Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin appears on track to become the next Homeland Security secretary this month. He will be taking over a hulking agency that is strained by a government shutdown, on alert for heightened risks from war in Iran, and under pressure to carry out mass deportations.
Mr. Mullin’s rise to a Cabinet nomination might once have seemed unlikely to the rancher, former mixed martial arts fighter, and collegiate wrestler, who entered Congress in 2013 as a political outsider. “I didn’t even buy my first suit until after I won the primary,” the Republican said as a House freshman.
Around that time, Mr. Mullin pledged to serve no more than three terms – though he wound up serving five before running for the Senate. He said then that he didn’t want to waste time in Washington and “become part of the problem.”
Why We Wrote This
A leadership change is underway at the Department of Homeland Security at a critical time for the agency. Republicans are counting on Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a former wrestler and plumbing business owner, to navigate pressures including a loss of government funding.
President Donald Trump sees the Oklahoman as a solution. Two weeks ago, the president fired DHS Secretary Kristi Noem after months of mounting controversies tied to her leadership, including conflict of interest concerns. When Mr. Trump tapped Mr. Mullin as her replacement, dubbing him a “MAGA Warrior,” the lawmaker expressed a mix of gratitude and surprise. Mr. Mullin will face his Senate colleagues at a confirmation hearing Wednesday.
“President Trump ran on restoring law and order, and he quickly delivered the most secure U.S. border in American history,” Mr. Mullin said in a social media post after news of his nomination. He said he looked forward to supporting Mr. Trump’s mission “to safeguard the American people and defend the homeland.”
If confirmed, the father of six will become the boss to more than 260,000 – overseeing airport and border security, immigration enforcement, the Secret Service, and the Coast Guard. He’ll be taking over at a tense time. A partial shutdown at DHS has strained resources for five weeks and left thousands without pay, while the war in Iran heightens threats to the homeland. The funding freeze began as Democrats in Congress demanded changes around the conduct of immigration officers and agents after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January. Lawmakers still do not appear close to a resolution.
Mr. Mullin, who owned and ran a plumbing company prior to his years in government, lacks a law enforcement background. But that’s been true of most Senate-confirmed secretaries since DHS was formed after 9/11. A top qualification might be his loyalty, and resulting access, to President Trump. Observers also say Mr. Mullin’s bipartisan connections might serve him well during the confirmation process and beyond.
“He’s actually very well liked on both sides. He’s somebody that is going to be fair,” Republican Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas told the Monitor. He predicts that Mr. Mullin “won’t have any trouble getting confirmed.”
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Rural roots
The first-term senator grew up in rural Westville, an eastern Oklahoma town where his family has a cow-calf operation. He’s been spotted in the halls of Congress in a cowboy hat.
Mr. Mullin married his high school sweetheart in the late 1990s, around the time the Christian says he “gave my heart to the Lord.” His father, dealing with health issues, offered the newlyweds his plumbing company deep in debt.
The young Mullin says he saved the business, then started several others. Red tape, he says, propelled him into politics.
“I got fed up with the fact that my biggest threat, to our way of life, is the federal government,” he told an interviewer in 2013. “I can’t keep up with the amount of regulations.”
Mr. Mullin spent a decade in the House before joining the Senate following a special election in 2022.
His athletic legacy, as a wrestler and mixed martial arts fighter, followed him to Washington. A decade ago, the Oklahoma chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame honored Mr. Mullin with an “Outstanding American” award, noting that a “recurring shoulder injury” cut short his dream of wrestling at a major university. He left higher education without a bachelor’s degree – reportedly the only current senator without one. Mr. Mullin did earn an associate’s degree from Oklahoma State University.
“Faith and family are very important to Markwayne,” says Lee Roy Smith, executive director of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and a former wrestler himself. “It seems like everybody kind of knows him, because he’s a very friendly guy,” says Mr. Smith, who says that Mr. Mullin is a donor to his organization. “He’s tough when he needs to be tough. But he’s a networker and a collaborator.”
Mr. Smith says the senator has helped get Mr. Trump to attend some NCAA wrestling championship matches. According to Mr. Mullin, the president comforted one of the senator’s sons following a severe wrestling injury in 2020, calling to check in every week for 18 months.
“I’m not saying [President Tump]’s the most, you know, moral man out there,” Mr. Mullin told a podcast in 2024. “But as far as being a father and a leader, the guy’s got that right.”
Mr. Mullin has reciprocated that loyalty. On Jan. 6, 2021, he voted in favor of blocking President Joe Biden’s election victory (after helping to barricade a U.S. Capitol door against rioters seeking entry earlier that day).
Track record in Congress
The lawmaker has faced some bumps in the road. Mr. Mullin made headlines in 2023 for challenging a union leader to a fight during a Senate hearing, telling him, “If you want to run your mouth. … We can finish it here.” Two years later, the two men made enough amends to endorse a nominee for labor secretary together.
Mr. Mullin has also fielded allegations of financial disclosure violations; the senator’s office has acknowledged late filings. The New York Times recently reported that his assets grew from around $2.8 million to $9 million when he first entered Congress, to between $29 million and $97 million in 2024. Much of that appears to have come from the value of his plumbing company, which he sold to a private equity firm in 2021. He also made a number of lucrative stock trades during his time in Congress. Members of Congress are not prohibited from trading individual stocks.
If confirmed, Mr. Mullin would arrive at DHS with some relevant expertise. For one, Mr. Mullin has served on the Senate Armed Services Committee. As DHS secretary, he would oversee the Coast Guard, which alongside other service branches has surged to the southern border.
An enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Mr. Mullin has also served on the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. In Minnesota and beyond, tribal members have alleged that racial profiling by federal immigration officials has led to unjustified stops and arrests. DHS has denied such claims.
Proponents of strong immigration enforcement say it’s important for the DHS secretary to respect the institutional expertise of officials beneath them.
The men and women of DHS “are just wanting somebody to lead them,” says Scott Mechkowski, a retired deputy field office director at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “You need to have somebody that’s not there trying to brand themselves, and catapult themselves politically, or financially, to the next level.”
After being sidelined by the outgoing secretary, White House border czar Tom Homan is making a “concerted effort” to build rapport with Mr. Mullin, Politico has reported.
“Man for the moment”
MAGA credentials aside, Mr. Mullin has a reputation for extending a hand across the aisle.
He has led bipartisan workouts at a House gym. Some colleagues have nicknamed the senator the “House whisperer” – after his knack for liaising with the lower chamber.
Sen. John Fetterman has already made clear that Mr. Mullin has his vote. “I don’t know why other Democrats wouldn’t want to vote to support him for a new chapter here,” he told reporters last week. Elsewhere, the Pennsylvania Democrat has described Mr. Mullin as an upgrade from Ms. Noem, and as a “good dude.”
“We both agree that we’re not going to have anything like a tragedy like in Minneapolis,” Mr. Fetterman says. The focus now, he adds, is “secure our border, deport all the criminals.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Mullin enjoys strong endorsements from his colleagues on the right.
“Markwayne loves this country, and he’s going to do everything in his power to protect it, to protect our citizens,” GOP Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama told the Monitor.
“I think he is the man for the moment, and I think he’s going to meet it,” she says. “And the president knows that.”
Sarah Matusek reported from Denver, and Caitlin Babcock from Washington.