Colleen McCarty, executive director of Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, announced Thursday she is running for Tulsa County district attorney — a position currently held by Steve Kunzweiler.
McCarty is running as a Republican with a campaign centered around her experience as a prosecutor and her work on criminal justice reform. She was also instrumental in passing the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act in 2024, which aims to lighten sentencing for survivors of domestic violence.
McCarty said the law reflects conservative principles like proportional punishment, accountability and recognizing self defense. The law has also faced scrutiny in recent months, with many in the criminal justice system still struggling to implement it, according to Oklahoma Watch.
“These are the core tenants of our justice systems, and here in Tulsa County that law has been met with extreme resistance,” McCarty said. “Our current DA had people signing waivers to ensure that they couldn’t invoke the Survivors’ Act … The job of a district attorney is to follow the law as it’s written, not to obstruct it or relitigate or protect your institutional pride, and that’s what I feel he has been doing.”
In her policy platform, “A Blueprint for Tulsa: A Modern Justice System for a Modern City,” McCarty promised to stand with victims to end the waivers, create a survivor justice unit and require survivor-centered plea practices that “reflect reality, not myth.”
“Our DA’s office really exists for three reasons,” McCarty said. “One: to protect our public safety; two: to serve victims; and three: to be a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars.”
She said she feels like the county hasn’t “gotten what it deserves” on any of these fronts.
Kunzweiler has served as Tulsa’s district attorney since 2015. He announced late last year that he would seek a fourth term.
His office previously defended its actions under the Survivors’ Act, saying “we will continue to uphold the rights of victims in every setting while also advancing common sense solutions to improve the efficiency of the criminal court process.”
McCarty is a fourth-generation Tulsan who worked in the family business, Bama Companies, and completed law school at The University of Tulsa in 2020.
She first worked with the policy nonprofit Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform and in 2022 founded Oklahoma Appleseed.
The two will compete in the June 16 primaries, with the general election set for Nov. 3.
