Jon Echols, a Republican candidate for Oklahoma Attorney General in 2026, stopped in Durant last week to visit with voters and talk about his campaign.
Echols, of Oklahoma City, said he has visited communities across southeastern Oklahoma. He previously served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives for 12 years.
“We’re running a campaign creating a safer, freer stronger Oklahoma,” Echols said. “Talking to law enforcement, talking to citizens about what they want in their next attorney general.
“The No. 1 thing I’m hearing from citizens and law enforcement is that we have to get control of these illegal (marijuana) grows that are bringing drugs into our community and I’m hearing it all over. The other thing we’re hearing is they want an attorney general that’s going to root out corruption and stand up for taxpayer dollars. As somebody who served 12 years in the house of representatives, eight years as majority floor leader, I’ve got a proven track record to be able to do those things.”
According to Echols, many of these marijuana grow operations obtain licenses, but they are fronts for illegal drug sales.
“A lot of these illegal grows, some are connected to mainland China,” Echols said. “They’re fronts that we need to go root out from the State of Oklahoma. In the Oklahoma Legislature, I was the one that passed the bill that gave the attorney general the ability to go after illegal medical marijuana because that’s what I heard from the citizens, that’s what they cared about.
“I was also the one that passed the bill that created the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority. It’s not about people that are in the business doing the business legally, it’s those that are in the business illegally and it’s just a scourge and I’m hearing it all throughout the state. They’re sick of the crime. They’re sick of the drugs, and they want somebody to do something about it.”
Another problem Echols said he is campaigning on is fentanyl.
“President Trump is constantly talking about fentanyl deaths and what he wants to do there,” Echols said. “While the rest of the country’s going down in fentanyl deaths, Oklahoma’s going up. What we are going to do in the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, and I promise to make, is we are going to laser focus on getting the fentanyl problem in Oklahoma under control and you can only do that by busting these mostly illegal Chinese grows and getting them out of the state.”
Echols said he has a long track record of protecting taxpayers dollars and his campaign is running on that.
“The attorney general is the chief lawyer for the taxpayers of the State of Oklahoma and as the guy who created LOFT, the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency, I’ll bring that same bulldog mentality to protect your dollars and make sure the State of Oklahoma is following its own laws,” Echols said.
