Personal life

Costello is a fourth generation Oklahoman, born and raised in Bartlesville

Bartlesville, Oklahoma

Bartlesville is a city in Osage and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The population was 43,070 at the 2010 census. Bartlesville is located forty-seven miles north of Tulsa and very close to Oklahoma's northern border with Kansas. It is the county seat of Washington County, in...

. After graduating from Bartlesville's College High, he put himself through the University of Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

 by working summers on oil rigs in and around the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

. He has been married for 28 years and has 5 children. Costello is a pro-life Christian and lifetime member of the National Rifle Association

National Rifle Association

The National Rifle Association of America is an American non-profit 501 civil rights organization which advocates for the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights and the promotion of firearm ownership rights as well as marksmanship, firearm safety, and the protection...

.

Costello started his first business in 1984. He founded American Computer & Telephone (AMCAT) in 1991, focusing on telephone software. His Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...

-based company developed, tested, and sold the software around the United States. A European headquarters was later opened in Manchester, England. AMCAT and its sister companies have generated over $200 million in revenue. AMCAT was sold in 2007, and today Costello serves as president of USA Digital Communications, a telecommunications company he founded in 1997 that is licensed in 40 states.

Election results

• July 27, 2010 Republican Primary

  Candidate		Votes	%
  	Mark Costello	127,413	57.06%
  	Jason Reese	95,869	42.94%

• November 2, 2010 General Election

  Candidate		Votes	%
  	Mark Costello	649,748	64.17%
  	Lloyd Fields Lloyd Fields Lloyd L. Fields is a former Oklahoma Commissioner of Labor. He was elected in 2006 receiving 456,373 votes, a narrow margin of just 50.15%. He defeated 12-year incumbent Republican Brenda Reneau, who received 49.85%, or 453,645 votes, after having lost to her in the 2002 election.Fields was...	362,805	35.83%