Rob Hall: We Need a Restoration
An engineer by training, Rep. Rob Hall came to Oklahoma to attend the University of Tulsa, where he earned a mechanical engineering degree, and later worked as an engineer and project manager before being elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 2024. He now represents District 67 in Tulsa County.
That background shapes how Hall thinks about government. He discusses what engineering can teach lawmakers, the importance of federalism and self-government, the influence of federal guidance on states, the appeal of socialism to younger Americans and why he believes Oklahoma remains a good place to put down roots.
Rep. Hall spoke with American Habits editor Ray Nothstine in Orlando, Florida, at State Policy Network’s 2026 Annual Meeting. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
You came to politics from an engineering background, which is more unusual in state government. What have you encountered in Oklahoma City that makes you think, “No engineer would design a system this way?”
Rep. Rob Hall: It’s fascinating coming to politics from an engineering background because it’s relatively rare. There are only a few engineers in our state House or Senate.
But one thing being an engineer has made me appreciate is that our political system in America is actually incredibly well engineered on a foundational level. Our founders were brilliant in the way they set up American government and our system of federalism.
We have federal, state and local governments, along with divisions of power among the legislative, judicial and executive branches. Those systems were beautifully engineered. I think that solid foundation is one reason America has been so successful.
The people operating within those systems, though, sometimes don’t approach problems the same way an engineer might.
One thing I feel I’ve been able to bring to the Legislature is a practical problem-solving mindset. Engineers have to think through complex, interconnected systems and come up with solutions that work in the real world, not just on paper.
I once heard someone say, “Engineers are peer reviewed by reality.” If you build a bridge and that bridge falls down, you’re in trouble. If a building collapses, you’re in trouble. Engineers have to develop solutions that actually work in the real world.
You mentioned the founders, which is a good transition to America’s 250th anniversary. After two years in the Legislature, are you more or less optimistic about the country than you were before entering government?
Rep. Hall: I’ve served in the state Legislature for two years now, and I didn’t come from a government background at all. In that time, I’ve actually grown more optimistic.
The reason is that I’ve come to appreciate more and more the systems our founders put in place. In a lot of ways, we’ve strayed from some of those founding ideals and principles, but we’re like an old house with good bones.
The good thing is we don’t need a revolution in America. We need a restoration. We need to return to many of the founding principles and ideals that made us successful, prosperous and free.
We have good principles to build on and good examples we can look back on. I feel like it’s our job, our generation’s project, to restore many of those American ideals and principles and bring them back into American society.
At the Center for Practical Federalism, we’ve done a lot of work on federal guidance. You worked on legislation aimed at exposing how guidance can shape state policy without going through the normal lawmaking process. How much power does Washington exercise over Oklahoma through funding, guidance and regulatory pressure? And what can states do to reclaim authority without waiting for Congress or the courts?
Rep. Hall: Over the past 100 years, I think there have been two major shifts in American government away from our founding ideals. Power has been pulled toward the federal government at the expense of the states. At the same time, legislatures at both the state and federal levels have often abdicated their lawmaking authority to executive agencies and the judiciary.
Moving forward, I believe states need to jealously guard and reclaim their sovereignty, while legislatures need to reassert themselves in the lawmaking process rather than simply deferring to agencies or the courts.
In Oklahoma, we’ve taken several steps in that direction. We passed a state-level REINS Act. Essentially, any high-impact rule from an executive agency that meets a certain threshold must be affirmatively approved by the Legislature. It isn’t approved by default. We have to take a proactive vote to put that rule into effect.
We also eliminated Chevron-style deference in our state courts. And I helped pass the Guidance Document Transparency Act, which is designed to keep agencies from putting their thumb on the scale through guidance documents instead of going through the legislative or formal rulemaking process.
Those processes are public and deliberative. A law or properly adopted rule can have the force and effect of law. Guidance does not. But agencies often issue guidance that looks and feels official, and citizens may treat it as binding because they can’t easily tell the difference.
The Guidance Document Transparency Act requires agencies to publicly disclose those documents and include a disclaimer explaining that they do not have the force and effect of law.
Let me switch gears slightly. We’ve heard a lot about the growing appeal of socialism among younger Americans. What would you say to a young person in Oklahoma, or one of your constituents, who finds those ideas attractive?
Rep. Hall: If someone is feeling that pull toward socialism, I would first encourage them to take an honest look at history and evaluate the record of free-market societies compared with socialist societies. I think the historical record raises serious questions about whether socialism is an effective way to govern a society.
But beyond the practical argument, I would encourage them to think about the underlying principles. I view socialism as the politics of envy because it depends on coercion rather than free choices.
I would also view socialism as an inherently immoral ideology because it only works through coercion. I would ask, “Why is it that socialists always talk about seizing the means of production instead of creating the means of production?”
If someone really sits with that question and thinks it through, I think it goes a long way toward questioning whether the promises of socialism can actually be delivered when those ideas are implemented in the real world.
Oklahoma’s motto speaks to the dignity of work and labor. If a young person came to you and said, “I’m not sure I want to build my life in Oklahoma. Why should I stay here?” what would you tell them?
Rep. Hall: It’s a great question. I sometimes say at political events that I’m a proud first-generation Oklahoman. A lot of politicians will stand up and say, “I’m a proud fifth-generation Oklahoma farmer or rancher.” That’s great for them, but I’m a proud first-generation Oklahoman.
I was born and raised in Kansas City and came down to the University of Tulsa in 2005 for college. I’ve chosen to plant my life in Oklahoma ever since, and there are reasons for that.
I don’t have family here. My family is still back in Kansas City. But Oklahoma is a great state to raise a family. I love the principles and values, the economic opportunity, the high quality of life and the low cost of living.
I really believe Oklahoma is poised to be the next great American success story. We have a lot going for us, and it’s a great place to plant yourself and put down roots, start a family and grow a business.
I’ve personally benefited from living in Oklahoma, and I’m very happy with the choice my wife and I made to plant ourselves here.
Let me ask you something related. There’s a tendency in politics for people to look to lawmakers or politicians to be their saviors, to deliver promises and take care of them. That was really amplified during the Obama era. If someone came to you and asked, “What does self-government actually mean?” what would you tell them?
How does a citizen practice self-government? What are the things citizens need to do for themselves that no politician or state lawmaker can really do for them?
Rep. Hall: On the topic of self-government, John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Fundamentally, our system of government depends on self-government at the individual level. People need to be moral, industrious, take initiative and take responsibility for their own lives. Once they’ve taken responsibility for their own lives, they can help take responsibility for the broader society.
I think it’s bad when citizens treat the government like God, where they look to government to be their provider and protector in all cases. The government is not designed or capable of fulfilling that responsibility. Don’t look to the government to be your God.
But self-government goes beyond the individual level. We are a system of self-government, and in order for that system to work, it’s incumbent on normal, everyday people to step up to the responsibility of elected office at all different levels, from local to federal.
Sometimes we have this view of politicians as a separate caste or separate breed of people. Really, they’re just fellow citizens who are willing to put their name on the ballot and serve in that capacity.
There’s an interesting fact that I probably didn’t share during my first few months at the Capitol because I wanted to gain some credibility. But I think it’s important and hopefully encouraging to people: Before I decided to run for office, I had only shaken the hand of one state-level elected official in Oklahoma in my entire life.
I wasn’t connected. I didn’t go to all the local political meetings. I didn’t spend a lot of time at the Capitol. I had actually never been to the Oklahoma State Capitol. That may be embarrassing to say, but I hope it’s encouraging.
When the opportunity presented itself, my wife and I had a decision to make. There was an open seat because the incumbent was running for a different office. We had to ask ourselves: If we’re serious about not just sitting on the sidelines and complaining, but actually doing something to make a difference in our state and society, are we willing to put our name in the hat?
Obviously, the answer we came to was yes. We knew it was important, we had the bandwidth, and I felt like I had something to contribute. So we decided to put my name out there. Now I’m a politician. I get that label, even though it still feels weird because I don’t feel like a politician. I’m just a random guy, a normal guy, an engineer.
We need those types of people. We need people who didn’t get a political science degree. We need people who didn’t go to law school. We need doctors and engineers and teachers and nurses and firefighters, all these different types of people and backgrounds, to run for elected office.
That’s what makes our system of self-government work. Govern yourself. Take responsibility for your own life. Once you’re doing that, you can start taking responsibility for your family, your church, your schools, your neighborhood, your community, your state and your nation.
We’ve talked about socialism, but let me broaden this out. The national debt recently surpassed $40 trillion. When I was growing up in the 1980s, it was around $2 trillion, and even then people in Washington were sounding the alarm.
Beyond the debt, what worries you most about the direction of the country? Is there an issue you think deserves more attention?
Rep. Hall: The national debt and our deficits are definitely high on the list. Two others I would add are immigration policy and election integrity.
To me, immigration policy is maybe the cornerstone policy debate of our time because it has so many downstream effects on other issues. I’m a proud and unashamed member of the America First movement. To me, it’s self-evident that I should be an Oklahoma First and America First elected official because those are the people I represent. Those are my constituents. They entrusted me with the power to sit in this seat and cast votes on their behalf.
When we consider both legal and illegal immigration policy and enforcement, I believe it needs to be viewed primarily through the lens of what benefits American citizens.
The other issue I’d point to is election integrity. That has gotten a lot of attention over the last few years. The reason I think it’s so important is that elections essentially function like the immune system of our society.
We’re not an elitist state, but we produce some very elite people.
In your body, inevitably you’re going to get a cut, encounter germs or eat something that doesn’t settle well. You have an immune system to deal with those things. Elections are the immune system of our body politic because inevitably bad ideas are going to get put into law, and bad people are going to get elected to office.
Once citizens start experiencing the consequences of those decisions, elections are the mechanism by which we course-correct. We say, “That was a bad idea,” or “We shouldn’t have elected that person. We’re going to vote them out.”
If elections are compromised, that’s like your immune system being compromised. You’re no longer able to fight off the bad things. We have to have secure elections because elections are the course-correction mechanism by which we navigate the inevitable bad decisions that get made.
What do you love most about Oklahoma and the people you represent? Is there a particular quality or habit you see in Oklahomans that you wish the rest of the country had more of? This is your chance to brag about Oklahoma.
Rep. Hall: Especially as an Oklahoma transplant, I love living in Oklahoma. I love the people of Oklahoma.
One thing that stands out is a phrase that caught on after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995: the Oklahoma Standard. It’s this ethos and way of living that says, in Oklahoma, we work hard and take care of ourselves, but we also take care of each other. When tragedy strikes or there’s a need, neighbors are willing and able to step up and help where they can. The Oklahoma Standard is something I’ve seen during my time living here.
Another thing I’ve loved during the last couple of years as a state representative is getting to interact with people who are at the top of their field or industry. In Oklahoma, the pattern I see is that even though these people may be elite in their field, they’re not elitist.
We’re normal people. I feel like Oklahomans are consistently humble, down-to-earth and non-elitist. We’re not an elitist state, but we produce some very elite people in a variety of different fields.
I love living in Oklahoma. I would encourage anyone who’s thinking about it to consider moving here. Like I said, it’s been a great decision for me and my family. If you align with those Oklahoma values and America’s founding values, we’d love to have you in Oklahoma.
Hit me up, and I’ll help you move.
