In the 2024 presidential election, 66 percent of Oklahoma voters supported the Republican nominee, Donald Trump. The GOP’s presidential vote share in Oklahoma that year was in line with state results for the past two decades.

But when examining the combined enrollment of Oklahoma’s three major colleges, a majority of students are liberal, according to a new report, indicating that the political composition of Oklahoma's major college campuses differs substantially from the political composition of the state as a whole. 

According to the 2027 College Free Speech report released by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), there are roughly 1.17 liberal students for every one conservative student in Oklahoma, based on data from the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Tulsa.

That means just under 54 percent of students at the three Oklahoma colleges are liberal, about 20 percentage points greater than the general citizenship in Oklahoma, based on presidential voting results.

Why would one of the nation’s most conservative states have a liberal majority among students on its three major college campuses?

Scott Yenor, chair of the American Citizenship Initiative at The Heritage Foundation and a professor of political science at Boise State University, said one reason is quite simple: Colleges are dominated by liberal faculty and administrators, which makes those sites more attractive to like-minded students.

“Universities are progressive,” Yenor said. “They attract more progressive students.”

College students in neighboring states are also far more liberal than the general voting population.

Across Texas, FIRE found there are roughly 2.88 liberal students for every one conservative student on the major campuses surveyed, or 74 percent. In contrast, 56 percent of Texas voters supported the Republican ticket in the 2024 presidential election.

Across Missouri, there are roughly 2.22 liberal students for every one conservative student at major campuses, or 69 percent. That’s well out of line with the 58 percent of Missouri voters who cast their presidential ballot for the Republican candidate in 2024.

Across Kansas, there are roughly 1.12 liberal students for every one conservative student, or 53 percent. That contrasts with the nearly 57 percent of Kansas voters who voted Republican in the last presidential election.

However, Arkansas stood out as a state where college students’ ideological leanings are more in line with the general population.

Across Arkansas, FIRE found there are roughly 1.21 conservative students for every one liberal student at major campuses, or 55 percent conservative. However, that’s still below the 64 percent of Arkansans who voted Republican in the 2024 presidential election.

There was also significant variation in the political leanings of students from one college to another.

At the University of Oklahoma, FIRE reported that there are roughly 1.34 liberal students for every one conservative student. That means roughly 57 percent of OU students are liberal.

Similarly, at the University of Tulsa, there are roughly 1.74 liberal students for every one conservative student, or nearly 64 percent.

But the political leanings of students at Oklahoma State University were conservative, not liberal, unlike the student bodies at the state’s other two major universities.

At Oklahoma State University, FIRE reported that there are roughly 1.34 conservative students for every one liberal student, meaning roughly 57 percent of OSU students are conservative. That’s slightly below the share of Oklahomans who voted Republican in recent presidential elections, but much closer to the views of the general population.

Similar patterns are notable in other states surrounding Oklahoma. Students at some universities are overwhelmingly liberal despite the conservative leanings of the general population, while students at other colleges more closely reflect state taxpayers.

At the University of Texas in Austin, there are roughly 6.59 liberal students for every one conservative student, meaning nearly 87 percent of students identified as liberal.

At Texas A&M University, there are roughly 1.45 liberal students for every one conservative student, or 59 percent.

But at Texas Tech University, the student body is evenly split with roughly 1.02 conservative students for every one liberal student, meaning just over 50 percent of students identify as conservatives.

At the University of Kansas, FIRE found there are roughly 2.14 liberal students for every one conservative student, or 68 percent.

But at Kansas State University, there were roughly 1.93 conservative students for every one liberal student, or 66 percent, meaning students at that university are slightly more conservative than statewide voters in Kansas.

At the University of Missouri-Columbia, there are roughly 1.15 liberal students for every one conservative student, or just over 53 percent.

Once again, the student body at Arkansas’ flagship school is far more conservative than their counterparts at flagship schools in the region.

At the University of Arkansas, there are roughly 1.72 conservative students for every one liberal student, or 63 percent, almost equal to the share of statewide voters who cast their presidential ballots for the Republican nominee in 2024.

While students at the largest state universities generally lean liberal, they may not be representative of their overall age cohort since they comprise only a share of total college-age individuals in a typical state

Even with most universities having predominantly liberal faculty and student bodies where liberals are overrepresented, Yenor noted that many conservative students still attend college—and emerge with their viewpoints intact.

While some students’ viewpoints may change during their college years, many students do not abandon their core beliefs, he noted.

“In my experience, many students treat college as a job that they have to go through,” Yenor said. “But they make an effort to make sure that the school does not change them very much.”