Oklahoma Governor Puts State Constitutional Convention Question on 2027 Ballot

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has set an April 6, 2027, special election asking voters whether the Legislature should call a convention to revise the state’s constitution, a question the Oklahoma Constitution says must go to voters at least once every 20 years and that has not been asked since 1970.

The vote, State Question 848, is now being challenged in the Oklahoma Supreme Court. It concerns Oklahoma’s own constitution, not the federal one.

What Stitt ordered

Article XXIV, Section 2 of the Oklahoma Constitution requires that voters be given the chance at least every 20 years to decide whether to hold a constitutional convention, Stitt’s office said in announcing the move on August 26.

“The Oklahoma Constitution is clear. At least every 20 years, Oklahomans have the right to decide whether it’s time to call a constitutional convention,” Stitt said. “It’s been 56 years since the question was sent to the people.”

An executive proclamation set the special election, and Executive Order 2026-30 created an Oklahoma Constitutional Convention Commission to recommend rules and safeguards for a convention. Its report is due by December 31. A yes vote would not change the constitution by itself. It would tell the Legislature to call a convention.

The court fight

Former state Rep. Mark McBride sued on September 8, asking the state Supreme Court to take the question off the ballot and halt the commission, News 9 reported. He argues the constitution gives the Legislature, not the governor, the power to start the process. “I’m not against the constitutional convention. I’m against the way he did it,” McBride told News 9. No ruling had been reported as of October 26.

Not Article V

Stitt’s question is about Oklahoma’s own constitution. It has nothing to do with Article V of the federal Constitution, under which two-thirds of the states can apply for a convention to propose amendments to the federal document. Oklahoma already has an Article V application on file, passed in 2016.

The Texas Nationalist Movement has argued for a decade that an Article V convention of states is no path for Texas. In a 2016 op-ed, TNM President Daniel Miller called it “a half-baked solution from the political class.” In his 2018 book, TEXIT, he listed it among the quick fixes that “have all been more hype than hope and are doomed to failure.”

The movement’s case is that Washington already ignores the amendments it has, that no one can control what a convention would do once it opens, and that Texas does not need anyone’s amendment to decide its own future.

Oklahoma’s question, by contrast, is one Oklahomans will answer about their own constitution. Texans are still waiting to be asked theirs.