Morning Digest, sponsored by 314 Action: Oklahoma Republican who fought state funding for religious school launches bid for governor

Attorney General Gentner Drummond has also been a supporter of tribal rights

Attorney General Gentner Drummond is the first major candidate to join the 2026 race for governor of Oklahoma, but he won’t be the last (credit: Gentner Drummond campaign site)

Leading Off

OK-Gov

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond on Monday became the first prominent candidate to enter what's sure to be a packed race to replace Gov. Kevin Stitt, a fellow Republican who cannot seek a third term next year.

Drummond sought to establish himself as a frontrunner by publicizing an endorsement from the Oklahoma State Fraternal Order of Police as part of his launch. The GOP firm Medium Buy also reports that the attorney general, who is personally wealthy, will begin airing TV ads today.

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There was no immediate word on how much Drummond will spend on his opening spots, which come almost a year-and-a-half ahead of the June 2026 primary. A runoff would take place if no one wins a majority of the vote, with the eventual GOP nominee heavily favored in this dark-red state.

Drummond, who hails from one of the state's most influential ranching families, won his post in 2022 after ousting an incumbent he derided as Stitt's "personal attorney."

Drummond's opponent was Attorney General John O'Connor, whom Stitt appointed the previous year after the previous office-holder, Mike Hunter, resigned amid a sex scandal. Drummond, who had come close to beating Hunter in the 2018 GOP runoff, was more successful his second time out, arguing that O'Connor placed his loyalty to Stitt over his duties to the state.

Stitt tried to help his appointee by airing a commercial that, while ostensibly for his own reelection campaign, nonetheless heavily focused on O'Connor. The spot may have done the attorney general more harm than good, though: Stitt pulled the ad after authorities began to investigate whether it broke the law by focusing too much on O'Connor.

Drummond and O'Connor also diverged sharply over Native American tribal rights, an important issue in a state with a large Native American population.

"I'm not in favor of ripping [away] Native Americans' rights they have been granted by treaty," Drummond told voters. O'Connor, who had called for disestablishing the six recognized Indian Nations in eastern Oklahoma, responded by saying his foe was "speaking for" the tribes.

Drummond prevailed 51-49 ahead of an easy general election and has continued to come into conflict with the governor during his two years in office. The attorney general was on the winning side in one high-profile dispute last year when the state Supreme Court prohibited a state agency from providing funding to a Catholic charter school.

Though Drummond is the first to enter the race, he's unlikely to be the last. Many other Sooner State Republicans could also run, including some with closer ties to Stitt.

One such possibility is former state Sen. Mike Mazzei, who served as the governor's budget adviser in 2019 and 2020. Mazzei tells the Tulsa World's Randy Krehbiel that he's "building a campaign," though he hasn't committed to running yet.

Krehbiel also mentions former state House Speaker Charles McCall, Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell, and state Superintendent Ryan Walters as politicians "believed to have an interest" in the governorship. Walters, who has denounced the separation of church and state as a "myth," was on the opposite side of Drummond in the charter school case, and the two have continued to feud since then.

NOTUS additionally mentions another former member of Stitt's cabinet, Chip Keating, as a potential candidate for the post that his father, former Gov. Frank Keating, held from 1995 to 2003. It's also possible that the next governor isn't on anyone's radar yet. Stitt himself emerged seemingly out of nowhere in the summer of 2017, but his heavy personal spending helped him overcome better-known rivals en route to two terms in the governor's mansion.

Governors

FL-Gov

While Florida Democrats are back on their heels after watching their state shift sharply to the right in recent years, there are still several who might run for the open governorship next year.

That list includes House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo, state Sen. Shevrin Jones, state party chair Nikki Fried, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, and Rep. Jared Moskowitz.

Driskell has openly expressed interest, while Pizzo and Jones have not ruled out the idea. (Pizzo seems particularly keen on a possible matchup with Matt Gaetz.) Fried, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in 2022, recently declined to comment to the Tampa Bay Times' Kirby Wilson, and Levin Cava's team did not respond to his inquiries.

Moskowitz, meanwhile, is a special case. Last March, the South Florida congressman said he wasn't ruling out a bid, but in December, after a frenzied bout of speculation that he might become Donald Trump's FEMA director, he said he was "staying in Congress and running for re-election."

That statement, however, doesn't seem to have calmed the chatter about a gubernatorial run: In Wilson's roundup, which takes note of that disavowal, he says Moskowitz "could still seek Florida’s top job in 2026 if things line up right."

MA-Gov

Former state cabinet official Mike Kennealy, who'd reportedly been considering a bid against Democratic Gov. Maura Healey next year, has confirmed he's thinking about the race, reports the Boston Herald's Chris Van Buskirk. Another Republican, Worcester County Sheriff Lew Evangelidis, also says he's not ruling out a bid, adding that he wants to see how the field develops over the next few months.

RI-Gov

Even though state House Speaker Joe Shekarchi recently said that he "couldn't ever see myself running" against Gov. Dan McKee in next year's Democratic primary, he nonetheless declined to rule out a bid in comments newly reported by the Providence Journal's Patrick Anderson.

"I'm not considering anything else at this time except being the best speaker that Rhode Island has ever had," Shekarchi said in an interview conducted last month. Of course, it's hard to square that circle barring a change of heart by Shekarchi or a decision by McKee not to run for a second full term—and McKee's team insists he's not going anywhere.

McKee himself told Anderson his "plan" is to run again, while a spokesperson offered the oddly specific detail that a formal campaign kickoff would likely take place on the first or second Tuesday in March. Unnamed McKee supporters, according to Anderson, "see the Shekarchi conjecture as wish casting by the proprietors of what [state Senate President Dominick] Ruggerio often describes as the only working mill left in Rhode Island: the rumor mill."

But whether or not there's anything to the Shekarchi grist, McKee could still face a challenge in the primary—most likely from former CVS executive Helena Foulkes, whom he narrowly defeated in 2022. Foulkes has been gearing up for another go, but she's also gotten bad press lately after the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit last month alleging the giant pharmacy chain had exacerbated the opioid epidemic by filling illegitimate prescriptions for excessive quantities and dosages of the addictive painkillers.

Anderson says to nevertheless expect a Foulkes launch in "late summer or the fall," though there's a possibility it might not be as a Democrat. When asked recently by WPRO's Tara Granahan whether she might run as an independent, Foulkes said, "If I run, I plan to run as a Democrat" but added that she would "keep all my options open, because that is a smart thing to do in life, because you never know what is going to happen."

At least one Rhode Island Democrat seems inclined to defer to McKee, though. A spokesperson for Secretary of State Gregg Amore told Anderson that he "has not considered" a bid of his own because he expects McKee to run again but added, "If there was not an incumbent candidate in the governor's race in 2026, he would consider it."

House

TX-15

Tejano music star Bobby Pulido is being "heavily recruited" by Democrats to run against Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz in South Texas' 15th Congressional District, reports Politico's Ally Mutnick.

Last year, Pulido, a Latin Grammy winner, announced a farewell tour after 30 years of performing and said he'd run for office in 2026, though he didn't specify where or for what post. But Pulido was born and raised in the 15th District, and at least one prominent local Democrat, former Rep. Filemon Vela, tells Mutnick he thinks Pulido could help reverse the party's slide with voters in the heavily Latino Rio Grande Valley.

At least some Democrats were optimistic that they could oust De La Cruz last year, with the House Majority PAC spending more than $1.6 million to help Democrat Michelle Vallejo, who lost 53-45 in 2022. But major Republican groups did not respond in kind, and De La Cruz won their rematch by a larger 57-43 margin.

Legislatures

MN State Senate & MN State House

Expect a contentious opening session when the Minnesota legislature reconvenes today as Democrats and Republicans feud over how the state House should be governed for the next two years.

In the Senate, the two parties just reached a power-sharing agreement pending a Jan. 28 special election that will resolve a brief tie, but their counterparts in the lower chamber remain bitterly divided as the GOP seeks to capitalize on a temporary one-seat edge to install its own speaker.

That narrow advantage will also vanish at the end of the month when a pair of safely blue vacant seats currently held by Democrats—one in each chamber—are filled. But in the meantime, Republicans, who hold 67 seats to the Democrats' 66, say they have the power to name a speaker who will set the agenda for the House at least until 2027.

Democrats have responded by threatening a walkout, and they have a powerful ally who's taking their side. Secretary of State Steve Simon, who under state law will preside over the chamber until a speaker is elected, sent a letter on Friday to leaders of both parties saying that unless 68 members are present, he'll adjourn the House for lack of a quorum.

Republicans, naturally, fired back with a letter of their own explaining why they think Simon, a Democrat, is wrong. They also escalated the dispute when the chair of the state GOP threatened to launch recalls of any Democrats who fail to show up on Tuesday, which prompted the Democrats' speaker-designate, Rep. Melissa Hortman, to respond with a similar threat of her own.

Democrats are also worried that Republicans might refuse to seat Rep. Brad Tabke, a Democrat whose 14-vote victory in November is currently being challenged in court by his Republican opponent. To thwart that possibility, House Democrats were sworn in before a judge on Sunday, a move that the GOP's would-be speaker, Lisa DeMuth, called "illegitimate" in a statement.

In addition, Republicans previously filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the upcoming special elections, saying that Democratic Gov. Tim Walz called them too quickly.

Mayors & County Leaders

Boston, MA Mayor

City Councilor Ed Flynn has decided not to challenge Mayor Michelle Wu in this fall's race to lead Boston, the Boston Herald reports. However, the paper adds that Josh Kraft, who is the son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, will decide in February, with an unnamed source saying he's "leaning" toward getting in.

All candidates will face off in September in an officially nonpartisan primary, known locally as the "preliminary election," with the two highest vote-getters advancing to the November general election. Wu and Kraft, like virtually every major politician in this dark blue city, identify as Democrats.

New Orleans, LA Mayor

State Sen. Royce Duplessis said Monday that he would not run to succeed termed-out Mayor LaToya Cantrell as leader of New Orleans.

City Councilwoman Helena Moreno is currently the only major candidate running in the October all-party primary to run this loyally Democratic city, though that may change before too long. City Councilman Oliver Thomas has said he'll make his decision by Mardi Gras, which is on March 4 this year.

New York, NY Mayor

A mid-December poll for a group called Progressives for Democracy in America finds former Gov. Andrew Cuomo winning a hypothetical Democratic primary for mayor of New York City while incumbent Eric Adams is mired in the single digits.

Initial preferences show Cuomo leading former City Comptroller Scott Stringer 32-10, with seven other named candidates—some of whom are running and some, like Cuomo, who haven't jumped in yet—taking between 1 and 8% of the vote. (Another one of these options, former Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr., says he's supporting Adams and won't run as long as he does.)

After votes are redistributed through a simulation of the city's ranked-choice process, Adams, who tops out at 8%, would get eliminated in the fourth round, while Cuomo would defeat Stringer 51-16 in a fifth and final round.

The survey was conducted by Hart Research, a Democratic pollster. Its sponsor is an affiliate of the Progressive Democrats of America, an activist group that has supported both of Bernie Sanders' presidential bids. The organization's director told Politico the group paid for the poll "to see which candidates might be competitive with Cuomo, given his huge name recognition advantage." The primary is on June 24.