(Update: On Tuesday, June 16, U.S. Rep. Kevin Hern won the GOP nomination for Oklahoma’s open U.S. Senate seat.)
Five Republicans are vying to become Oklahoma’s next member of the U.S. Senate: a Cherokee citizen-turned-government watchdog, a country music veteran, a business intelligence developer, a sitting congressman and a lifelong health care professional.
William Sean Buckner, Gary Ty England, Nick Hankins, U.S. Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK1) and Brian Ragain will compete for the GOP’s nomination in the June 16 primary.
The race features no incumbent because current U.S. Sen. Alan Armstrong (R-OK), who was appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt following the resignation of former Sen. Markwayne Mullin, pledged not to seek a full term. Mullin resigned in March 2026 after President Donald Trump nominated him to serve as secretary of homeland security.
If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the June 16 Republican primary, the top two finishers will advance to an Aug. 25 runoff. The GOP nominee will face a Democratic opponent, as well as two independents and one Libertarian, in the Nov. 3 general election.
The following cheat sheet provides an overview of Oklahoma’s Republican U.S. Senate candidates and is derived from publicly available information, such as campaign websites, social media pages, news articles and podcast appearances. Candidates are listed alphabetically.
William Sean Buckner
Age:Â 56
Profession/background: According to his website — AuditTheSenate.com — William Sean Buckner is a Cherokee citizen with Sallisaw roots. He was born and raised in Arizona, but he lived in Sallisaw for two years in his early adolescence. Once out of high school in 1988, Buckner enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and worked on nuclear missile guidance systems. He left the Air Force in 1994 and began doing real estate in Arizona. He opened his own real estate company in 1997 and sold it by 2006, retiring with the money he made.
Buckner moved back to Sallisaw after the 2008 financial crisis. In eastern Oklahoma, he filmed public meetings to hold small town city officials accountable and felt inspired to stop corruption on a larger scale in Washington.
Platform: Buckner’s campaign focuses on government accountability, border security, housing affordability and energy policy, according to his website. On the border, he calls for sealing it to stop fentanyl trafficking and cartel activity. On housing, he proposes a full mortgage tax deduction covering both principal and interest payments — a policy he says no other candidate in the country is offering — and would ban investment companies from purchasing “affordable” single-family homes.
On energy, he says Oklahoma should not only increase oil and gas production but refine it domestically and use cheap energy to power a manufacturing revival in the state. Buckner proposes a joint rural health compact opening tribal health systems to all rural Oklahomans, full funding of the Indian Health Service and a tribal sovereign wealth investment framework. Buckner says he supports the Second Amendment and would work to recruit arms and ammunition manufacturers to Oklahoma. He says he does not accept PAC money or special interest funds.
“Oklahomans are tired of politicians who make promises during campaigns and forget them when they get to Washington,” Buckner wrote on his website. “I’m not going to tell you I’m different, I’m going to show you.”
Links:Â Website | Campaign Facebook
Gary Ty England
Age:Â 62
Profession/background: Gary Ty England is a native Oklahoman who grew up in Oklahoma City and Prague. According to an American Songwriter article, England joined Garth Brooks’ band in 1988 as a guitarist and vocalist before starting his solo career in 1995 with a self-titled album that reached No. 13 on the Top Country Albums chart and featured the song Should’ve Asked Her Faster. England has not released new music since his 2006 album Alive and Well.
Listed on his website, some of England’s notable achievements over the years include time as a national spokesperson for FFA alumni, serving as Oklahoma’s “goodwill ambassador” and performing for troops in South Korea as a USO entertainer.
Platform:Â On his website, England says “it’s time to get back to” limited government, “citizen only” elections, a free market health care system, an unrivaled military force and a state-based educational system that supports homeschooling.
“Look, we’ve all made mistakes in our lives, but I think the biggest mistake in history is to somehow have convinced ourselves that government can provide economical solutions to any of the problems we face,” England wrote on his site. “It’s a broken ideology that has wasted TRILLIONS of tax dollars; it has stolen the wealth of generations of our children.”
Additionally, England’s website says he supports a permanently secured border in order to “prevent the hordes of people from invading our borders and robbing our social support systems.”
“I’m done with being the wallflower and watching this freakshow keep spiraling our nation into the ground,” England wrote. “I’m standing up and offering the next few years of my life to fight for our children’s and grandchildren’s future hopes and dreams.”
Links:Â Website | Campaign Facebook
Nick Hankins
Age:Â 41
Profession/background: Nick Hankins is a born-and-raised Oklahoman who works as a business intelligence developer at Trisura Specialty Insurance Company in Oklahoma City, a position he has held since December 2021, according to his LinkedIn.
Before that, he spent more than four years at Mid-Continent Group in Tulsa, where he worked as a senior data developer and analyst. He also spent seven years at Johnson Controls in Norman, where he held roles from transportation analyst to business process manager, focusing on software development and project management.
Hankins ran for Oklahoma’s 4th Congressional District in 2024 and received only 2 percent of the vote in the Republican primary.
Platform: According to his website, Hankins’ platform centers on government accountability and an “America First” posture on foreign policy. He says he will only consider single-subject bills or those subject to a line-item veto and pledges to refuse special interest and PAC money. Hankins supports term limits and congressional transparency.
He supports deporting all people in the country here illegally, ending birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants and pausing all immigration until more than half of those individuals have been removed. Birthright citizenship is protected under the 14th Amendment for all U.S.-born citizens, although the U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments against jus soli from the Department of Justice.
Hankins also calls for banning followers of Islam from immigrating to America. Perhaps attempting to preclude arguments that his stance is unconstitutional under the First Amendment, Hankins writes on his website that Islam is not a religion, but “a political ideology with foreign allegiance (…) incompatible with the Constitution.”
Regarding foreign policy, Hankins opposes funding for Ukraine and supports withdrawing from NATO, the United Nations and the World Health Organization. He supports the abolition of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and he says he will vote against any legislation restricting Second Amendment rights.
“I love our country and know it can continue to be the greatest on the earth if we stop government from destroying it,” Hankins wrote on his website. “I’ve been working for nearly 30 years and hope to continue contributing to society for as long as I can.”
Links:Â Website | Campaign Facebook | LinkedIn
Kevin Hern
Age:Â 64
Profession/background: With roots in Missouri and Arkansas, U.S. Rep Kevin Hern (R-OK1) grew up on an Air Force base and earned an architectural drafting certificate in high school before working his way through college to obtain an engineering degree and later an MBA, according to his website.
He worked as an aerospace engineer for Rockwell before running his own businesses, using earnings from small ventures — including computer programming, real estate and hog farming — to purchase two McDonald’s restaurants in Muskogee in 1999. He went on to build an organization owning multiple McDonald’s locations in the Tulsa area and employing hundreds of people. He also holds partial ownership in a Muskogee manufacturing facility, real estate ventures and three technology companies, and he helped found Firstar Bank. In 2019, months into his first term in Congress, a campaign loan Hern received from the bank drew scrutiny for its favorable terms. This spring, Hern’s office defended his compliance with mandatory reporting of stock trades, saying, “the filings aren’t late.”
Hern was sworn into Congress in November 2018 to serve the remainder of a term representing Oklahoma’s 1st Congressional District, and he was subsequently reelected to three additional terms. During his time in Congress, he chaired the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in the House.
Platform: Hern announced his U.S. Senate campaign in March amid the pending confirmation of Mullin as secretary of Homeland Security. Through his website, Hern frames his Senate campaign around his congressional record and advancing Trump’s agenda. He highlights his vote for the One Big Beautiful Bill, which he says included his WIRED Act — modeled on an Oklahoma policy taxing international wire transfers to fund border security — as well as his Education and Workforce Freedom Act, which expanded tax-advantaged 529 investment accounts to K-12 students in public, private, religious and home school settings.
“The American dream is under threat by the radical left and RINO Republicans who oppose President Trump’s America First agenda and want to turn the United States into a third-world country,” Hern said in a video on his campaign website. “That’s why I’m running for U.S. Senate: to ensure that President Trump has a loyal ally.”
Hern mentions his work to extend and expand Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, and he authored provisions to encourage domestic manufacturing investment. He is a cosponsor of balanced budget and term limit amendments to the U.S. Constitution and supported the SAVE America Act requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. Hern describes himself as staunchly pro-life and a cosponsor of legislation including the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Additionally, he cosponsored the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act and legislation targeting Chinese Communist Party influence in American schools, supply chains and farmland.
Links:Â Website | Campaign Facebook
Brian Ragain
Age:Â 46
Profession/background: Brian Ragain has spent his professional life between emergency services and health care. According to his LinkedIn, he worked as a paramedic and firefighter for more than 10 years in Chickasha, where he helped form the Chickasha Firefighters Honor Guard. After Chickasha Fire & EMS, Ragain worked as a registered nurse for another 10 years before becoming emergency room manager at Rural Wellness Anadarko last July. Additionally, he is a certified mechanic, author and creator of a website built to improve the reading capabilities of people with dyslexia.
Platform:Â Ragain says he brings actual experience to understand the issues affecting Americans from the inside. According to his website, Ragain plans to hold the government accountable by being responsible for outcomes, not excuses. With his experience in health care, he also strives to push for fixes that put patients first.
“I’m not guessing what’s broken in health care,” he wrote on his website. “I’ve worked inside it. I’ve seen the delays, the red tape, the people who fall through the cracks.”
Ragain discusses veterans and mental health in his campaign, with a section devoted to the topics on his website. He plans to make mental health treatment more accessible by demanding funds to ensure veterans have access to care.
“We ask our veterans to carry the weight of this country,” Ragain wrote. “The least we can do is make sure they’re not fighting alone when they come home.”
