1958 Oklahoma gubernatorial election

The governor of Oklahoma is the head of government of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Under the Oklahoma Constitution, the governor serves as the head of the Oklahoma executive branch, of the government of Oklahoma. The governor is the ex officio commander-in-chief of the Oklahoma National Guard when not called into federal use. Despite being an executive branch official, the governor also holds legislative and judicial powers. The governor's responsibilities include making yearly "State of the State" addresses to the Oklahoma Legislature, submitting the annual state budget, ensuring that state laws are enforced, and that the peace is preserved. The governor's term is four years in length.

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States. Founded in 1828, it was predominantly built by Martin Van Buren, who assembled politicians in every state behind war hero Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party. Its main political rival has been the Republican Party since the 1850s, with both parties being big tents of competing and often opposing viewpoints. Modern American liberalism — a variant of social liberalism — is the party's majority ideology. The party also has notable centrist, social democratic, and left-libertarian factions.

James Howard Edmondson was an American politician from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. He served as the 16th governor of Oklahoma from 1959 to 1963, and the appointed United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1963 to 1964, losing to Fred R. Harris in a 1964 special election for the U.S. Senate. When he took office as Governor of Oklahoma at the age of 33, Edmondson was, and still is, the youngest governor in the history of the state.

The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. The GOP was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists who opposed the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories. It has been the main political rival of the Democratic Party since the mid-1850s. Like them, the Republican Party is a big tent of competing and often opposing ideologies. Presently, the Republican Party contains prominent conservative, centrist, populist, and right-libertarian factions.

Phillip Colgan Ferguson was an American politician serving as a U.S. Representative from Oklahoma. Phil Ferguson was born on August 15, 1903, in Wellington, Kansas, to W. M. and May Deems Ferguson. Ferguson attended public schools in Wellington, the Kemper Military School in Missouri, and graduated from the University of Kansas at Lawrence, A.B., in 1926. He moved to Oklahoma and settled on a ranch near Woodward, Woodward County, working on agricultural pursuits and cattle raising. Ferguson's interest in cattle ranching later earned him a position as a president of the Northwest Cattlemen's Association and vice president of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association. He was also director of the Bank of Woodward, which was owned by his father.