MEMORANDUM
TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Tim Edson, General Consultant for Jeff Starling for Oklahoma Attorney General
RE: State of the Race
DATE: May 13, 2026
Jeff Starling will be Oklahoma’s next Attorney General. The Republican primary remains wide open with 78% of voters undecided. Our fundraising has held a commanding pace, our TV ads are now on the air, and Jon Echols has been reduced to desperate false attacks as his political career circles the drain. The path to victory runs through the next 33 days — and that is exactly when we need supporters to lean in.
The Race Is Wide Open – and the Facts Favor Jeff Starling
A statewide survey of likely Oklahoma Republican primary voters by Torchlight Strategies (March 25–31, 2026) confirms what we have believed from day one: this race is a true blank canvas, and Jeff Starling is positioned to win it. This is consistent with all polling in the race that isn’t bought-and-paid-for propaganda by the Echols’ camp.
Candidate familiarity is extremely low. Over 80% of Republican voters have no opinion or no awareness of both Starling and Echols. Despite branding himself as the longest-serving Majority Leader in the State House, almost nobody knows who Echols is — after 14 years in office and three years effectively running for AG, he should have a commanding lead. He doesn’t.
Echols’ record is a liability, not an asset. Hearing that Echols is a career politician running for Attorney General after barely practicing law moves 79% of the electorate against him. His record of higher taxes, self-enrichment, and selling out Oklahoma Republicans to the left and RINOs only deepens the hole.
Starling is the contrast voters want. A practicing attorney, businessman, and political outsider with legitimate law-and-order credentials. After learning Starling’s background, 80% of voters say they are more likely to support him.
The implication for investors: an information vacuum, an opponent with structural weaknesses he cannot fix, and a candidate whose biography moves the electorate by design. With resources and message discipline, this race is highly winnable.
Fundraising Is Strong — and We Need to Close Strong
Jeff Starling has built one of the strongest financial operations among first-time statewide candidates in Oklahoma in recent memory. Donors across the state, from the energy industry to agriculture to small business to Oklahomans tired of the status quo, have stepped up because they recognize what is at stake: an Attorney General’s office that either defends Oklahoma’s values or hands it over to Echols’s swamp insider friends and the liberal trial lawyers bankrolling his campaign.
But fundraising is not a sprint. It’s a marathon. The next thirty days determine how loud our voice is on television and digital through the June 16 Primary Election. Every dollar raised this month buys roughly three dollars of pressure on Echols compared to dollars that arrive in the final two weeks, when ad inventory is gone and rates triple.
We need to close strong. If you have not yet given, give now. If you have already given, max out, and bring three friends with you. This is the moment where a wide-open race becomes a decisive win.
Our First TV Ads Are on the Air. Watch Them
Our first television ad launched three weeks ago across Oklahoma’s major media markets, and we just introduced another new ad. These ads introduce Jeff to voters on his terms: a practicing attorney, political outsider, and pro-Trump conservative who will fight to defend the rule of law, protect Oklahoma’s farmers, energy producers, and law enforcement, and end the corrupt politics that are undermining public confidence in the Attorney General’s office.
Watch the ads here. Share it with your network. Forwarding the link to ten Oklahoma Republicans you know is one of the highest-leverage things you can do for this campaign this week.
Echols Is Resorting to Desperate Negative Attacks — Don’t Be Fooled
When a 14-year career politician with built-in structural advantages, a leadership title, and a three-year head start cannot break double digits against a first-time candidate, he has two choices: change who he is, or tear down the other guy. Echols has chosen the second.
In the last two weeks, the Echols operation has begun pushing distortions about Jeff’s legal career, his client work, and his record as a businessman. Every claim collapses on contact with the facts. Jeff Starling has spent his career representing Oklahoma businesses and families against federal overreach — exactly the experience this state needs in its next Attorney General.
Lies and threats are not a sign of strength; they are a confession of weakness. Echols is attacking and threatening those holding out support because his own record (massive tax increases, self-enrichment, deals with the radical left) cannot survive a real conversation with Republican primary voters. Expect more of it. Don’t be fooled, and don’t let your friends be fooled either. When you see an Echols attack in your inbox or on social media, send it to us — we will get the truth back to share with your network.
Live Debate, May 18 — Will Rogers Theatre, Oklahoma City
Jeff will take the stage opposite Jon Echols in the only scheduled live debate of the Republican primary. Hosted by NonDoc, News 9, and News 6 at the Will Rogers Theatre in Oklahoma City, this is the moment where the contrast becomes undeniable — the practicing attorney and outsider versus the corrupt, career politician.
| Detail | Information |
| Date | Monday, May 18, 2026 |
| Time | 5:45 PM |
| Location | Will Rogers Theatre, 4322 N Western Ave, Oklahoma City, OK 73118 |
| Hosts | NonDoc, News 9, and News 6 |
RSVP: We have a limited number of tickets reserved for donors. Please sign up here. Seats will go fast!
Jeff Starling is going to win this race. The polling shows the opportunity. The ad shows the message. The fundraising shows the support. And Echols’ desperate attacks show he knows it too. The only question is whether we close with the resources and discipline this moment requires, and the next 37 days are when that question gets answered.
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