Kevin Matthews (born March 2, 1960) is an American politician who has served in the

Oklahoma Senate The Oklahoma Senate is the upper house of the two houses of the Legislature of Oklahoma, the other being the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The total number of senators is set at 48 by the Oklahoma Constitution.Oklahoma House of Representatives The Oklahoma House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its members introduce and vote on bills and resolutions, provide legislative oversight for state agencies, and help to craft the state's b ...

from the 73rd district from 2012 to 2015.

Early life, education, and career

Kevin Matthews was born in

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

where he graduated from Booker T. Washington High School. He attended

Central State University Central State University (CSU) is a public, historically black land-grant university in Wilberforce, Ohio. It is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Established by the state legislature in 1887 as a two-year program for te ...

between 1978 and 1981. He later earned a degree in fire protection technology while working for the

Tulsa Fire Department The Tulsa Fire Department is the fire department for the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma, serving approximately 400,000 citizens out of their 29 fire stations in an area of 201 square miles. The departments was founded as a volunteer fire department on ...

. He worked for 25 years for the department, retiring as the Administrative Fire Chief of the department. He was the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

Administrative Fire Chief for the Tulsa Fire Department.

Oklahoma House of Representatives

Mathews was elected to the

Oklahoma House of Representatives The Oklahoma House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its members introduce and vote on bills and resolutions, provide legislative oversight for state agencies, and help to craft the state's b ...

in 2012 and sworn into office on November 14 of that year.

Oklahoma Senate

Mathews ran in a special election to succeed Jabar Shumate in 2015. The Democratic primary decided the election since no non-Democratic candidates filed. He faced Regina Goodwin and Heather Nash in the primary election and won with 47% of the vote. He did not run for reelection in 2024 due to term limits.

Electoral history

References

1960 births 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American politicians 21st-century American firefighters 21st-century American legislators 21st-century Oklahoma politicians African-American state legislators in Oklahoma Democratic Party members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives Democratic Party Oklahoma state senators Living people Politicians from Tulsa, Oklahoma Booker T. Washington High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma) alumni Tulsa Fire Department personnel {{Oklahoma-politician-stub