Despite their different professional backgrounds, former firefighter Jonathan Wilk and retired coach Mike Whaley say they share a common goal for House District 20 — to craft public policy providing families with support and resources they need to survive.
Coming out of the June 18 Republican primary as the top two candidates in the open HD 20, Wilk and Whaley are seeking to succeed Rep. Sherrie Conley (R-Newcastle), who chose not to seek a fourth term for the south-central Oklahoma seat.
After working in the oil, gas and agriculture industries as a young adult, Wilk spent 23 years as a public safety officer serving as a firefighter and first responder. Before retiring in 2022, he said he worked at the State Fire Marshal’s office in Norman while also serving as a commissioned law enforcement officer with the Norman Police Department.
Wilk said he now works as a contractor with insurance companies as a fire investigator.
According to Wilk, he never planned to go into politics, but after learning Conely decided not to seek reelection, he and other members of the community began working to find a candidate for HD 20.
“I never anticipated doing this,” Wilk said. “Kind of the way it fell in my lap — or I was kind of talked into doing it — basically was a group of us were looking for somebody when the incumbent decided not to re-run. And so, we started looking for somebody. And I’ve been involved in a lot of the politics in Norman in the last few years.”
Whaley is a U.S. Navy veteran whose enlisted years, according to his website, “included serving on a destroyer escort at the end of the war in Vietnam helping refugees escape Southeast Asia during the communist takeover.”
After Whaley returned to Oklahoma, he worked as a teacher and football coach, eventually joining the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association, from which he retired as associate executive director in 2023.
Whaley said he decided to run for the open seat after discussing it and praying about it with his wife.
“I started investigating it probably September of last year. Made a decision in October and filed sometime about that time,” Whaley said. “You’ve got to get your committee together first, so that you could be raising money. So, I did that first and have been knocking on doors and meeting people and traveling all about District 20, which, you know, I’ve lived in it longer than I’ve lived any place in my life.”
Whaley said he served as a page in the Oklahoma State Senate during high school, which intrigued him as a youngster. He said the most influential part involved getting to watch the process and the people working in and out of the Senate committees.
House District 20 spans McClain County and a southern portion of Cleveland County, representing the communities of Newcastle, Goldsby, Washington, Noble, Slaughterville and part of Blanchard.
The runoff election will determine the winner of the Republican nomination for HD 20, as neither candidate received the majority threshold in the crowded primary election. Polls will be open Aug. 27th from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with the winner facing Democrat Mitchell Jacob in the HD 20 general election. A U.S. Army veteran, Jacob is attending the University of Oklahoma College of Law.
‘Families are struggling right now’
As he talks to constituents at their doors, Wilk said he recognizes that people need help with inflation and other pressures.
“Honestly, the No. 1 thing is that families are struggling right now,” Wilk said. “They’re struggling day to day. It’s paycheck to paycheck.”
Wilk said there are a number of things he could do in the Legislature to combat those financial struggles, but he emphasized a desire to cut taxes.
“There’s a few things that we need to be doing a better job of,” Wilk said. “One of them is being better stewards of our tax dollars, so that we can afford those tax cuts and so that we can get those pushed through, to help people at the checkout line.”
But some of Wilk’s other priorities require public funding to address. Having worked as a public safety officer for the majority of his professional career, Wilk said there are many infrastructure issues in HD 20 that concern him.
“We’ve got (State) Highway 76 between Blanchard, Newcastle — which is the west part of my district — that is very dangerous,” Wilk said. “It’s seen record growth in those communities in terms of population, and with that the highway is not near big enough to accommodate the traffic, and there’s been a lot of accidents because of it.”
Wilk also listed a variety of talking points, saying the state could do better with opening up the free market in the oil and gas industry, boosting the economy, pushing back against “climate change agenda” regulations, letting parents have a say-so in their children’s health and education, and supporting Texas in its efforts to secure the southern border.
Whaley said he contributes to his local Regional Food Bank that functions out of his church in Blanchard, which changed his perspective on food banks and food distribution.
“As a kid growing up, I thought that people that went to the food bank were folks that, you know, didn’t have jobs or didn’t have anything,” Whaley said. “And that’s not the case now. The case now is that we have lots of families that just can’t get to the end of the month, and a boost of one week of groceries to them, that’s a life changer.”
With that in mind, Whaley said state government needs to be as conservative with public money as possible.
“The thing I would really want to be a part of is making it as frugal as possible with state government and not being involved in any additional expenses for Joe and Jane citizens so that they can have enough money to feed their kids at the end of the month,” Whaley said.
But as a longtime educator, Whaley said one of his top priorities is to improve Oklahoma’s education system.
“You look at where we are in our state and education right now (…) I can’t imagine a teacher or coach or administrator wouldn’t say, ‘Well yeah, I’d like to make it better.’ I mean, we all want it better,” Whaley said.
On his website, Whaley notes that he wants to invest in the next generation, which he said ties back to his thoughts on education.
“I do think that providing for the next generation is making sure that they can enter the job market and be competitive at jobs that are there now and be ready for the next set of jobs,” Whaley said. “Because, as you know, there’s a whole lot of people doing stuff now that you and I never would have thought would be jobs back several years ago, and I think that’s one of the jobs of education is prepare folks for the next wave.”
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Wilk, Whaley say life experiences will help at State Capitol
Although Wilk and Whaley have a mutual respect for one another, each man thinks his own life and career experiences would what make him the best candidate for HD 20.
Wilk described himself as an independent thinker who is “not part of anybody’s establishment.” He said he is somewhat of a “maverick” and a “political outsider,” which he believes benefits him and his campaign.
Wilk also said the connections he has with differing industries makes him the better candidate.
“I think a lot of it has to do with my broad knowledge of the energy industry and the relationships from there — public safety and my relationships from there,” he said. “My involvement in municipal government and my relationships from that.”
Whaley said his experience at OSSAA and working in team environments would play an important role in how he would conduct himself as a legislator.
“I’ve been trained in the team environment my entire life,” Whaley said. “So, I understand that working together with folks and finding that place where we understand — we’re trying to carry the ball down the field. And if I carry it for a little bit, or if somebody else carries it, who cares? You’re trying to get the ball down the field.”
According to Whaley, he is also trained on how to work with people with agendas.
“It’s a team effort, and so working with other legislators and the agendas that they have for their districts and working with organizations that all have specific agendas — I think training in team sports is extremely important,” he said.
Whaley also believes his life experiences “have been great proving grounds for what I think the legislative person needs to be able to do.”
Wilk said he encourages everyone in his district to vote and avoid focusing on all the negativity seen online.
“I mean, it’s a right that we have, and I think the voter apathy is terrible,” Wilk said. “And the other thing I’ll tell everybody is, despite what you see on social media or in the media in general, the world’s not as bad as you think it is. There’s a lot of good people out there who have a lot of positive things to say. Don’t get caught up in all the negativity.”
