Rep. Mary Fallin (R-Okla.) said over the weekend that she plans to run for governor in 2010, a move that had been widely expected.

“We need a new voice for the state of Oklahoma, and we need strong leadership that has experience to lead us through some challenging times, and [with] my [four] years in the state Legislature, 12 years as lieutenant and now experiencing a second term in Congress, I feel like I can best represent the state of Oklahoma and … lead us into a prosperous economy,— she said Saturday at the Oklahoma County Republican Convention, according to the Daily Oklahoman.

If elected, she would be the state’s first female governor. She was elected to the Oklahoma state House in 1990 and served two terms before being elected lieutenant governor in 1994. She served three terms in that post and was elected to an open seat in Congress in 2006.

Fallin’s 5th district seat is staunchly Republican, and Democrats are not expected to contest the open-seat race there in 2010.

Former state Rep. Kevin Calvey; urologist Johnny Roy, an Iraqi immigrant; and state Rep. Mike Thompson are among the Republicans considered certain to run for Fallin’s seat. Calvey and Roy both ran in the GOP primary in 2006, the last time the seat was open.

Other Republicans mentioned include Corporation Commissioner Jeff Cloud and Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, who lost to Fallin in the GOP runoff in 2006.