TULSA, Okla. — Kevin Stitt will serve another term as Oklahoma's governor after Tuesday's election.
NBC News called the race for Stitt over Democrat Joy Hofmeister around 8:50 p.m. on Election Night.
Who is Joy Hofmeister?
Joy Hofmeister, serving her last term as State Superintendent of Public Instruction, left the Republican party to launch her gubernatorial campaign as a Democrat in October 2021.
“I’m switching parties in hopes of building the Oklahoma I’ve always known our state can be," Hofmeister said in her announcement. Voters elected her as a Republican as State Superintendent in 2014.
Before her election, she worked as a public school teacher and owner of an afterschool program business.
Hofmeister beat Connie Johnson by more than 30,000 votes in the Democratic primary in June to earn her spot on the November ballot.
Who is Kevin Stitt?
Kevin Stitt served the last four years as Governor of Oklahoma.
During his time as governor, Stitt has pushed through and approved polarizing policies including restricting abortion access in the state, opening the state's schools and businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic and fighting back against Oklahoma's Native American tribes primarily on the subject of tribal sovereignty.
Voters elected Stitt in 2018 with little political experience, launching his campaign as a multimillionaire mortgage company owner looking to make Oklahoma a "top 10 state."
He beat a handful of challengers in the Republican primary in June, clearing the next-closest candidate by almost 200,000 votes.
Other candidates:
Ervin Yen, another candidate who left the Republican party to challenge Kevin Stitt, is running as an Independent in the gubernatorial race. Yen is running a moderate, conservative-aimed campaign after leaving his party following disagreements with Stitt over his COVID policies and disagreements with the party as a whole over the questioning of the 2020 election.
Yen is an Oklahoma City physician who served as the Oklahoma Legislature's first Asian American from 2014 to 2018.
Natalie Bruno is running as a Libertarian in the 2022 gubernatorial race. Bruno is a Fort Sill native.
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