- Republican Markwayne Mullin won the special Oklahoma Senate election against Democrat Kendra Horn.
Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin won Oklahoma's special US Senate election against Democrat Kendra Horn. Polls closed at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
With his win, Mullin will fill the remainder of a six-year term that longtime Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe will vacate on January 3, 2023.
Oklahoma's US Senate race candidates
Mullin, the Republican nominee in the special US Senate election, is a fifth-term congressman representing Oklahoma's 2nd Congressional District in the US House. He serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, including the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, Subcommittee on Health, and on Environment and Climate Change.
Mullin is a member of the Cherokee Nation and one of five Native Americans currently serving in the House. He is endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
Horn, Mullin's opponent, represented Oklahoma's 5th Congressional District in the US House for a single term. In 2018, she defeated incumbent Republican Steve Russell by a narrow margin of just over 1 percentage point to become the first Democratic woman to represent Oklahoma in Congress. Horn was defeated by Rep. Stephanie Bice in 2020.
Before serving in Congress, Horn worked as an attorney in private practice and as a political consultant.
Oklahoma's voting history
The state voted for then-President Donald Trump over Joe Biden by a margin of 33 percentage points in the 2020 election. Oklahoma, a blood-red state, has gone Republican in every presidential election race since 1968. Trump's victory in 2020 marked the 5th consecutive election that the Republican nominee has won by over 30 percentage points.
The money race
According to OpenSecrets, Mullin raised $4.8 million, spent $5 million, and had $470,203 cash on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Horn, raised $1.6 million, spent $1.5 million, and had $191,312 cash on hand, as of October 19.
As of late October, nearly a dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups had combined to spend about $5.9 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase.
What experts say
The race between Mullin and Horn was rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.