In the closing days of Oklahoma’s House District 50 runoff, feathers are flying with allegations of one candidate’s cockfighting industry connections hitting Duncan-area mailboxes while Republican voters try to wade through claims about which candidate has dodged debates and public questions.
The rooster-related drama about insurance agent Stacy Jo Adams comes as state employee Andrew Aldridge is pushing back against notions that his sexuality should matter when voters head to the polls Tuesday, Aug. 27.
“My message to the people of House District 50 is that we’ve got to have somebody who can articulate what our needs are, [and] who can get bills pushed across the finish line,” said Aldridge, who could become the first openly gay Republican member of the Oklahoma Legislature if he is elected. “I hope that that’s what they’re basing their vote on, because this is a professional job, and we’ve got to elect somebody that knows how to do the job.”
Adams, meanwhile, set a July 16 interview date for this article but did not return phone calls or text messages. She later responded to additional requests for an interview by promising to provide dates for her availability, but she never did.
Adams, 49, also declined to participate in a runoff debate against Aldridge proposed by NonDoc, KSWO, The Comanche Times and the Duncan Area Chamber of Commerce. She also reportedly backed out of a debate proposal from The Duncan Banner.
In a July 31 text message explaining her decision to decline a House District 50 runoff debate, Adams said she had “to focus on the doors” and that there “were 10 open forums that all candidates were invited to” ahead of the June primary,” referencing events hosted by the Stephens County Republican Party and the Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association. She said Aldridge “was the only candidate that did not show up.”
But with new mail pieces criticizing Adams for “running from her record of cockfighting, federal theft conviction, and lobbyist dollars,” NonDoc reached out this week in a final effort to interview Adams about her campaign. While she again did not reply, Adams made a Facebook post about “last minute smear tactics” on Aug. 20:
ALERT! Did you receive the two mailers? (many people got two dropping on the same day yesterday, so who knows how much more the SWAMP will spend!) Check out the return label “Name” and “Address” – all hiding behind rent by the month mailboxes in OKC and a business name that isn’t even registered with the Secretary of State’s office as a legitimate LLC in our state… Swamp? Pretty sure we know the SWAMP is trying to keep Stacy Jo from representing everyday Oklahomans at the Capitol!
Supporters of Adams commented on her post with contempt toward the mailers and with disapproval of Aldridge. Some comments included homophobic implications and assumptions about Aldridge’s political and social beliefs.
“This Aldridge guy DOES NOT REPRESENT ANYTHING about me or 99% of the straight (non gay) citizens in House District 50,” one man wrote.
Pointing out a $500 donation from an employee of the nonprofit suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ youth called The Trevor Project, another commenter questioned Aldridge’s political intentions and made a derogatory reference to Pride Month:
Does this $500 donation cause Andrew to advocate for drag queen story hours in public schools? Does it buy shade for the far alt-left Teachers Union to promote age-inappropriate materials to young students? Will it lead to legislation forcing girls to unfairly and dangerously compete against boys in sports? Is he going to support the genital mutilation of children for some sort of sick virtue signal?
No one knows, because he lacks the testicular fortitude to speak with constituents and answer their questions publicly. If he doesn’t have the fortitude for step 1 of representing HD50, he most certainly does not have the fortitude to stand up against the lgbtq community he celebrates with for an entire month every single year!
In an interview for this article, Aldridge, 31, said he has faced anti-LGBTQ backlash throughout the campaign process.
“To me, it’s not something that’s worth giving mind to,” Aldridge said. “I’m staying focused on, you know, what are the policies? What are the people? I’m not a victim here. This is part of the process. Unfortunately, that’s the kind of campaign that they chose to run, but that’s not the kind of campaign that I chose to run.”
House District 50, which covers Jefferson and Stephens counties in southwest Oklahoma, has been held by Rep. Marcus McEntire (R-Duncan) since his first election in 2016. But McEntire decided not to run for reelection this year, and four Republicans filed to succeed him.
In the June 18 Republican primary, Adams finished first with 2,024 votes (42.52 percent), and Aldridge followed in second place with 1,520 votes (31.93 percent). Fellow Republican Jayce Daniel Miller, who received 6.5 percent support, endorsed Adams on Aug. 20. Third-place finisher Clayton T. Pickard does not appear to have announced an endorsement online.
With no Democrat, Libertarian or independent filing for the seat, the winner of the HD 50 runoff will become its next representative.
Aldridge: Staying focused on the needs of HD 50
Prior to the Republican primary, Aldridge had little to no information about his policy priorities on his website. Adams said he missed multiple candidate events.
Aldridge said Adams’ claims about pre-primary candidate forums are misleading.
“They mentioned some candidate forums that she [Adams] threw,” Aldridge said. “When you look at who’s really running her campaign, those people are the ones who put on those two candidate forums that they had. And I wasn’t even told about the one that several other candidates in the race before the primary went to until two hours before from a gentleman who was catering at the event.”
Aldridge said he has and will continue to attend events that are held in Jefferson and Stephens counties, and he agreed to multiple dates for a debate against Adams in the runoff that she ultimately declined.
Now updated, Aldridge’s website lists issues he considers a priority in HD 50, including parental rights to make choices about their child’s education. Stating that he is endorsed by Hailburton — a major area employer — Aldridge says the community “must support our oil and gas companies.” He also pledges to protect Oklahomans from the “crisis at our southern border” and to defend Second Amendment rights and the pro-life movement.
During an interview, Aldridge said talking to constituents while going door to door has helped him identify many issues he would like to address if elected, including “doing what we can on the state and federal level to have affordable electricity” and “protecting those that are living on a fixed income.”
Aldridge said he wants to make sure “our public schools have quality education, that our educators have the tools that they need, [and] that our students have the tools that they need to be successful.”
While acting as the Peer Resolutions for Oklahoma Students state director, Aldridge was awarded Next Gen Under 30 recognition and a Top Leader Award from OKC Young Professionals.
According to the PROS website, the program was envisioned by Alma Wilson, the first woman to serve on the Oklahoma Supreme Court and its first female chief justice. The program was established to offer free student mediation training to all Oklahoma school districts.
On his campaign website, Aldridge notes service on both the Duncan Chamber of Commerce and the Comanche Chamber of Commerce, as well as on the boards for multiple child and domestic violence related programs.
“I have never been a politician, never been a lobbyist, but I’ve been actively interested in and involved at the State Capitol and watching and observing and sitting in committees,” Aldridge said. “It wasn’t foreign to me, so it wasn’t something that I had to get caught up on necessarily. Which is the same for going into this role and getting elected — it’s not going to be something that I have to learn on day one. I can actually start legislating.”
The Adams family: Cockfighting ties and felony theft
At least two mailers sent to residents in the House District 50 runoff accuse Stacy Jo Adams of being connected to the cockfighting industry, and public records illustrate specific connections to her husband, Ricky Adams.
In 2002, State Question 687 asked Oklahoma voters whether to outlaw cockfighting, a blood sport that pits roosters against one another in a ring for the betting pleasure of owners and audience members. Illegally federally and in Oklahoma — SQ 687 passed with 56.2 percent support — cockfighting is broadly viewed as being cruel to the animals, although it remains popular and legal in parts of Asia, South America and the Caribbean.
While Oklahomans voted to outlaw it two decades ago, recent efforts by cockfighting advocates have sought to decriminalize or lower punishments for cockfighting at the Oklahoma Legislature. In April 2023, as legislation was pending in the Oklahoma House, a handful of sheriffs and other law enforcement officers released a letter to lawmakers arguing that criminal penalties should be reduced to support a multi-million-dollar rooster-breeding industry.
“Currently, Oklahoma is home to 5,000 farms that are safely and responsibly breeding these roosters, contributing over $60 million to the state’s economy,” the letter stated.
As House Bill 2530, proposed by Rep. Justin Humphrey (R-Lane) advacned during the 2023 legislative session, a string of cockfighting-related arrests occurred around Oklahoma.
On June 18, 2023, court documents indicate that Carter County sheriff deputies seized a trailer registered to Ricky Adams — Stacy Jo Adams’ husband — at an illegal cockfighting event called the “2023 Asian Gaff Championship.”
In an affidavit, Sgt. David Jones of the Carter County Sheriff’s Office said he and other deputies responded to a report of a cockfight in what is described as “the area of Roundup Road and Midway Road, Graham, Carter County,” where they found more than 200 participants with multiple trailers inside and surrounding a metal shop building.
“I made contact with an Asian male leaving the building carrying a cockfighting rooster with apparatus attached to its legs known to me as Gaff’s,” Jones wrote. “Gaff’s are sharpened spears or blades attached to the rooster’s legs to inflict injury and or death to another rooster when it’s pitted to fight said rooster. I also noticed several dead or near dead roosters around the building. I went inside the building and observed a cockfight in progress with people in the seats and bleachers surrounding the pit area where the roosters were fighting.”
According to the affidavit, multiple attendees and their trailers were detained, and officers found large sums of cash, a small baggie of cocaine and fighting roosters equipped with gaffs — knives attached to roosters’ feet during fights. The affidavit makes no reference as to whether Adams was contacted or detained at the cockfight.
In September 2023, Ricky Adams filed court papers denying that his trailer was in violation of Title 21, Sections 1692.1 through 1692.7, which outlaws the instigation or encouragement of cockfighting, servicing or committing cockfighting, owning, possessing, keeping or training birds for cockfighting.
Ricky Adams was not charged with criminal activity related to cockfighting, and an employee in the Carter County Court Clerk’s Office told NonDoc the civil asset forfeiture proceeding against Adams’ trailer remains open.
But the forfeiture filing is not the only record connecting Adams to the controversial industry. On the Facebook page of the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission, a pro-cockfighting political action committee often confused for a government agency, Ricky Adams has made comments supporting cockfighting and has offered to donate roosters to raise money for the PAC.
When U.S. Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-OK2) appeared with the president of the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission, Anthony Devore, in December and endorsed the decriminalization of cockfighting in Oklahoma, Ricky Adams commented under the organization’s Facebook post: “Outstanding.”
Ricky Adams’ connections to cockfighting have spurred opposition to Stacy Jo Adams’ campaign from animal welfare groups. Kevin Chambers, the Oklahoma state director for Animal Wellness Action, provided NonDoc with screenshots from the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission Legislative Fund, a private Facebook group “created to support Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission in their quest to change laws within the state of Oklahoma.”
Posts from the group show Ricky Adams donating multiple roosters for auction purposes as far back as May 2022.
According to Chambers, Ricky Adams deleted most of his cockfighting and breeding content from his Facebook after Stacy Jo Adams announced her candidacy.
But cockfighting is not the only topic drawing criticism to Adams in the form of mailers sent by Sooner Conservatives Action, a PAC that is not registered with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. One mailer states that Adams is running from a “federal theft conviction.”
On another topic, a mailer that was sent to Duncan area residents stated that Stacy Jo Adams had pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge.
According to federal court records, Stacy Jo Adams (then Milam) pleaded guilty in February 1994 to a misdemeanor theft charge for stealing “merchandise held for sale in retail wholesale establishment.” An online broker report shows the case was handled in federal court in Lawton and that she was sentenced to pay a $350 fine.
Adams: ‘Animal abuse is absolutely awful’
On a June 17 Facebook post, which has since been deleted, the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission listed the state legislative candidates they have chosen to endorse. Stacy Jo Adams was included in the list of 2024 candidate endorsements.
Records show that Chambers, a long-time animal cruelty investigator, reached out to Stacy Jo Adams through Facebook messenger to ask if she accepted the organization’s endorsement.
“They have admitted that they endorse candidates they think will win so they can claim credit after the election,” Chambers said June 17. “But it does the candidates more harm than good. Cockfighting and animal abuse is not a partisan issue.”
Stacy Jo Adams replied, according to screenshots sent to NonDoc by Chambers.
“Animal abuse is absolutely awful, and I will not support it in any fashion!” Adams wrote.
On Aug. 16, Chambers again asked if Adams accepted the endorsement of the “cockfighters’ front group.” Stacy Jo Adams claimed she could not find the list of endorsements, and then she said she did not see her name on any list. Chambers sent the list to her a third time. Adams eventually replied.
“I have never filled out a survey and I see lots of legislators on that list,” she wrote.
Adams is also endorsed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, who faced backlash in 2023 for recording a video message “cheering” the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission.
