The 1994 Oklahoma gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 1994, and was a race for

Governor of Oklahoma The governor of Oklahoma is the head of government of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Under the Oklahoma Constitution, the governor serves as the head of the Oklahoma executive branch, of the government of Oklahoma. The governor is the '' ex of ...

. Former

United States Associate Attorney General The associate attorney general of the United States is the third-highest-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Justice. The associate attorney general advises and assists the attorney general and the deputy attorney general in policies re ...

Frank Keating Francis Anthony Keating II (initially born as David Rowland Keating) (born February 10, 1944) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 25th governor of Oklahoma from 1995 to 2003. , Keating is one of only five governors in Okl ...

pulled an upset in the three-way race to become only the third

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

governor in Oklahoma history. The Democratic vote was split between Lieutenant Governor Jack Mildren and former Democratic congressman

Wes Watkins Wesley Wade Watkins (born December 15, 1938) is an American politician from the state of Oklahoma. Watkins is a retired member of the United States House of Representatives where he had represented for 14 years as a Democrat and then for six ye ...

, who ran as an independent. Watkins won 24% of the vote and carried numerous counties (by wide margins in some cases); his 233,000 votes far exceeded Keating's 171,000-vote winning margin over Mildren. This was the first time since Oklahoma statehood that Jackson County, Stephens County, and Grady County voted Republican in a gubernatorial election, and the first time since 1914 that Comanche County voted Republican.

Candidates

Democrat

* Jack Mildren, Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma *Danny Williams * Bernice Shedrick, state senator *Joe Vickers

Republican

- Assistant Attorney General,

General Counsel A general counsel, also known as chief counsel or chief legal officer (CLO), is the chief in-house lawyer for a company or a governmental department. In a company, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO, and their ...

member, and

Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development The deputy secretary of housing and urban development, in the United States government, is the chief operating officer of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. The current deputy secretary is Adrianne Todman, who was swor ...

under President George H. W. Bush; Assistant

Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

and

under President Ronald Reagan *Jerry Pierce *Virginia Hale *Thomas H. Lay *Jerry Kobyluk

Independent

- former U.S. Congressman

Democratic primary

Lt. Governor Jack Mildren and Bernice Shedrick advanced to the runoff where both candidates received vote totals similar to the first primary, securing the win for Mildren.

Results

Republican primary

Frank Keating, a former assistant attorney general and member of the Reagan and Bush administrations, defeated four other Republicans to win the GOP nomination.

Results

General election

Polling

Results

References

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

Gubernatorial A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Okla {{Oklahoma-election-stub