Jumping out of the gates: AG candidate gains strong early support

By: Michael Pineda

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Jeff Starling’s campaign for Oklahoma Attorney General has launched him into the role of frontrunner.

Starling, who is a Republican and serves as the Oklahoma Secretary of Energy and Environment, set a record-breaking fundraising quarter with $604,000 raised for the office of attorney general.

“The reason is the public sector experience combined with the national law practice experience has resonated across Oklahoma,” he said. “So, we have had very, very good reception and I am really pleased with where we are.”

In seeking out the office of attorney general, Starling said that he believes having a private sector person as an AG is important.

“I actually want to get politics out of the office,” he said. “This is not a steppingstone. I want to go be an attorney general for four years, see about reelection and after eight years go back to the private sector. Having that long term vision where it is not a stepping stone really allows you to focus on being attorney general and go back to calling balls and strikes like Chief Justice John Roberts said and not serving short term political agendas.”

Last week, Starling visited Ardmore and spent the day visiting with different groups about his campaign. He is a newcomer to the political arena, having been appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt and confirmed by the Senate to serve as the Secretary of Energy and Environment in December 2024…

Starling’s background is in the legal field. After graduating from law school, Starling clerked for a federal judge for a year. That work was heavily focused on criminal law. The next step in Starling’s career was joining a national law firm. He became a litigation partner and traveled the country. Because the job was not conducive to having a young family, Starling took advantage of an opportunity to join Devon Energy, which needed someone with national litigation experience. He joined as the head of litigation in 2012 and was there until 2019, when he joined Lagoon Water Midstream as the Chief Legal and Administrative Officer and Corporate Secretary.

In 2024, Starling heeded the call to give back in the public sector. In going to work for the state, he felt it was an opportunity to give back.

“It was the first time in my life where I didn’t have clients or business interests or something like that to keep me from doing something like running for office,” Starling said. “I am a firm believer in that founding father’s vision that you make a living, and you make a life in the private sector. You go serve the public, as actually a public service, it is not a public career. It is a service and then you go right back into the private sector. It really came down to, if you do believe that having a private sector voice is important, especially in a statewide elected office. And you do believe in that founding father's vision, especially if you have been lucky in the private sector, you should give back to public service. And if you are ever going to do that, now is the time to do it.”

Starling feels that he has a resume tailor-made for the office of attorney general. He addresses the biggest issue facing the office as 1A and 1B.

“It is fentanyl and illegal marijuana,” he said. “The reason I say they are related is because it is largely Chinese. It is some other foreign nationals, but largely Chinese criminal enterprises are mainly behind both of them. And, if you take marijuana for example, we grow 32 times more marijuana in the state than we can legally consume. I read recently that we are responsible for 50% of the illegal marijuana in the country. And if you think about these illegal grows, the other crimes that come along with it, human trafficking, money laundering, gun crimes and that sort of thing, it is a real public safety issue. It is also a land use issue with foreign nationals and foreign-backed entities buying all the land and we need to get a handle on that from a statewide perspective.” …

Other issues include illegal immigration, intersection of mental health and drugs. Starling addressed the homelessness problem and developing partnerships with faith-based initiatives…

Starling also has a pro-business agenda, which he says is a little unusual for the office of attorney general. The office has three basic functions. There is the criminal side, the civil issues and there is the general counsel side…

He said it can save money in the long-term and makes Oklahoma a more pro-business state.