Markwayne Mullin

Markwayne Mullin (born July 26, 1977) is an American politician and businessman who has served since 2026 as the ninth United States secretary of homeland security. A member of the Republican Party, Mullin served from 2023 to 2026 as the junior United States senator from Oklahoma and from 2013 to 2023 as the U.S. representative for Oklahoma's second congressional district. A member of the Cherokee Nation, Mullin assumed control of his family's plumbing business in 1998. After entering the 2012 United States House of Representatives election for Oklahoma's second congressional district in 2011, he defeated Democratic candidate Rob Wallace. He was reelected in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020. In February 2022, Oklahoma senator Jim Inhofe announced that he would resign at the end of the 117th United States Congress. Mullin ran in the special election to succeed Inhofe. He won the Republican primary and the resulting runoff election against state House speaker T. W. Shannon, and defeated Democratic nominee Kendra Horn in the general election. He became the first tribal citizen to serve in the United States Senate since Colorado senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell retired in 2005. In March 2026, President Donald Trump announced that he had fired Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem after her alleged misuse of government funds. Trump nominated Mullin to succeed Noem. Mullin was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in that month. He is the first member of the Cherokee Nation to serve in the Cabinet of the United States.