Governor of Oklahoma

The governor of Oklahoma is the head of government of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Under the Oklahoma Constitution, the governor serves as the head of the Oklahoma executive branch, of the government of Oklahoma. The governor is the ex officio commander-in-chief of the Oklahoma National Guard when not called into federal use. Despite being an executive branch official, the governor also holds legislative and judicial powers. The governor's responsibilities include making yearly "State of the State" addresses to the Oklahoma Legislature, submitting the annual state budget, ensuring that state laws are enforced, and that the peace is preserved. The governor's term is four years in length.

The office was created in 1907 when Oklahoma was officially admitted to the federal Union of the United States as the 46th state, by act of the Congress of the United States and approval by the President. Prior to statehood, the western part of the future state was organized as Oklahoma Territory (1890-1907). In Oklahoma Territory, the chief executive, the predecessor to the elected state governors, was a territorial governor with similar powers who was, like other territorial governors, appointed by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate.

From 1834 to 1907, in the eastern portion of modern Oklahoma state, was the unorganized former Indian Territory, which originally encompassed a much larger tract of unassigned public lands west of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, reserved for various Native Americans / Indian tribes and nations, removed and transported from the Southeastern United States in the 1830s during the infamous "Trail of Tears". A federal judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, centered in the border town of Fort Smith, exercised judicial powers and sent individual and posses of U.S. Marshals and deputy Marshals to patrol that Territory in lieu of an appointed territorial Governor or other local law enforcement, governing structure or organized territorial government such as the several other federal territories in the Western United States (and later further away of territories of Alaska and Hawaii overseas), during the 19th and early 20th centuries, except for various Indian tribal police on the designated reservations.

The 28th and current Governor of Oklahoma is Kevin Stitt, a member of the Republican Party. Sitt was reelected in the 2022 Oklahoma election. His term expires on January 11, 2027 and he cannot run again as he is term-limited.