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Oklahoma
Posted: Feb 24, 2026 10:27 AMUpdated: Feb 24, 2026 10:42 AM
Jeff Starling for Oklahoma Attornry General
Tom Davis
Jeff Starling is running for Oklahoma Attorney General. Appearing on COMMUNITY CONNECTION, Starling said, "I'm a I'm not a career politician. That's something you often don't hear for somebody running for statewide office. I am a business person and a lawyer."
Starling said, "I had a national law practice where I was litigating cases in the courtroom, defending clients, taking depositions, doing hearings, doing trials to that for a number of years. Then went to Devin Energy, where I was the head of litigation there at Devin. And then I then ran it, ran a business for five years in the oil field services area that we sold in twenty twenty four." He added, "Shortly after we sold the business, Governor Stitt called and offered me the secretary of energy and environment position. I joined him on his cabinet in the fall of twenty twenty four. And that's where I am now."
When asked 'what he plans to bring to the office of attorney general for the state of Oklahoma?' He replied, "One is just a fresh perspective of an outsider, not a career politician. We're in a really good position over the next ten years, but we've got to have the right people in the right spot." Headded, "As an outsider perspective who's really practiced law, been in the courtroom, knows how to litigate cases to be the next attorney general for the state. It's a attorney general is a very, very important position. When you look at what it does, both on a criminal side, on the civil litigation side and as the counsel to various state agencies. And you need somebody who's done all those roles. And I have in one capacity or another."
When asked about the out-of-control marijuana grows, Starling said, "We grow 50 percent of the illegal marijuana and the entire country has grown here in the state of Oklahoma. And those are largely backed by foreign criminal cartels, mostly out of China. And so we need to attack those. We've been playing whack-a-mole." He added, "We have have made some progress, but we've been playing what I call whack-a-mole. We'll find an illegal grow house and knock it down and arrest the people there. On day one, what I want to do is say, listen, we need to go and and look at our federal partners who can look beyond us, the borders of the state of Oklahoma. My first plan on day one is go to President Trump and say, listen, President, we need your help. We need the DOJ. We need the FBI. We need the U.S. Attorney's Office. We need the full force of the federal government and the state government working in partnership to stamp these cartels out. And that'll be a day one activity."
We asked about how he would address the relationships woth our tribal governments. Starling said, "The McGirt decision in 2020 bifurcated the state east west to where Indian or Indian territory was considered the eastern part of the state for various federal criminal laws. And the western half of the state just was considered a regular state land. McGirt created a lot of uncertainty." He added, "We need to have a change of tone to resolve this. I think the relationships between the states and the tribes has not been the best over the last several years. We the tribes add a lot of value to the state in terms of their GDP. My wife and I have chaired various nonprofits. Those nonprofits could not do what they were intended to do without the support of the tribes. But so we need to have a resolution of this."
Also, in regards to the tribes, he said, "We're open to compromise and working on resolutions of this of this very difficult issue, frankly. But really, I think it's an issue that the courts created this uncertainty. It's probably going to take the courts to tell us what McGirt really means, what what McGirt means, when it comes to tax and authority, regulatory authority, that sort of thing."
Starling said that it's so important having somebody like him with experience as an attorney leading large teams, not only here in Oklahoma, but nationally leading national litigation teams. He said, "If you look at the functions of the attorney general, it falls into three different things, really. One is criminal law, setting the criminal law priorities for the state. Well, my you know, my first job out of law school is I worked for a federal job that was heavy federal criminal law. Then the second part of attorney general's office is civil litigation. When the state sues or is being sued. That's what I did as a bulk of my career. I put together a large litigation teams. I've been in the courtroom defending cases. And then the third is the kind of the administrative state. I've been a general counsel to companies as well. So I've done that as well. I'm really the only only only attorney general candidate, not only in this election, but in any recent election, who has significant experience in all three of those."
More at www.https://jeffstarling.com/
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