Oklahoma's two attorney general candidates will square off at 5:45 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, in a free public debate at the Metro Tech District Center auditorium in northeast Oklahoma City.

Democrat Nick Coffey and Republican Jon Echols agreed to the event, titled "Burden of Proof," NonDoc reported. NonDoc and Griffin Media are co-hosting the debate at 1900 Springlake Drive, accessible from Springlake Drive just west of Martin Luther King Avenue.

Tres Savage of NonDoc and Jennifer Pierce of News 9 will co-moderate. Questions will be written and asked by professional journalists. The Frontier will lead fact-checking efforts after the debate.

Seating is free but requires an advance reservation through a Google form linked in NonDoc's announcement. Griffin Media plans to livestream the debate on the News 9 and News on 6 websites and Facebook pages. NonDoc will also stream on its Facebook page and the Oklahoma's Own Politics YouTube channel.

The seat is open. Incumbent Attorney General Gentner Drummond is not seeking another term, and voters will choose between Coffey and Echols on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Coffey, the Oklahoma Democratic Party's nominee, is a former federal prosecutor who worked in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Oklahoma. He handled cases involving criminal organizations, money laundering, immigration and fraud, and served on the Department of Justice's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. The U.S. Attorney's Office named him Prosecutor of the Year in 2023, described as the youngest person to receive that award.

His campaign centers on creating an Office of Public Integrity within the attorney general's office to investigate public corruption involving state officials. "If you want somebody to take on public corruption, put a prosecutor, not a politician, who's going to hand out favors to his friends from the attorney general's office," Coffey said in a Sept. 23 interview with CityNewsOKC.

Echols, the Oklahoma Republican Party's nominee, served 12 years in the Oklahoma Legislature representing House District 90 in southwest Oklahoma City, including eight years as House majority floor leader. He co-founded Turn Key Health Clinics in 2009, served as its president and previously practiced at the Crowe & Dunlevy law firm and at his family's firm, Echols and Associates.

Echols has pledged to create a government accountability office inside the attorney general's office and to organize law enforcement into six regional divisions targeting illegal marijuana operations. In a Sept. 23 CityNewsOKC interview, he described himself as "a bulldog for your taxpayer dollars" during his time in the Legislature and said he would bring that approach to the attorney general's office.

NonDoc has partnered with other Oklahoma media outlets and civic organizations to host more than 40 public political debates since 2018. The debate begins at 5:45 p.m. Oct. 22, and residents can reserve seats through the RSVP link in NonDoc's announcement.