Markwayne Mullin, the Republican Congressman, has won the race for the United States Senate. The 45-year-old defeated Oklahoma representative and Democrat Kendra Horn to become the first Native American Senator from the state in nearly 100 years. 

Mullin, upon his victory, said, “Tonight’s victory is the honour of my lifetime, and a great win for our country,”in a statement. “I want to thank all the Oklahomans who supported our campaign and volunteered to elect strong Republicans across the state.” 

“Tonight, the American people rejected Joe Biden’s extreme Socialist movement, and embraced a new conservative agenda to get America back on track. I am humbled to have the opportunity to serve the greatest state in the union in the US Senate. God bless Oklahoma, now and always,” his statement read.  

Who is Markwayne Mullin? 

Markwayne Mullin was born on July 26, 1977 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A member of the Cherokee Nation, Mullin graduated from Stilwell High School in Stilwell, Oklahoma. He went on to join Missouri Valley College in 1996, but did not finish the degree. In 2010, Markwayne Mullin received an associate degree in construction technology from Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology. 

At the age of 20, Markwayne Mullin had to take over his father’s business after he fell ill. Mullin ran Mullin Properties, Mullin Farms and Mullin Services. He also hosted a radio show called House Talk, a home improvement radio programme. 

In 2012, Marwayne Mullin won the United States House of Representatives elections to represent Oklahoma’s second Congressional district. At the time, he squarely pitched himself as an outsider: “A rancher, A businessman. Not a politician,” he defined himself. 

Marwayne Mullin is one of those candidates who denied the results of the 2020 US presidential elections. Mullin, in fact, was one of the 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed in the United States Supreme Court contesting the 2020 presidential election. 

As far as his political positions vis a vis the current midterms go, Mullin has situated himself squarely against abortion in all forms, even in cases of rape, incest or if the mother’s life is at risk. In the 2022 Republican runoff debate, Mullin had said that if his wife’s life was at risk during a pregnancy, neither he nor his wife would want to get an abortion.