Overall, about 46% of Oklahoma's registered voters hit the polls this midterm election: about 1.1 million people.
Oklahomans chose – in some cases narrowly – to maintain the state's Republican status quo.
And while Democrats swept across the country in state and federal races, largely thanks to the mobilization of a growing Latino electorate, a limited New York Times exit poll shows about 4% of Oklahoma's total voters were Latino. That comes out to about 44,000 people.
The Oklahoma State Election Board does not request or maintain voter demographic data on race, ethnicity or gender during registration, according to a spokesperson.
Democrat Rep. Sam Wargin Grimaldo, a Latino born and raised in the southside of Oklahoma City, was newly elected to House District 92, which encompasses the neighborhood he grew up in. He said the low Latino turnout wasn't due to a lack of enthusiasm, but to civic education.
"I say that because we've heard stories of, you know, people who've been working in the community hearing from someone…you know, they hit them up the week of an election, say, 'hey, can I get registered to vote?'" Wargin Grimaldo said.
"And, well, we have certain laws here in Oklahoma," he continued. "You have to be registered 25 days before an election to be able to vote in that election."
Wargin Grimaldo said the knowledge gap on details like that is community-wide to an extent, but getting Latinos to the polls is a long-term, ongoing effort.
One, he said, despite the apparently low turnout, has already seen successes at the local and statewide levels in recent years, and will continue to, as the Latino electorate grows.
A Pew Research study shows that Latinos have become a larger share of the national electorate every year for the past two decades.
"Since the 2022 midterm elections, the number of U.S. eligible voters has increased by 8.4 million to around 250 million (up 3%)," the study says. "More than half of this growth came from Hispanics, who added 5.2 million eligible voters between 2022 and 2026."
Latinos now make up 16% of American voting-age citizens, or about 39 million people. And most of them are young.
"The Hispanic electorate's growth primarily stems from U.S.-born Hispanics reaching adulthood," the report says. "The more than 4 million Hispanics who turned 18 between 2022 and 2026 accounted for about 80% of the growth among Hispanic eligible voters during those years. In addition, roughly 1 million Hispanic adults became naturalized citizens in the last four years."
A familiar quagmire
Leading up to the Midterm election, all signs pointed to a potentially historic voter turnout in Oklahoma. Early voting, fueled by widespread anger about rising prices and the war in Iran, reached some of the highest numbers in recent history. But that momentum didn't continue through election day.
Still, as Wargin Grimaldo said following the 2024 election cycle, after losing a contest to serve in the State Senate: it's a pattern, one Oklahoma's Latino electorate has a key role to play in breaking if the state's Democrats want in on the blue-wave momentum going forward.
Unlike in Oklahoma, Latino voters in neighboring Texas and Kansas showed up in force, driving not only sweeping Democratic wins, but also wins for Latinos. Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa's win over Republican incumbent Greg Abbot is a prime example of what the high turnout numbers in those states have meant.
According to a poll by the Latino advocacy group UnidosUS, Latino voters were overwhelmingly energized by issues like the cost of living, resulting in a shift away from Trump compared to 2024. Unidos US CEO Janet Murguía relayed the poll's biggest takeaway.
"The lesson I think you'll see in these numbers and layers is that for every political party, engagement must be earned through sustained relationships, meaningful conversations, presence in our communities, and action on the issues that our communities care about," Murguía said.
And if that's true, not all is lost for Democrats in Oklahoma.
An analysis of several exit polls by the center-right think tank The Americas Society and Council of the Americas (AS/COA) shows that of the Latinos who voted in Oklahoma's elections, about 64% voted for Democrats. That trend is reflected in the 2026 midterm results, at least on the surface.
Incumbent Latina from Norman, Rep. Annie Menz, won her re-election bid for House District 45 by more than 3,100 votes over Republican Carolyn Womack-Bielich.
In addition to Wargin Grimaldo, Oklahomans also elected Jeffrey Perez to represent House District 84, which covers the Latino-dense northwest side of Oklahoma City. Perez beat Republican incumbent Rep. Tammy West by less than 300 votes.
Latina Estefania Gruenstein, also from northwest OKC, ran for House District 85 this election cycle, and while she lost handily in the first round of primaries, she's part of a growing number of Latinos running for statewide office in recent years.
The Oklahoma Latino Legislative Caucus is now up to five members again – all Democrats – after losing two Republican members in the last election cycle: Ryan Martinez from Edmond in the House, and Jessica Garvin from Duncan in the Senate.
Get more granular, and Latinos are winning elections at the local level too.
In July, Norman Latina and Ward 4 Councilmember Helen Grant won her race to be the city's Mayor Pro-Tem. The following month, in Ada, Latina Yoli Vasquez was elected Mayor. In 2024, Amanda Sandoval won the mayorship of Bethany.
Over the spring, Latina Galilea Martinez was elected to represent Oklahoma City Public Schools District 7, following in the footsteps of Jessica Cifuentes, another Latina elected to District 3 in 2024 and Juan Lecona, a Latino elected to District 1 the year before.
Wargin Grimaldo said the lesson about engaging Latinos highlighted in the UnidosUS polls rings true, and that if getting them to vote really is about keeping people informed and up to speed on the issues that affect them, Oklahoma's future looks bright for Democrats, but mostly for Latinos.
"I think we're continuing to recruit candidates to get young people involved in the process and interested in politics on the local level, the state level and the national level," he said. "So I do believe that our momentum is going the right way."
