Energy executive Alan S. Armstrong was sworn in as the new Republican senator from Oklahoma on Tuesday, hours after Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) appointed him to temporarily fill the seat vacated by Markwayne Mullin.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) swore Armstrong in Tuesday afternoon on the Senate floor, officially welcoming him to the chamber in Washington. Armstrong will serve the remaining months of Mullin’s term, which is set to end in January 2027.
The Senate confirmed Mullin on Monday to lead the Department of Homeland Security after President Donald Trump ousted his predecessor, Kristi L. Noem. Mullin was sworn in Tuesday afternoon during a ceremony at the White House.
Armstrong, 63, is the executive chairman of Williams, a natural gas company based in Oklahoma. He previously spent 14 years as the company’s chief executive.
Armstrong’s appointment will not change the balance of power in the Senate, which Republicans control 53-47. State law requires Armstrong to sign an affidavit pledging not run for the seat in November, limiting his tenure in the Senate.
Trump has endorsed Republican Rep. Kevin Hern to succeed Mullin, effectively clearing the field for him. Hern is all but certain to win the heavily Republican state in November if he prevails in the June primary.
During a Tuesday morning news conference, Stitt said he had received many inquires and recommendations from around the state for who should succeed Mullin but that Armstrong was a natural choice.
“Alan’s story, as you guys get to know him, reflects the very best of Oklahoma, our values,” Stitt said. “He’s a strong business leader who understands the power of free markets and limited government. He spent his career fighting for Oklahoma’s energy industry and providing affordable, reliable energy to all of America.”
Armstrong, a third-generation Oklahoman and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, said it was hard to say no to “an opportunity to go serve when the state’s given you so much.”
“This state is very special to me, and the last thing I would want to do is be sitting around complaining about what other people are not willing to step up and do [to] try to make our country great,” he said.
Armstrong said his goal during his short stint in the Senate will be to drive “better policies that allow us to take advantage of our natural resources around the country,” particularly through the passage of permitting reform legislation to speed up energy projects.
Stitt said he spoke to Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) about what qualities he should look for in a candidate to fill Mullin’s seat — and they all agreed that they need someone in the Senate who can help pass a permitting overhaul with bipartisan support.
Stitt, who as head of the National Governors Association has been pushing for those policies, said there is a “real shot” of this legislation passing in Congress soon.
Armstrong will join the ranks of appointed senators who never ran for full terms. They include George Helmy, who succeeded Sen. Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) for several months in 2024 after Menendez was convicted of corruption charges and resigned, and Laphonza Butler, who filled the rest of Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s term after the California Democrat died in 2023.
Stitt had previously named Armstrong to serve on a state commission on how to deal with a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2020 that found that much of eastern Oklahoma remains Indian land.
“Nowhere else in the United States do Native Americans participate so fully in every aspect of civil society that the absence of a Native American in public and private discourse is more notable than the presence of one,” the commission wrote in a 2020 report.
Armstrong does not appear to be a major political donor, although he has given to the campaigns of several of his soon-to-be Republican colleagues, including Sens. John Barrasso (Wyoming), Tim Sheehy (Montana), Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Josh Hawley (Missouri) and James Lankford (Oklahoma), according to campaign finance records.
He has given occasionally to Democrats, including former senators Joe Manchin III (West Virginia) and Heidi Heitkamp (North Dakota). (Manchin later became an independent.)
Armstrong also made the maximum contribution in 2021 to the campaign of Adam Kinzinger, the former Republican congressman from Illinois. Kinzinger had voted months earlier to impeach Trump and became a leading Republican critic of Trump’s conduct during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
On an earnings call last year, Armstrong said his company was poised to reap the rewards of Trump’s policies.
“Simply put, no one is better positioned than Williams to benefit from the natural gas demand fundamentals now under the Trump administration and a Republican Congress,” Armstrong said, according to a transcript of the call.
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