Republican Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is battling allegations that, during his gubernatorial campaign, he called on Democrats to defeat voter ID.
Drummond is in a runoff election for the Republican nomination against former state Sen. Mike Mazzei, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump.
‘We have to vote “no” on both state questions.’
An audio recording of Drummond’s comments spliced together was widely circulated on Monday. It appeared to show him telling attendees of a government employee summit, reportedly held on August 3, to show up to defeat the two state questions that will be on the ballot.
“We have to vote ‘no’ on both state questions,” Drummond said, according to the audio. “Just don’t tell any legislator I said that, OK? Every Democrat, every libertarian, every independent needs to show up at the poll. There might be a couple of you guys in here. Go to the polls! Right? It was intentional to put it on August 25 because traditionally only the Republicans show up, and traditionally the Republicans are not as strong in education as they should [be].”
One of the two proposals that will be on the August 25 ballot would “require proof of identity to vote in any election authorized by law and conducted by a county election board or the State Election Board.”
A spokesman for the Drummond campaign told Blaze News via email that the remarks were taken out of “context.”
“These clips are a few seconds long, stripped of context, and selectively edited to manufacture a false narrative. We’re not going to pretend that spliced snippets on X are a serious representation of Gentner Drummond’s views,” said campaign chairman Matthew Parker.
Parker also stated that “Gentner was one of President Trump’s largest Oklahoma donors.”
The president reiterated his endorsement of Mazzei in a post Tuesday.
A recent independent poll showed that Drummond is deadlocked with Mazzei, and the election will likely be settled by the 14% of undecided voters.
RELATED: Top Oklahoma Democrat forced to resign after trying to pay Ethics Commission with a forged check
Mazzei has raised $946,000 since June 2, according to the latest campaign filings, while Drummond has been able to raise $2,928,000 in the same time period.
The runoff election will decide who will obtain the Republican nomination on Aug. 25. Early voting for the election begins on Thursday.
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