Charles McCall still remembers earning two dollars a sack for shredding green-bar paper at his family’s bank in Atoka. Long before he became Oklahoma’s longest- serving Speaker of the House — and now a candidate for governor — McCall was mowing lawns, detailing cars with a buddy, and trying to outshoot his high school basketball rivals.
“My parents instilled a great work ethic in me,” McCall said. “They always told me, whatever you choose to do in life, if you work hard at it, you’ll be successful and people will respect you for it. That’s what I’ve always tried to do.”
Th at kind of story, told with the ease of a neighbor on a front porch, is the same image McCall is carrying across his 77-county campaign tour. From Sayre to Stilwell, his campaign has the polish of the Capitol but the feel of the front porch — where conversations about work, family, and the future come first.
TEACHERS, COACHES, AND THE CLASSROOM OF LIFE Ask McCall about high school and the names spill out like a coffee shop conversation: Coach Ron Falkenberry. Coach Chris Gillespie. English teachers Glinda Graham, Von De Miller, and Lucille Watson.
“They were strong in their discipline,” McCall said. “We read the classics, we wrote papers, and we learned how to think critically. I figured out at OU, I could compete with anybody because I had been well prepared.”
Those memories shape how he talks about education today. He believes Oklahoma classrooms need to get back to the same fundamentals that carried him forward: phonics, reading by third grade, strong math, and critical thinking.
“We don’t need to be worried about politics in the classroom,” McCall said. “We need to get back to reading, writing, math, science, and supporting teachers on behavior issues.”
And it’s not just about college prep. McCall points to life skills — the old home economics and auto shop classes — are just as important. “Those classes prepared kids for life,” he said. “Some went to college, some didn’t, but they all came out ready.”
It’s the kind of argument that sounds less like a policy plank and more like a neighbor reminding you what school used to be.
A LIFETIME OF RELATIONSHIPS
McCall’s first jobs weren’t glamorous: mowing lawns, working in his mom’s garden, shredding old bank records. But each carried the same lesson — effort and relationships matter.
He talks about them the way a farmer might talk about fence posts: they only hold if both sides tend to them. “Public service is about addition, not subtraction,” he said. “You have to understand people, what motivates them, and find solutions. But the governor also has to be a strong leader and lay out a strong agenda.”
That approach, McCall argues, is what helped him during his 12 years in the legislature — eight of them as Speaker of the House. He points to his record of turning deficits into $5 billion in reserves, raising education funding, and protecting liberties. Coupled with his private-sector background as a banker, he says it makes him the rare candidate who can be effective on day one if elected governor.
LIFE UNDER GOVERNOR MCCALL So what would life look like in Beckham County if Charles McCall becomes governor? He points to his own hometown of Atoka for the answer: stronger opportunities to keep kids and grandkids close, jobs that matter in small numbers, and a Department of Commerce that pays as much attention to rural towns as it does to metro projects.
“I’m the only candidate in the race that was raised and still lives in a rural part of the state,” Mc-Call said. “Government should be working for all Oklahomans. Rural communities have great people, resilient people, people with great work ethic. We’ve got to make sure we’re bringing opportunities here, too.”
For him, that means a shift in focus. “It’s easier to bring companies to the metros, and that’s where most of the attention has gone,” McCall said. “But in small counties, 50 or 100 jobs can change everything.”
He notes that while the headlines in Oklahoma City and Tulsa might celebrate “mega-projects” promising thousands of jobs, a modest manufacturer in a rural county can be just as transformative. “Our children and our grandkids have to have economic opportunity to stay,” McCall said. “If not, they’ll move away.”
It’s a reminder that for McCall, the governor’s race isn’t just about numbers at the Capitol — it’s about porch-light conversations in towns like Sayre.
TAXES, SENIORS, AND EVERYDAY LIFE McCall also frames his policy goals in everyday terms. He wants to phase out the personal income tax, following Tennessee’s model, while protecting school, health care, and road funding through consumption taxes.
And he says seniors deserve peace of mind in retirement. “We need to cap ad valorem at age 62,” McCall said. “Some seniors in our state are losing their homes because they can’t pay the taxes. Other states do this, and Oklahoma should, too.”
It’s not just a campaign promise; it’s a neighbor saying, we’ve got to take care of our people.
“A SMALL-TOWN GUY” McCall closes his campaign pitch the same way he opened his life story — with the plain talk of a neighbor.
“I think Oklahoma’s identity is our freedoms and liberties,” he said. “That’s what makes our state great, and I’m going to fight to protect them every day.”
McCall calls himself a smalltown guy — the kind who says, “you call me any time” and means it. It’s the image he hopes Oklahomans will remember when they head to the polls to choose their next governor.
