20-04-2025
Echols wants to be open with people of Oklahoma
Jon Echols said he believes the attorney general should represent the people of Oklahoma.
The former State House Floor leader is seeking the Republican nomination to replace Getner Drummond, who is a candidate for governor.
Echols said he feels this is the right time for his candidacy.
'I thought my message for a safer, freer, stronger Oklahoma — this is the right time to bring that message,' Echols said during an interview at the Phoenix. 'Getner Drummond has done a good job as attorney general. When he decided to run for the office of governor, I want another strong law enforcement-backed candidate that believes in public safety, that believes in transparency in government and fiscal responsibility and I felt like I was the right guy for the job.'
With over a year remaining in the filing period, Echols is the only candidate who has filed for the office and said he wanted the people to know what he was and what he stood for.
'After my first quarter, we raised over $650,000,' he said. 'It was the largest first quarter by any first-time attorney general candidate in state history.'
Echols was in Muskogee on Friday to meet with officials and residents to get to know them, and so they could get to know him.
'We're going to the Republican luncheon this afternoon,' he said. 'Then I'm meeting with some private citizens that haven't committed yet. And then I'm going to swing by the fire station having been endorsed by the Professional Firefighters on Oklahoma.'
Echols hails from Del City and was a freshman in high school on April 19, 1995. He remembers vividly hearing the bombing of the Murrah Building.
'Everyone has a story and my story is both my parents were lawyers,' he said. 'As a freshman, I didn't know the difference between the federal courthouse and the Oklahoma City Courthouse — all I heard is courthouse blew up. They wouldn't let you leave so I intentionally got in trouble in class so they would send me to the office so I could use the phone to call and make sure my parents were OK and they were — they were in the district courthouse.'
He went on to say that's one of the reasons he seeks to be the next attorney general.
'I'm a fifth generation Oklahoman,' Echols said. 'My family still owns the land-run farm and we still have it. We love this state, we're ingrained inside this state.
'My wife — my high-school sweetheart — is a fourth generation Oklahoman. We believe in the greatness of the people. Our biggest natural resource if the people.'
