The governor of Oklahoma is the head of government of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.

List of governors

Oklahoma Territory

Oklahoma Territory was organized on May 2, 1890. It had seven governors appointed by the president of the United States.

State of Oklahoma

Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory were combined and admitted to the Union as the State of Oklahoma on November 16, 1907. The Constitution of Oklahoma calls for the election of a governor every four years, to take office on the second Monday in January after the election. Originally, governors could not succeed themselves, with no limit on total terms; a 1966 constitutional amendment allowed them to succeed themselves once. An amendment in 2010 limited them to eight years in total, retroactively applying to all living former governors. Should the office become vacant because of a death, resignation or removal of the governor, the lieutenant governor immediately succeeds to the governorship. After Jack C. Walton was impeached and removed in 1923, Lieutenant Governor Martin E. Trapp served in the office for the remainder of the term. He styled himself "Acting Governor," as the constitution only specified that the powers of the office devolved upon the lieutenant governor, hoping that he would not be prevented from running in the next election. However, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in 1926 that, in the case of a vacancy in the office, the lieutenant governor becomes governor, and he was ineligible to run for a consecutive term. The governor and the lieutenant governor are not formally elected on the same ticket.