Blackwell native and Bush-era FEMA Director appointed to state jail trust

A Blackwell native who managed George W. Bush’s presidential campaign has been appointed to a trust overseeing the state’s largest county jail system.

Joe Allbaugh was appointed May 17 to fill a vacant seat on the Oklahoma County Jail Trust after board member Tricia Everest resigned to join Gov. Kevin Stitt’s cabinet.

Allbaugh previously served as director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Allbaugh grew up on his family’s farm near Blackwell and graduated from Blackwell High School. He was later inducted into the Blackwell Public School Foundation Hall of Fame.

In 2014, he served as Blackwell’s interim city manager following the termination of Mark Skiles. Allbaugh was the manager of the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign from July 1999 to December 2000, according to his biography with the Rotary Club of Oklahoma City. Bush appointed Allbaugh as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2001.

He led the agency through the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and resigned in 2003.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Oklahoma State University. While serving as director of the Department of Corrections, Allbaugh worked to reform the state’s prison system, which was overpopulated and underfunded.