Weaver returns to his roots as campaign ramps up

MARLOW - Darrell Weaver has known for several years that he wanted to run for a statewide office, and earlier this year, he made his intentions known by announcing his candidacy for lieutenant governor of Oklahoma. 

Weaver is currently a State Senator for the Moore area. On July 29, the Comanche native returned to Stephens County for a fundraiser to help him achieve that goal.

“My wife (Kim) and I had been thinking about it and praying about it for several years,” Weaver said. “We had decided, pretty much, before the 2022 election, that at that point we wanted to get through that election. But soon after that, we were pretty well convinced we needed to be in the race.”

Weaver went on to say how much he loved Oklahoma and discussed his many years of service to the state, including his tenure as a senator and as the chief of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics.

“I have served Oklahoma for many, many years and want to continue to serve,” Weaver said. “I want to stress workforce development. Rural Oklahoma is where I came from. I came from Comanche, so I want to help them. My wife and I are small business owners. Most people see me as a public safety guy, but we’re small business owners. We’re in five locations, so I want to see that small business growth in Oklahoma.”

Weaver is running as a Republican and the primary will not be until next June, but he felt it was important to make his intentions known early.

“It’s going very well,” Weaver said. “There’s a big difference between running in a Senate race where you are one of 48 versus a statewide race, but we’re engaged and we’re all over the state. We’re speaking daily and many times, multiple times a day. We’re just working hard and we’re going to continue to work hard.”

He also thought it was important to get back to where he grew up.

“Stephens County is very important to me,” Weaver said. “I was raised here and I’ll be buried down here and at the end of the day, this is home. I love all parts of the state where I’ve served and I love where I live now in Moore, but right now, it just feels good to be down here. My wife and I have a little place on Lake Humphreys and we’re out there. We still have tons of family members here in Stephens County.”

Having been through the grind of elections before, there has 

not been many surprises on the campaign trial.

“It’s pretty well what we expected,” Weaver said. “I think that you run out of time and you run out of real estate pretty fast in a statewide race because you just can’t be everywhere. I noticed our calendars are really filling up. You try to be everywhere and you try to be in every county, but Oklahoma is a big state and there’s a lot of counties and a lot of towns. We’re trying to be everything to everyone and you can’t do that, but we’re sure trying hard.”

Weaver is one of five declared candidates so far for lieutenant governor with all five being Republicans. Lt Gov. Matt Pinnell is term limited and will be unable to run for re-election.