Trump-backed businessman Mike Mazzei looks to secure GOP nomination for Oklahoma governor

Tulsa businessman Mike Mazzei hopes to win Tuesday's hotly contested Republican primary runoff for Oklahoma governor after President Donald Trump endorsed him and sharply attacked Mazzei's rival, state Attorney General Gentner Drummond.

The contest between Mazzei and Drummond for the GOP nomination to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt — another Trump target — is the biggest one on the ballot in their deeply conservative state. Drummond finished first among the nine candidates in the first round of voting June 16, but only by about 1,100 ballots out of 403,000 cast, and both he and Mazzei received about 26% of the vote.

The winner will face Oklahoma House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson. A Democrat hasn't won the governor's race since 2006, and the GOP is heavily favored to keep the office in the November general election.

Mazzei, the 61-year-old founder of an investment management firm who served 12 years in the state Senate, received Trump's endorsement in May. Trump has reaffirmed it several times on his Truth Social platform. In a lengthy post last week, Trump called Drummond a “FAKE Republican.”

Trump criticized Drummond for saying in a 2024 congressional hearing that he had no opinion on Trump's 2021 impeachment after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. Drummond, a 62-year-old northern Oklahoma rancher and former Air Force pilot, was elected attorney general in 2022.

“You can forget about this guy — everybody I know dislikes him,” Trump said during a Monday evening call for Oklahoma Republicans. “Gentner Drummond does not stand for the values of Oklahoma, and he's a guy that would be, I think, a disaster.”

Trump carried Oklahoma with more than 65% of the vote in each of his three races for president without losing a single county. Drummond has suggested that Mazzei received Trump's endorsement for hiring a consulting firm operated by longtime Trump friend and adviser Roger Stone, with Mazzei's campaign paying it $67,500, according to campaign finance records.

Both Trump and Drummond have criticized Stitt, who endorsed Mazzei. The departing governor drew Trump’s ire earlier this year while leading the National Governors Association in a dispute over invitations to White House events, with Trump attacking Stitt as a “RINO,” or "Republican in Name Only." Drummond said in an interview with Oklahoma City's KOCO-TV last month that under Stitt, the state had seen eight years of “mediocrity and flipping."

“I respect the president,” Drummond said. “He's a great leader.”

The 10-week runoff campaign has spawned more than $9 million in television and digital advertising, most of it from independent groups, according to the ad-track service AdImpact. That's on top of the nearly $40 million spent in the governor's race ahead of the runoff.

While Drummond has raised about $4.8 million more in cash contributions, Mazzei has funded his campaign largely through personal loans of at least $11.9 million. Drummond has loaned his campaign at least $3.5 million.

Oklahoma Republican gubernatorial candidates Gentner Drummond, left, and Mike Mazzei verbally spar at a televised debate in Tulsa, Okla., Aug. 3, 2026. (Jake Ramsey/Oklahoma Watch via AP)

Oklahoma Republican gubernatorial candidate Gentner Drummond prepares to deliver his closing remarks at a televised debate in Tulsa, Okla., Aug. 3, 2026. (Jake Ramsey/Oklahoma Watch via AP)

Oklahoma Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Mazzei delivers his closing remarks at a televised debate in Tulsa, Okla., Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (Jake Ramsey/Oklahoma Watch via AP)

PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — After nearly a month of testimony, jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial are set to hear from the final witnesses in a case that has largely been about her mental state when she strangled her three young children.

The trial will resume Tuesday with more testimony from a forensic psychologist hired by prosecutors to evaluate Clancy's psychiatric history and asses the defense claim that she was suffering from acute postpartum psychosis when she killed the children at their Massachusetts home.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

Kirk Heilbrun told jurors Monday that he believed Clancy took her children's lives so they wouldn’t “suffer” after she killed herself. He said he didn't believe Clancy's claim that she hallucinated a voice telling her to kill the children.

Clancy's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, will get a chance Tuesday to question Heilbrun about his conclusions. Prosecutors are then expected to call at least one more expert witness before the trial moves on to closing arguments, likely no earlier that Wednesday.

Earlier in the trial, jurors heard from other medical experts, called by the defense, who said Clancy wasn't responsible for her actions because she had lost her grip on reality due to postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness that can follow childbirth.

In the months before killing her children, Clancy had sought treatment for mental health problems from multiple providers and admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital.

After killing her children, Clancy jumped from a second-floor window. She remains paralyzed from the waist down.

Prosecutors say the former labor and delivery nurse planned the killings and contrived to get her husband out of the house by sending him to pick up medicine for one of their children and dinner for the family.

Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the January 2023 deaths of Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy, who ranged from 8 months to 5 years old.

Defendant Lindsay Clancy talks with her lawyer Kevin Reddington. during her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026 in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)