While 2026 was set up to be a major election year in Tulsa County with two county commissioners, the treasurer, the assessor, the district attorney and all 15 judges up for election, candidate filing results Friday left only six of the 20 county offices set to see ballots.
The most-watched Tulsa County election will likely be the district attorney race, which will see incumbent Steve Kunzweiler face a Republican primary challenge from Colleen McCarty.
Tulsa County Treasurer John Fothergill will face a primary challenge from Brandon Shreffler. Fothergill was first elected in a 2021 special election, while Shreffler previously ran for the Owasso Public Schools Board in 2024 and Owasso City Council in 2025.
Incumbent District 1 Tulsa County Commissioner Stan Sallee, first elected in 2018, will face a Republican primary challenge from Idris Shelby of Broken Arrow. Sallee is a former Collinsville city councilor and mayor, while Shelby works for Genesis Rehab Services.
Attorneys in the county will also notice District Judges Daman Cantrell and Rebecca Nightingale did not file for reelection. Cantrell served as a special judge for Tulsa County from 1999 to 2006 and as district judge since 2006. He is well known for coaching mock trial teams in Tulsa County and taught a judicial externship class for the University of Tulsa College of Law.
Three attorneys have filed to succeed Cantrell on the bench: Dustin Allen, Loretta Radford and Phillip Peak. Allen is a former prosecutor with the endorsement of Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado, as well as the police unions for Owasso, Tulsa, Broken Arrow and Skiatook. Radford has served as an appointed special judge for Tulsa County since 2022. Peak is an assistant district attorney for Rogers County who previously worked for the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office.
Nightingale started her career as a prosecutor before she was elected district judge in 2002. In 2019, she was the first woman to serve as the presiding judge for Tulsa County. She will be succeeded in office by Special Judge April Seibert, who filed for the seat unopposed. Seibert was first appointed in 2017.
Incumbent District Judge Caroline Wall drew an opponent with attorney Tom Sawyer also filing for her seat. Wall has served as a district judge since 2014, while Sawyer is a Creek County assistant district attorney. District Judge Kevin Gray, who drew criticism for his involvement in the Tulsa County Juvenile Justice Center scandal, also drew an opponent in Christopher Camp. Gray is a former prosecutor who was first elected in 2022, while Camp is a Tulsa-based attorney who has represented the estate of Bobby Barrick in his family’s civil rights lawsuit.
District 3 County Commissioner Kelly Dunkerly and Tulsa County Assessor John Wright, both Republicans, were reelected without opposition.
Kunzweiler faces challenge from McCarty in DA race
Incumbent Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler faces a Republican primary challenge from attorney Colleen McCarty. Kunzweiler is a career prosecutor who has served as district attorney since 2014, while McCarty previously ran the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.
Kunzweiler started as an assistant district attorney in Osage County before moving to Nowata and Washington counties in 1992. He started with the Tulsa County office in 2002 and succeeded former District Attorney Tim Harris in 2014.
McCarty has been a vocal critic of Kunzweiler, especially when it comes to his office’s handling of cases involving domestic violence victims. She owned Mod’s Coffee and Crepes with her husband, has published two novels and is also the daughter of Paula Marshall, the CEO of Bama Companies.
Since graduating from the University of Tulsa College of Law, McCarty has been an advocate for criminal justice reform in Oklahoma, and her public feud with Kunzweiler over the implementation of the Oklahoma Survivor’s Act was recently featured in the New York Times Magazine.
The race could potentially see Oklahoma’s tribal governments weigh in. While McCarty’s campaign has not focused on tribal sovereignty, Kunzweiler has been a vocal critic of the McGirt v. Oklahoma decision and is currently being sued by the Muscogee Nation for prosecuting tribal citizens, with the case currently on appeal to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Only Republicans registered to vote in Tulsa County will be allowed to cast ballots in the June 16 election between Kunzweiler and McCarty.
11 judges reelected without opposition
With the exception of Cantrell, Nightingale, Gray and Wall, every other judicial officer in Tulsa County was reelected without opposition, including:
- District Judge Sharon Holmes, who was first elected in 2014;
- District Judge Tracy Priddy, who was first elected in 2018;
- District Judge Michelle Bodine-Keely, who was appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt in 2020;
- District Judge Kelly Greenough, who was appointed by Gov. Mary Fallin in 2016;
- District Judge William LaFortune, a former Tulsa mayor first elected in 2014;
- District Judge Doug Drummond, who was first elected in 2014;
- District Judge Richard Hathcoat, who was appointed by Stitt in 2023;
- District Judge Dawn Moody, who was first elected in 2018;
- District Judge David Guten, who was first elected in 2022;
- District Judge Kurt Glassco, who was appointed by Gov. Brad Henry in 2009; and
- Associate District Judge Todd Chesbro, who was appointed by Stitt in August.
(Correction: This article was updated at 10:18 p.m. Friday, April 3, to correct reference to Brandon Shreffler’s campaign history.)
