Markwayne Mullin

Markwayne Mullin was born on July 26, 1977, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mullin was the youngest of seven children. He was named after two of his uncles, Mark and Wayne. Mullin was raised in Westville, Oklahoma. Mullin is Cherokee through his maternal grandfather Kenneth Morris, and an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation; his ancestry includes Native Americans who arrived in Oklahoma both before and after the Trail of Tears as part of the larger Indian removal. In his youth, Mullin had a speech impediment and clubfoot, forcing him to wear leg braces.

Mullin attended Stilwell High School, where he wrestled, graduating in 1996. Mullin attended Missouri Valley College on a wrestling scholarship. As his father's health deteriorated, Mullin left college in 1998 to take control of his family's business. Mullin received an Associate in Applied Science in plumbing from the Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology in 2010.

Businesses (1997–2021)

In 1997, Mullin assumed control of his family's plumbing business, Mullin Plumbing. The business had six employees at the time. His wife, Christie, postponed her degree to assist Mullin, By July 2011, Mullin Plumbing had become Oklahoma's largest plumbing service company. Mullin also owned Mullin Environmental, Mullin Services, and Mullin Properties, and ranches in Adair and Wagoner Counties. According to The Oklahoman, he owned eight businesses by July 2013. In December 2021, Mullin sold his businesses to CenterOak Partners, a private equity firm based in Dallas. His family continued to operate the plumbing business.

In September 2012, the Associated Press reported that Mullin Plumbing had received about $370,000 in federal stimulus funds through the Cherokee and Muscogee Nations. Mullin said he was not made aware of the source of the funds; The Tulsa World obtained records from the Cherokee Nation indicating that the firm was aware, but not Mullin. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mullin Plumbing accepted between $350,000 and $1 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. In August 2022, the White House's Twitter account, then operated by the Biden administration, criticized Mullin for having $1.4 million in PPP loans forgiven.

Mixed martial arts (2006–2007)

Mullin was a professional mixed martial arts fighter between 2006 and 2007. He claimed a 5–0 record in his brief career. Bobby Kelley, who fought Mullin in 2006, told The New York Times that he considered Mullin "one of the best welterweights around" in the four-state area. Mullin was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2016. He operated the Oklahoma Fight Club, a jujutsu and mixed martial arts school in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, by 2012.

Wealth

In June 2013, financial disclosures indicated that Mullin might have been the wealthiest member of Oklahoma's congressional delegation, with an estimated net worth between $2.8 and $9 million. In 2024, his assets were estimated between $29 and $97 million. The sale of Mullin's businesses in 2021 was not publicly disclosed; according to the private market service PitchBook, Mullin moved between $25 million and $50 million into a cash management account the day he sold his companies. In April 2017, Mullin said at a town hall in Jay, Oklahoma, that it was "bullcrap" that taxpayers pay his salary. According to Forbes, Mullin partially or fully owned 30 businesses by March 2026.

Mullin has traded stocks as a representative and a senator, raising questions of conflicts of interest. Around January 2017, he bought stock in Innate Immunotherapeutics, a company involved in an insider trading scandal with New York representative Chris Collins. The apparent success of Mullin's trades as a senator—particularly the purchase of Raytheon shares weeks before the October 7 attacks—inspired a tracker based on his portfolio. In June 2024, a spokesperson for Mullin told The New Yorker that his portfolio was managed by an "independent third party". In December 2025, Mullin invested in over 30 companies in a transaction worth as much as $2.8 million. The purchases included shares in Chevron, whose stock price abruptly rose after the U.S. intervened to capture Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro five days later.

In December 2013, the Office of Congressional Ethics recommended a full investigation to the House Committee on Ethics over allegations that Mullin received outside earned income and had endorsed products and services owned by him or his family. In March 2014, the committee released a report alleging that Mullin violated House ethics rules and federal laws by earning over $600,000 from his plumbing companies—in excess of a limit imposed on lawmakers—and by sitting on his plumbing company's board. The Ethics Committee continued to investigate the earnings but declined to establish a special investigative panel. In 2018, the committee called for Mullin to return $40,000 to his family business, Mullin West. In 2024, the Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics alleging that Mullin had not disclosed nine stock purchases in 2023. Mullin reported the purchases nearly a year later.

In his 2011 campaign announcement, Mullin said he would oppose the Obama administration's policies. In November 2015, he endorsed Florida senator Marco Rubio in the 2016 presidential election. After Rubio lost to Donald Trump in the Republican primaries, Mullin endorsed Trump in August 2016, telling the Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce that Trump was "friendly" to businesses and that he could not trust Hillary Clinton. By June 2018, The Oklahoman had called Mullin one of Trump's "most vocal backers", particularly on tariffs. In October 2018, Trump endorsed Mullin in that year's election.

Mullin's relationship with Trump became closer after Mullin's son Jim suffered a severe brain injury in a high school wrestling match. Trump invited Mullin and his son to a rally and offered to pay for Jim's treatments. According to Mullin, Trump regularly called to ask about Jim. In March 2022, Mullin proposed expunging Trump's first impeachment, arguing that it did not meet the standard of high crimes and misdemeanors. In April, he wrote in a fundraising letter that the Biden administration "tried to kill" him in his effort to rescue Afghans in 2021. In July, Trump endorsed Mullin in that year's special election.

Social and economic issues

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Mullin opposed Vice President Joe Biden's suggestion that President Barack Obama could use an executive order to enact gun control, calling it "absurd". Mullin defended the hunter Phil Robertson after he told GQ that homosexuality was "just not logical" and a sin, saying Robertson was being "punished" for expressing his opinion. Mullin supported the Supreme Court decision Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014), which gave private corporations religious exemptions from certain regulations. In a televised debate in August 2022, Mullin said he supported a federal ban on abortion without exceptions.

In May 2016, Mullin criticized the Department of Education and the Department of Justice's Dear Colleague letter on transgender students, arguing that transgender girls should not use girls' restrooms in public schools. By January 2021, Mullin and Hawaii representative Tulsi Gabbard had introduced a bill to prevent transgender women from participating in women's sports.

Mullin opposed Obama's proposal to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10. He objected to Biden's student loan forgiveness plan. In May 2016, Mullin introduced the Muhammad Ali Expansion Act, a bill that would expand the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act to include mixed martial arts. The measure, which would force promotion companies to share financial information with fighters and establish an independent ranking system, was opposed by the Ultimate Fighting Championship.