Echols and Coffee Face Off in Oklahoma Attorney General Debate as Early Voting Nears

Oklahoma voters got their clearest look yet at the attorney general race Thursday night, when Republican Jon Echols and Democrat Nick Coffee debated for more than an hour at Metro Tech District Center in Oklahoma City. The event, sponsored by NonDoc and KWTV 9, gave the former House Majority Leader and the former federal prosecutor a stage just days before early voting begins next Wednesday.

Echols leaned on his record in the Legislature and a deep law enforcement bench: endorsements from 67 of Oklahoma’s 77 sheriffs, plus the FOP and firefighters. Coffee returned again and again to a theme he calls“the prosecutor versus the politician,”promising to prioritize children, cost, corruption and crime, and to prosecute public corruption wherever it leads. The two clashed over judicial partisanship, McGirt jurisdiction, utility rates and Winter Storm Uri fallout, and the poultry farm water lawsuit. Both agreed the attorney general must uphold the law as written, including the death penalty.

For Lawton voters, the office matters close to home. The attorney general weighs in on utility fights that hit Fort Sill families’bills, handles public corruption cases, and shapes criminal justice policy across Comanche County and the state. Early voting opens Wednesday. Have you decided who gets your vote for attorney general?