1994 Oklahoma gubernatorial election

1994 Oklahoma gubernatorial election

← 1990 November 8, 1994 1998 →
 
Nominee Frank Keating Jack Mildren Wes Watkins
Party Republican Democratic Independent
Popular vote 466,740 294,936 233,336
Percentage 46.9% 29.6% 23.5%

County results
Keating:      30–40%      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%
Mildren:      30–40%      40–50%      50–60%
Watkins:      30–40%      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%

Governor before election

David Walters
Democratic

Elected Governor

Frank Keating
Republican

The 1994 Oklahoma gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 1994, and was a race for Governor of Oklahoma. Former United States Associate Attorney General Frank Keating pulled an upset in the three-way race to become only the third Republican governor in Oklahoma history.

The Democratic vote was split between Lieutenant Governor Jack Mildren, an Oklahoma Sooners star quarterback from 1969 to 1971, and former Democratic congressman Wes Watkins, 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.