The Oklahoma State Capital

Jake Merrick wasn't allowed onto one of the biggest debate stages of Oklahoma’s 2026 Republican governor’s race. Now he wants to build a stage of his own.

Fresh off a gubernatorial showing in which he collected more than 58,000 votes on a fraction of the money spent by the race’s major campaigns, Merrick is turning his attention toward an ambitious new project: building a statewide news organization with a grassroots reporting network extending into all 77 Oklahoma counties.

Set to debut this fall, The Colony is envisioned by Merrick as a service resembling an Oklahoma version of The Daily Wire — complete with live shows, podcasts and a statewide information network — but with an important feature: Merrick wants the reporting infrastructure to begin at the county level.

“I want to prioritize the voice of the people and build this from the bottom up,” Merrick told Oklahoma State Capital News in a Sept. 10 interview as he visited the East Waterloo community in South Logan County.

The idea, he said, grew in part from what he encountered while traveling Oklahoma during his gubernatorial campaign.

“There are so many stories that we heard across the state during the gubernatorial run — stories that are often left untold — but we want to bring them to the forefront and let the people tell their own stories,” Merrick said.

Merrick said he wants the network to provide an outlet for Oklahomans’ “ideas for policy, their ideas for reform” and, ultimately, “just give a voice to the people.”

Asked what success would look like a year after launch, Merrick offered perhaps the simplest description of what he hopes to build: a recognizable destination for Oklahoma conservatives looking for news.

“When you ask the average conservative on the street, ‘Where do they go to get their information?’” Merrick said, “they will say they go to The Colony.”

Now, just as before, Merrick is still traveling the state, explaining his plan, recruiting contributors and lining up financial support.

Merrick's latest effort follows a gubernatorial campaign in which he demonstrated an ability to reach a sizable statewide audience on a fraction of the financial resources available to the best-funded candidates.

Merrick finished fourth in the nine-candidate June 16 Republican primary with 58,341 votes, or 14.5 percent. He finished behind Gentner Drummond, Mike Mazzei and Chip Keating but ahead of former House Speaker Charles McCall, who received 47,519 votes, or 11.8 percent.

Merrick also carried 12 counties. Among them were Canadian County, where he had previously served as a state senator, and Garfield County, where his performance stood out in Oklahoma State Capital’s subsequent precinct-level analysis of the primary. Across much of western Oklahoma, the OSC map showed Merrick and Keating trading precinct victories in a broad stretch running west from the Oklahoma City metropolitan area.

A post-election campaign-finance analysis estimated that Merrick spent approximately $80,000 during the primary campaign, compared with approximately $6.5 million for McCall. Merrick consequently received nearly 11,000 more votes than the former House speaker while spending only a small fraction of McCall’s total. Separate reporting immediately after the election placed Merrick’s total fundraising at slightly more than $82,000 and McCall’s personal investment in his campaign at more than $5.6 million.

Reconstituting the debate stage he didn’t make

The May 28 Republican gubernatorial debate at Cameron University in Lawton, hosted by NonDoc and KSWO, required candidates to reach 12 percent in qualifying public polling.

A NonDoc survey released immediately before the debate put Merrick at 7.2 percent, below the threshold. Drummond, Mazzei, Keating and McCall qualified for the stage. The debate was televised by KSWO and carried on C-SPAN.

Merrick went to Lawton anyway.

Standing outside the Cameron University venue, he streamed his own responses to the debate in real time on Facebook, answering questions and responding to the candidates who had qualified for the stage.

Less than three weeks later, Merrick received 14.5 percent of the actual primary vote — more than seven percentage points above the 7.2 percent measured in the NonDoc survey and enough to exceed the debate’s 12 percent threshold had that level of support appeared in the qualifying polling.

The episode also foreshadowed the communications model Merrick is now trying to expand through The Colony: when access to an established media platform was unavailable, he used his own.

Merrick already had experience building that kind of direct connection with an audience.

Prior to his run for governor, Merrick hosted The Jake Merrick Show on Freedom 96.9 FM, a conservative talk station with studios in Oklahoma City.

The hourlong program aired weekdays from 7 to 8 a.m. and focused heavily on Oklahoma politics, government and issues affecting local communities. Merrick described the program as covering “all things local” and “everything Oklahoma.”

The show began in 2023, following Merrick’s term as a member of the Oklahoma State Senate, and became Merrick’s regular morning platform for approximately two and a half years before he stepped away to run for governor. During that period, he interviewed lawmakers, candidates, activists and others involved in Oklahoma politics and public policy.

He also produced the Jake for the State Podcast, which similarly concentrated on Oklahoma government, elections and grassroots political activity. Episodes included interviews with legislative candidates, county officials and activists from around the state.

Now, as he steps into his next initiative, the measure of whether that experiment succeeds is straightforward for Merrick.

A year from now, he wants to be able to ask an average Oklahoma conservative where they get their news — and hear one answer:

The Colony.