Interview with Jon Echols

Oklahoma Attorney General Candidate

Jon Echols is a fifth-generation Oklahoman with roots back to the Land Run. He is a serial entrepreneur who received his undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma and his law degree from Oklahoma City University.

“I am the only candidate in the Republican primary that’s ever been in an Oklahoma courtroom. I’ve tried numerous cases on the criminal defense side, and some family law but what separates me: I am the only one in this race that has ever started a business with their own money at their own risk out of the Republican and Democrat field, Echols said.

Jon Echols speaking in Tulsa March 2025

Echols started his first business in college, noting, “at my own risk with my own money on the line, or bank loan on the line, to work a business inside the legal system. Uniquely, I bring experience as a practicing attorney with courtroom experience.”

He served the citizens of Oklahoma House District 90 as their representative for 12 years and after just 4 years in office, Echols was named House Majority Floor leader. His administrative experience directed the flow of legislation and staunch defense of the Constitution, law enforcement, religious liberty, 2nd Amendment, and Right to Life.

Echols created the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency, which found millions in waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer money. Experience which should serve him well in managing the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office – the largest law organization in the State.

“If Oklahomans want an attorney general that understands that the courtroom and the attorney general’s office should exist to seek justice, then I am your person. I did not come from wealth or power. I’m a lifelong South Oklahoma City kid from the working side of the city,” Echols said.

Jon Echols Family

“Oklahomans have seen the best and the worst of what the legal system has to offer, and they need someone who can stand up to big moneyed special interests that so often control what happens inside our legal system. Where those with the most money and the smartest lawyers get the good end of the stick, but the Southsiders that I represent are average everyday people. I will fight for them as attorney general and seek justice for both the meek and the mighty,” Echols declared.

“Oklahoma needs a legal champion. I’ve pushed the legislature for things like extrajudicial scrutiny which we finally passed after four years to establish a review board with teeth in holding judges accountable. I also support cameras inside courtrooms. I think those absolutely make sense,” Echols said.

As regular readers know, this writer is not a fan of the Oklahoma Court System and believe attorneys, in majority, are a self-selecting group who seek certification to harvest significant cash flow that empowers them as predators over the rest of humanity as prey.

Question: So how may the public, which pays all costs, be assured that there is even a dusting of justice within the system so named for it?

We discussed the possibilities of a county justice review committee, a county court ombudsman, and reform of the Oklahoma BAR Association - ideas Echols welcomed.

Echols said, “At the end of the day, What I think Oklahoma really needs is an attorney general like me that’s been on both sides of the fence and isn’t beholden to big moneyed special interests, corporate or bureaucratic. That’s not where I came from.

“I am proud to be the Law enforcement candidate. I’ve been endorsed by the FOP. We just picked up our fifty-sixth sheriff endorsement literally today, and more endorsements are coming. Law enforcement has overwhelmingly said this is the guy. This is the guy to root out corruption. This is the guy to have our back. David, I don’t just talk about it. I did it,” Echols said.

“When I was in the legislature, I created LOFT, the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency. That took me three years. I am sick of those that use this state government as a good old boy system. I’ve got a history in the legislature as somebody who fought the good old boy system and won.

“Loft was the ultimate don’t-go-along-to-get-along. We figured out the Swadley scandal. We figured out the P Card Scandal where state employees were violating the Competitive Bid Act. As Oklahoma’s next attorney general, I am going to be who I have always been, a bulldog fighting corruption. That’s exactly what I am going to do,” Echols declared.

Jon Echols

Question: How did Oklahoma Senator Mark Lepak’s bill to begin reform of the Judicial Nominating Committee fail?

“I don’t know. It stalled in the House and I am sorry it did. As House Floor Leader, I put it on the floor and I voted for it. I knew the bill did not have the votes to pass. I knew when I put it on the floor, but I still wanted to put it on the record because I think people deserve a public vote with their elected representatives’ votes recorded on the issue. I voted for it and am still for it and hope it continues to be introduced until it passes,” Echols declared.

Question: How much of a threat is Muslim Radicalization, in your opinion, to Oklahoma?

Echols said, “A massive threat. It is time to call the Muslim Brotherhood what they are, a terrorist organization. President Trump has called them that. They’re also an unindicted coconspirator, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, in terrorism activities. In my district, a terrorist planned a terror attack. In House District Ninety.”

“I was on the Your Vote Counts television show for eight years in the Oklahoma City market, a Sunday morning newscast. The benefit of that is name recognition. The bad news is there are eight years’ worth of tape. If you want to know what I think; I’ve said it in front of a camera. I was the joyful conservative warrior arguing conservative messages.

“The radicalization of Islam is absolutely occurring inside Oklahoma. The liberals lose their mind because I am not talking about peaceful practice of the religion, but it is a real problem here in this state. To my knowledge, I am the only one running for attorney general that sent people to listen to the citizens of Broken Arrow as they debated a proposed Mosque.

“They were talking about the mosque and where that money came from. And ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. That’s a problem. And I’ve been on TV talking about it,” Echols added.

Question: Is there a path where we can return to Oklahoma’s promise that the white man and the Indian Nations would resolve differences and work together?

Echols said, “I think there is a path. Anyone that tells you that the Supreme Court will reverse McGirt is pandering to you. Nine Supreme Court justices, most of which couldn’t find Oklahoma on a map, made this decision, and caused all this chaos. Now the question is, what do we do to create working relationships? As you said, to fulfill Oklahoma’s promise that we are one Oklahoma and that we are all going to work together.

“In one sentence, my McGirt view is more compacts and less lawsuits. We need a hard reset with our tribal partners to sit back down at the negotiating table realizing we are one Oklahoma. From a place of mutual respect, we must find something that works for everyone.

“Now, if we can’t do that, I know where the courthouse is. I know how to file lawsuits. Again, I am the only one in this primary that’s ever set foot in an Oklahoma courtroom, and I’ve been in them lots of times, but I will tell you, that’s not going to be my go-to move.

“I want to be the guy that is going to deliver justice for victims of crime because, at the end of the day, That’s what matters. Are crime victims getting justice, and do businesses, and homeowners, and property owners have certainty and confidence in the equal application of the law,” Echols added.

Question: It’s hard not to laugh at this question, but given that at least one of our U.S. Supreme Court Justices is confused, can you tell a man from a woman?

“My family owns a land-run farm in Okemah that my great, great, great grandfather staked in the 1893 Cherokee Outlet. You can’t take a farm kid and tell him there is no difference between a man and a woman. He’s like, nope, I know whether it’s a bull or a cow. I know when they’re born whether it’s a bull or a cow. No confusion there.

“You should have heard it when I was on TV and said that. You should have seen how my social media went nuts,” Echols said, “People called me a bigot. I am numb to it, which is the advantage of public policy experience today.

“You must speak truth, no matter what truth is. That’s the only answer in my mind. You just tell the truth, and you find people who have stood on that truth. And who have lived that truth and have not been afraid to stand in the gap,” Echols declared.

Jon Echols, McGrath Breakfast Discussion Group, March 2025

Question: What is Shelter Oklahoma Schools and why did you create it?

Echols said, “That charity I established immediately after the May-third tornado that devastated many schools and in which some of my area kids died. Many people were saying government needs to fix it. Government didn’t fix it but talked about it.

“I founded a charity called Shelter Oklahoma Schools that used private donations and went and built storm shelters in twenty different schools with private money and some of the school money. While government kept talking about the problem, we fixed it. The only people that did anything was Shelter Oklahoma Schools in the private sector. So that’s where the magic happens when private and public work together.

Question: Should children be disrupting schools for demonstrations against lawful national policy? No ICE raids have been conducted in schools. It appears that teacher ideologs and media have ratcheted up crisis for partisan purposes. Would it help to put cameras in classrooms in Oklahoma?

Echols said, “No issue with cameras in classrooms whatsoever. None. I think that would help on multiple levels including with student disciplinary problems. My wife got her degree in elementary education. I think our teachers have an incredibly important and an incredibly difficult job. Anything that supports them is – I am in full support especially to help deal with discipline issues, which they are constantly struggling with inside our classrooms.

“My team is going to keep working hard. We are all over the state of Oklahoma. People can watch what we’re doing on our social media on Facebook, X and Instagram. And we’ll keep sending our messages of safer, freer, and stronger for Oklahoma,” Echols concluded.

The Oklahoma Attorney General election primary is June 16^th and the general election is November 3, 2026. Click here to reach Jon Echols website.

About the author: David Arnett’s beginning in print journalism was not planned in 1985 but covered by Rebecca Martin writing for the Columbia Journalism Review in 1987. After 11 years in print, he established TulsaToday online in 1996 and Straight Up on Substack in 2022 providing email subscriptions to the latest news and opinion.

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