Drummond was commissioned in the United States Air Force in March 1985, served for eight years, reached the rank of captain, and flew F-15C Eagles.[1][5][6] During the Gulf War, he took part in the first combat mission of Operation Desert Storm on January 17, 1991, and was one of the first three pilots interviewed by pool reporters after the mission.[1][6] He earned a Distinguished Flying Cross for "superb situational awareness, airmanship and understanding of the established rules of engagement", three Air Medals, and four Aerial Achievement Medals during his service.[4][7][8] Drummond completed 32 missions with 190 hours of flight time during the conflict.[6]
After his military service, Drummond then worked as a staffer for U.S. Senator David Boren, the last Democratic senator from Oklahoma, between 1993 and 1994.[4] He then attended the night program at the Georgetown University Law Center where he earned a Juris Doctor degree in 1995.[5]
Business and legal career
After returning to Oklahoma in the early 1990s, Drummond worked for the law firm Boone, Smith, Davis, Hurst and Dickman in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as well as serving as an assistant district attorney for Pawnee and Osage Counties.[4] Drummond later founded Drummond Law, a law firm focused on banking law with his second wife Wendy Drummond.[5] Drummond's legal ethics have attracted criticism from jurors, former clients, opposing counsel and their clients, and The Oklahoman, including in connection with his representation of other Drummond family members and a bank.[9][10] Drummond is also a principal owner of Blue Sky Bank (formerly Citizens Bank of Oklahoma, NBC Bank, and the National Bank of Commerce),[11] as well as Drummond Communications, a store agency for U.S. Cellular under the trade name Premier Locations.[5][12] He also owns the 1,100-acre (450 ha) event location Post Oak Lodge.[5] He also operates a 25,000-acre (10,000 ha) ranch near Pawhuska, Oklahoma.[3]
In 2019, the United States federal government sued Drummond, two of his businesses (Drummond Ranch LLC and Drummond Cattle LLC), and Regier Flying Service (which he had engaged) for allegedly spreading herbicide that killed more than 40,000 trees on United States Army Corps of Engineers land near Skiatook Lake and Birch Lake.[13][14] However, the case was later settled and dismissed without prejudice after Regier Flying Service agreed to pay a $240,000 settlement. Drummond defended spraying the herbicide saying the federal government's position was "contrary to wildlife management and natural range development" and the public lands in question had been "formerly ours."[14]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Drummond's cattle ranch, US Cellular stores, and law firm received $3.6 million in Paycheck Protection Program funds over the course of two years; in the second year, the three businesses applied for and were approved for their loans from Blue Sky Bank, a bank which is also owned by Drummond.[15]
Political aspirations
In a 2013 interview before running for office, Drummond described his politics as aligning with the "business class ... which translates to mean that there is a little Republican and a little Democrat in everyone" and noted the importance of the Democratic Party in helping Oklahoma in the 1920s and 1930s, and he also noted the prosperity brought by the Republican Party in the 1980s and 1990s.[5]
Drummond ran for Attorney General of Oklahoma as a Republican in the 2018 election. Michael J. Hunter led the first round with 44.5 percent of the vote while Drummond finished in second with 38.5 percent, with both advancing to a runoff election.[16]
Hunter defeated Drummond in the runoff by 271 votes.[17]
Drummond campaigned as a reform-oriented political outsider with more experience, maintaining that Hunter had never tried a case.[18]
Drummond attacked Hunter as a "career lobbyist" who was overly reliant on outside counsel and challenged Hunter's residency in Oklahoma, while Hunter characterized Drummond as dishonest and unethical.[19][20] During the race, controversies from Drummond's legal career provided fodder for news coverage.[21]
Oklahoma Senator James Lankford, Congressman Tom Cole, and Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt criticized Drummond's campaign for an ad claiming that Hunter supported jobs for undocumented immigrants and that such support led to the murder of Mollie Tibbetts.[22] Tibbetts's family denounced the campaign ad as racist and an attempt to politicize the murder.[23]
Drummond ran for attorney general again in the 2022 election, despite speculation he may instead run for Oklahoma's open senate seat.[24] In the primary, Drummond faced incumbent John M. O'Connor and at the outset Drummond announced he would be willing to spend another $2,000,000 of his own money to support his second bid.[25][15] He campaigned as a candidate independent of Governor Kevin Stitt, who had appointed O'Connor after Michael J. Hunter's resignation. The aftermath of McGirt v. Oklahoma was a dominant issue in the campaign: both candidates criticized the ruling, but O'Connor argued that litigation to overturn or winnow the ruling in McGirt was warranted, whereas Drummond championed a less litigious approach (the candidates also differed in their opinions on whether Congress should disestablish certain reservations at issue, with Drummond opposing such action).[26] During the June 16 Republican primary debate, O'Connor called Drummond a "Democrat in Republican clothing."[27] O'Connor ran ads attacking Drummond for a donation of $1,000 by Drummond to the Joe Biden Presidential campaign in 2020 as well as Drummond's history of giving to Democratic candidates. Drummond claimed that the donation to Biden's campaign was made by his wife and provided receipts showing the donation was later refunded. The Tulsa World reported that Drummond's last donation to a non-Republican candidate for federal office was to Matt Silverstein's 2014 United States Senate campaign.[28] In the final month of the primary, Drummond's campaign benefited from over $1 million in dark money spending on ads opposing O'Connor's candidacy in the final month of the race.[29] During the primary campaign, Drummond met with Osage Nation Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear and Standing Bear offered to support his candidacy if he promised to never bring a case affecting the Osage Mineral estate. Drummond refused and his campaign was not supported by the Osage Nation.[30]
Drummond defeated O'Connor in a close Republican primary election, winning 180,338 votes compared to O’Connor's 174,125 (less than 1.8% of votes cast).[31][32] As no Democrats filed to run for attorney general, Drummond faced Libertarian Lynda Steele in the November general election.[33] He defeated Steele with 74% of the vote, the largest election win for a statewide candidate that year in Oklahoma.[34][a]
Tenure
Drummond leaving the Oklahoma Supreme Court's chamber in the Oklahoma State Capitol after oral arguments for Drummond v. Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board on April 2, 2024.
In January 2023, Drummond announced one of his early priorities in office would be to investigate the misuse of COVID-19 relief funds.[35] That month, the attorney general's office took over the Swadley's Bar-B-Q investigation, the prosecution of the founders of Epic Charter Schools, and an investigation into the Oklahoma Commissioners of the Land Office.[36]
On the last day of January, his office dropped the case against Classwallet filed by former attorney general John M. O'Connor for mishandling parts of a $31 million federal education grant.[37][38]
The next month his office took control of the corruption case against Terry O'Donnell from the newly elected Oklahoma County district attorney Vicki Behenna's office;[39] his office later dismissed the charges against O'Donnell saying he was "guilty," but wrongly targeted for prosecution.[40] He was cited as wanting to fill the "role of bridge-builder between the state and Oklahoma's Native American tribes, a responsibility no attorney general has attempted to take on since the relationship between Stitt and tribal leaders first began to sour in 2019."[41]
He is a member of the Oklahoma District Attorney's Council. However, he has had criticism from the council's members. In 2024, Oklahoma state Representative Kevin McDugle said he "believes that members of the Oklahoma District Attorneys Council had improper communications with the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board prior to Richard Glossip’s clemency hearing in April 2023." District Attorney Jason Hicks criticized Drummond for sharing his views on the case. In other communications revealed, district attorneys referred to Drummond as a “douche” and "complained among themselves that the attorney general had turned Glossip’s clemency hearing into a 'circus'" and accused Drummond of vying for a run for governor.[42][43]
Capital punishment
Drummond attended the execution of Scott Eizember on January 12, 2023, and afterward he announced a slowdown to Oklahoma's execution schedule citing the stress the schedule caused on Oklahoma Department of Corrections staff.[44] In March, he announced his office would seek to stay the execution of Richard Glossip until 2024 to allow an independent counsel to review the case.[45] After the independent review was released, his office filed a motion to vacate the murder conviction of Mr. Glossip in April 2023.[46][47]The Black Wall Street Times advocated Julius Jones, a black man who has also maintained his innocence, should be afforded an independent counsel review of his case as well.[48]
Education
In February 2023, Drummond withdrew his predecessor John M. O'Connor's opinion allowing funding for religious charter schools and encouraged members of the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board to reject the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City's charter school application.[49] Drummond argued he was protecting religious freedom and “there will be a day in America where Christianity is a plurality, and not a majority.” He argued there is "this Christian nationalism... that is giving oxygen to this attempt to eviscerate the Establishment Clause."[50] In June 2023, the school board approved an application for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School and Drummond sued in the Oklahoma Supreme Court to block the application.[51] In July 2024, the court ruled funding the school violated the Oklahoma Constitution and the Establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution.[52]
In April 2023, his office issued an opinion saying the law does not give the State Board of Education the ability to make administrative rules without proper direction from the state Legislature," meaning Ryan Walters's "rules regarding pornography in library books, sex education, parents rights and inappropriate materials" were unenforceable.[53][54] Drummond also said he was not "taking a stance" on Walter's rules.[55]
Environmental issues
In February 2023, Drummond joined other Republican attorneys general in opposing the proposed designation of the Lesser prairie chicken as an endangered species pursuant to the Endangered Species Act.[56] He also joined other Republicans in opposing the Biden Administration's efforts to make changes to the term “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act which would partially restore protections that had been rolled back during the Trump Administration.[b][57]
In March, he joined other Republican state attorneys general in suing the Environmental Protection Agency after that agency rejected Oklahoma's ozone reduction plan, calling the federal plan "burdensome regulations" and "federal overreach".[58][59]
Domestic Violence
in 2023, Drummond supported resentencing efforts for domestic violence victims like April Wilkens. He said he "grew up in the Osage" and was exposed to "battery and violence" in that community, saying that it is not an ethnic issue but one that affects everyone.[60]
Personal life
Drummond was married to Catherine Drummond.[61][7] He married Wendy Poole in 2010.[62] In 2014, Drummond and his wife, Wendy Drummond, bought the McBirney Mansion for $2.03 million to be their personal residence.[63][64] Reality television star and entrepreneur Ree Drummond is the wife of Drummond's second cousin.[17] Drummond has an interest in fashion that he credits to his wife.[65]
^Querry-Thompson, K (June 29, 2022). "Drummond narrowly beats O'Connor in Oklahoma Attorney General race". KFOR-TV. Retrieved July 15, 2022. It was a close race between two Republican candidates for Oklahoma Attorney General...With all the precincts reporting, Drummond received 180,338 votes compared to O'Connor's 174,125.
^Almukhtar, Sarah; Bloch, Matthew; Lee, Jasmine C. (June 26, 2018). "Oklahoma Primary Results". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 8, 2019. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
▌2 Unknown (2 territories) An asterisk (*) indicates that the officeholder is serving in an acting capacity. State abbreviations link to position articles.
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