Updated March 24, 2026 at 12:18 PM CDT
Oklahoma's next U.S. Senator will be Tulsa energy executive Alan Armstrong.
Armstrong most recently served on the board of Williams Companies, where he was CEO until last year. The company has 5,000 employees and its pipelines and other infrastructure handle nearly a third of the natural gas used in the United States every day.
He will finish out the term of departing Senator Markwayne Mullin, who was approved by his Senate colleagues to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security Monday.
Gov. Kevin Stitt said he selected Armstrong because of his business acumen and understanding of Oklahoma's energy industry.
"It was a non-political pick," Stitt said.
Instead, the focus is on Congress's need to act on energy infrastructure reform, he said, with a focus on streamlining the permitting process for large-scale projects.
"Alan is the right man with the right perspective to bring his leadership to walk, work across party lines and to help us get permitting reform done," Stitt said. "He's entering the US Senate at a critical time for advancing reforms to secure America's future as an energy leader."
Armstrong will serve in the Senate until January, when the winner of November's general election will take office. Oklahoma law bars him from running for the seat he was appointed to.
Armstrong said the appointment is an honor, adding that it's hard to refuse the opportunity to serve his state in Congress, given that the U.S. needs to play catch-up with the rest of the world's infrastructure developments.
"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," he said. "It is really a critical time for our country. I look around and realize how important energy decisions are – And in general, infrastructure decisions. And if you travel around the world these days, you realize we are falling behind on being the leaders in infrastructure."
Reporters asked Armstrong if he would focus on any other policy areas besides energy, and whether his focus on that topic raised potential conflicts of interest, considering his leadership role at Williams. He said reforming energy project permitting is his top priority, given the limited time he has to serve. And that he's not concerned about a conflict.
"It's not really the Senate's role to approve individual projects," He said. " Really that gets done at places like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). And so that's not something that I would have jurisdiction over. My goal is going to be to get permitting reform done for all forms of energy. And I don't see that as a conflict at all."
He also said his recent conversations with President Donald Trump were promising and supportive."It was a great meeting – very strong support for me," Armstrong said. "I think the fact that I've worked with his cabinet, particularly Secretary Burgum and Secretary Wright. I think it was pretty important in me having his support because those gentlemen know how hard I've been working to try to get permitting reform done."
Douglas Burgum and Chris Wright serve as Trump's Secretaries of the Interior and Energy, respectively.
The selection of Armstrong spurred some controversy among conservatives due to a donation he made to former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois, in March 2021. Kinzinger has been highly critical of Trump for pushing the idea that he is the rightful winner of the 2020 election, and voted to impeach him.
Thousands of Americans stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 because of their belief that the election was "stolen" from Trump. There is no evidence to support that claim.
