Gary Richardson

Gary Richardson was born February 5, 1941, in Caddo, Oklahoma (located in Bryan County, Oklahoma) and is an American lawyer who practices law in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Presently, he is a partner in the Richardson Law Firm, P.C.

Richardson attended college at Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Oklahoma, and graduated with a B.S. degree in education in 1963. He also attended the South Texas College of Law in Houston, Texas, and earned his J.D. in 1972.

Richardson served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma from 1981 to 1984 and was the Republican nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in Oklahoma's Second Congressional District in 1978 and 1980. In 2002, Richardson ran for governor of Oklahoma as an independent candidate. He came in third behind the Democratic candidate, Brad Henry, and the Republican candidate, former Congressman Steve Largent. Richardson's run for governor would not have been notable except that Henry's margin of victory over Largent was so small. Henry received 6866 votes more than Largent did; Richardson received a total of 146,200 votes (or 14 percent) of the 1,035,620 votes cast (see a table of this result at [1]).

**Summary of the November 5, 2002 Oklahoma gubernatorial election results**
Candidates		Party	Votes	%
	Brad Henry	Democratic Party	448,143	43.27%
	Steve Largent	Republican Party	441,277	42.61%
	Gary Richardson	Independent	146,200	14.12%
Total			1,035,620	100.0%
Source: 2002 Election Results