The 2022 United States Senate special election in Oklahoma was held on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate for Oklahoma. The election took place concurrently with the regularly scheduled election for Oklahoma's other Senate seat. The candidate filing deadline was between April 13 and 15, 2022.
This special election was held to fill the remaining four years of incumbent Republican Senator Jim Inhofe's term. In February 2022, Inhofe announced that he would resign early at the end of the 117th United States Congress on January 3, 2023, reportedly due to long COVID. He was first elected in a 1994 special election with 55% of the vote to succeed Democratic senator David Boren in the wake of his impending resignation to become president of the University of Oklahoma. Most recently, Inhofe was re-elected to a fifth full term in 2020 with 62.9% of the vote.
Former U.S. Representative Kendra Horn secured the Democratic nomination by default, while the primary election for the Republican nomination took place on June 28, 2022. U.S. Representative Markwayne Mullin won the Republican primary runoff on August 23, defeating former State House Speaker T. W. Shannon. Mullin ultimately won the election.
Mullin, a member of the Cherokee Nation, became the first Native American to serve in the U.S. Senate since fellow Republican Ben Nighthorse Campbell retired from Congress in 2005, and the first Native American representing this state since Robert Owen in 1925. Conversely, Horn won Oklahoma County, making her the first Democrat since 2008 to carry any Oklahoma county in a Senate election.
On February 25, 2022, Jim Inhofe, the state's longest-serving U.S. Senator, announced he would leave office at the end of the 117th Congress, triggering a special election for his U.S. Senate seat in Oklahoma. A crowded field of candidates was expected in the Republican primary following the announcement of Inhofe's retirement.
Luke Holland, Inhofe's former chief of staff, launched his campaign for Inhofe's seat on the same day with Inhofe's endorsement. The next day, Markwayne Mullin, a U.S. Representative for Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district, announced his campaign. By February 28, Oklahoma State Senator Nathan Dahm had announced he was switching his campaign from running for Oklahoma's Class III seat to running for the special election seat. On March 8, former United States National Security Council chief of staff Alex Gray announced his campaign. T. W. Shannon, a former Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, officially announced his campaign on March 11. Scott Pruitt, former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, filed to run on April 15.
Former U.S. Representative Kendra Horn was the only Democrat to file to run and was automatically awarded the Democratic nomination.
Aggregate polls<br />
Graphical summary<br />
Mullin won all five congressional districts.
Official campaign websites