip Keating has loaned his campaign $3.5 million:
Three and a half million dollars?! That seems like a ridiculously large amount of money to win back your childhood home, but I guess those memories are treasured.
Out of the big four candidates, Gentner has loaned the least amount of money to his campaign, but he’s made up for it with more funding from individual donors, his attorney general war chest, and PACs.
That’s surprising. Gentner is a wealthy guy – he owns a bank, a successful law practice and is part of an American cattle ranching empire – so you’d think he'd be spending more of his own money in this arms race. Those TV ads all the candidates are buying aren’t cheap.
Via News 9:
According to the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, the top four Republican candidates have each spent more than $4 million on campaign advertising.
Mike Mazzei led all candidates with nearly $6 million in ad spending, totaling $5.98 million.
He was followed by:
Gentner Drummond: $5.23 million
Chip Keating: $4.26 million
Charles McCall: $4.23 million
Before I write anything else, I want to give a little shout out to the sales directors at our four local TV channels. They should definitely be buying drinks at the next office happy hour. I’m not good at math, but I believe that’s over $20 million candidates have spent – mostly from their own pockets – all to be Governor of the 40-something-ranked state in the country. Unreal.
Anyway, I think I’m going to wrap this up and send desperate emails to each campaign to see if they want to buy ads on this website. In the meantime, we’ll keep following the campaigns and providing updates.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
