1992 Congressional campaign

Following a loss to Mike Synar in the 1980 primary election, Edmondson sought the second congressional district seat in the 1992 election. With backing from the NRA Political Victory Fund who had turned against the incumbent Synar,^[6] Edmondson again ran for Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district.^[7] After a heated campaign during which Synar criticized Edmondson for being soft on crime and for taking PAC money not just from the NRA but also from Big Tobacco and from out-of-state ranchers^[8] and Edmondson accused Synar of being ineffective on state economic problems and out of touch with his district as exemplified by his vote against authorizing the death penalty for drug dealers^[9] Edmondson finished with 38% to Synar's 43% in the primary election, forcing a runoff^[10] that Synar won with 53%.^[11]

In the 1992 campaign, Synar charged that Edmondson "was not a good District Attorney" and Muskogee County under Edmondson had given 90 convicted sex offenders no jail time.^[12] The specific case that commanded the most attention was that of Donald Lee Robertson who initially agreed to plead guilty to raping his ten-year-old cousin and received a two-year suspended sentence by Judge Jim Edmondson, Drew's brother. The light sentence became an issue and despite the questionable legality of reopening the case Robertson was persuaded to withdraw his plea and was put on trial, eventually being sentenced to 70 years in prison where he remains today.^[13][14]

Attorney general

Edmondson was elected as Oklahoma Attorney General in 1994. During his first term, he joined other state attorneys general in filing suit against the tobacco industry, successfully advocated for reform of the death penalty appeals process, and created a victim assistance unit. In 1998, he became the second Oklahoma Attorney General to win reelection unopposed.^[15] He was elected to a third term in 2002, defeating state Corporation Commissioner Denise Bode. During 2002–2003, he served as president of the National Association of Attorneys General. Notable cases investigated during his tenure as attorney general included the August 2003 indictment of WorldCom and its former CEO Bernard Ebbers on charges of violating state securities laws although the charges were later dropped following Ebbers's federal sentencing. Furthermore, he conducted a corruption investigation against then-State Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher, which resulted in Fisher's impeachment, resignation, and indictment on charges including embezzlement, tax evasion, perjury, and bribery.

In 2001, Edmondson became involved in a legal dispute with then-governor Frank Keating over the Governor's restructuring of his Cabinet, winning a state Supreme Court ruling that Keating had no authority to restructure his Cabinet without legislative approval in the case of Keating v. Edmondson.

When Oklahoma City Police Department chemist Joyce Gilchrist was accused of falsifying evidence in hundreds of cases, Attorney General Edmondson was asked to appoint independent counsel to investigate and refused to do so. In addition to having defended her work in appeals proceedings prior to the scandal, he made the decision that most of the death-penalty cases that depended upon her testimony did not need additional review.^[16][17]

In October 2007, Edmondson charged term limits and initiative rights activist Paul Jacob and two others on the grounds that they had illegally used out-of-state petitioners to collect signatures on a ballot initiative.^[18] In December 2008 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit struck down the underlying Oklahoma law that barred out-of-state petition circulators, ruling that it violated the First Amendment. The attorney general's office dismissed the charges against Jacob and the other defendants in January 2009, with Edmondson saying "The statute under which these defendants were charged has been declared unconstitutional, and the appellate process is complete...The statute is no longer enforceable."^[19]

Edmondson was elected to a fourth term in the 2006 election, running against Republican James Dunn. He did not seek reelection to a fifth term in 2010, choosing instead to run for governor and eventually losing in the primary to Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins. Due to term limits passed in a statewide referendum in 2010, Edmondson's record of 16 years in office as Oklahoma State Attorney General will most likely be unbroken.

2010 gubernatorial election

Edmondson announced on June 10, 2009, his candidancy for Governor of Oklahoma. On July 27, 2010, Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins "edged Attorney General Drew Edmondson in the Democratic primary by fewer than six-tenths of 1 percent—about 1,500 votes—with all but three of the state's 2,244 precincts reporting unofficial results." "Edmondson threw his support to Askins in a concession speech that resolved a tightly run contest.

In the speech, Edmondson stated, "To her credit and mine, this primary has been one on the issues, on the record, clean, positive, straightforward. ... I think it will be written down in the history books as a testament to both Jari Askins and Drew Edmondson that the Democratic Party comes out of this primary united and unfractured and ready to win this state."^[20]

2018 gubernatorial election

On May 1, 2017, Edmondson announced his second run for Governor of Oklahoma. In the Democratic primary he initially faced competition from state house minority leader Scott Inman, and former state senator Connie Johnson. However, on October 25 Inman dropped out of the race, leaving Edmondson and Johnson as the two candidates.^[21] Polling had Edmondson in a significant lead over Johnson for the primary.^[22] On June 26, 2018, Edmondson won the Democratic nomination over Johnson, 61%–39%.^[23] On November 6, 2018, he lost to Republican nominee and Tulsa businessman Kevin Stitt.

Attorney General elections

Gubernatorial elections