The race for Tulsa mayor won't be decided until November. In an unusually tight race among three candidates, neither Monroe Nichols, 40, a state legislator, nor Karen Keith, 70, a county commissioner and former local news anchor, were able to collect the required 50% of the vote for an outright victory and will face each other in a runoff Nov. 5.
In unofficial results with all precincts reporting, Nichols received 33.1% of the vote, Keith 32.6%.
Brent VanNorman, president of an investment company, former attorney and former pastor, came in a close third with 31.8% of the vote after a campaign in which he stressed his conservativism and Republican party affiliation. City elections in Tulsa are nonpartisan, although Nichols and Keith had run in other elections as Democrats, they did not emphasize that.
Fewer than 500 votes separated Nichols from Keith and Keith from VanNorman in the nip-and-tuck race.
If he prevails in the runoff election, Nichols would be Tulsa's first Black mayor, a significant step in light of the city's legacy of violence toward Black residents. In 1921, according to historical accounts, Tulsa was the site of one of the most severe incidents of racial violence in U.S. history. The massacre left somewhere between 30 and 300 people dead, mostly Black residents, and destroyed Tulsa’s prosperous Black neighborhood of Greenwood, known at the time as “Black Wall Street.” More than 1,400 homes and businesses were burned, and nearly 10,000 people were left homeless.
The winner in November will replace current Mayor G.T. Bynum, first elected in 2016. Bynum is stepping down after two terms to become vice president of community and government affairs for the St. Francis Health System in Tulsa.
Other candidates active in the race were Casey Bradford, a U.S. Army veteran, and owner of Shady Keys Dueling Piano Bar - he received 1.6% of the vote - and John Jolley, owner of an advertising company, who got 0.6%.
Nichols Emphasizes Plans and Vision
Monroe Nichols on Tuesday did what he always insisted he could do and what many thought was unlikely: He won more votes than any other candidate in the seven-person race for Tulsa mayor.
That was not enough to make him Tulsa’s next mayor — not yet, anyway. In a razor-close race Nichols won 33.1% of the vote, with Karen Keith close behind at 32.6%, according to unofficial, final results from the Tulsa County Election Board.
As the top vote-getters whose combined tallies exceeded 50% of the total votes cast, they are headed for a runoff election on Nov. 5.
“We just talked to people. We gave people confidence,” Nichols said. “And the vision that we granted for the city gave people confidence in the plans that we had for the city. I think we just gave people confidence in the future.”
Nichols said he and his supporters would begin work immediately to win the runoff election.
“Karen was the front runner; Karen had the most money, all of those things,” Nichols said. “But we decided to talk to the people. … That was the difference-maker.”
Keith Focuses on Bipartisan Approach
“I think that’s critical to winning in November, and I think we’ll be able to distinguish ourselves from the other candidate,” Keith said. “If people truly take a look at resumes and what people have done, there’s a huge difference. And I think that’s going to be clear to everyone. My hope is that the left and the right take a look at who can actually do the work and move the city forward.”
VanNorman Proud of Campaign Team
VanNorman said he was proud of his campaign team and everyone who contributed in some way to his race.
“We did, we worked hard. We left it on the field, and at the end of the day, we were probably a week short of being able to overtake the second place finisher there,” VanNorman said. “So I just think I’m proud of all our volunteers.”
Speaking late Tuesday, VanNorman said his team would examine the results to determine whether to challenge them but indicated that was unlikely.
“I don’t perceive we’ll challenge anything, but we’re going to give it overnight to look at it,” he said.
A Look at the Candidates
Nichols, 40, represented House District 72 for four terms. He’s also worked for former Mayor Kathy Taylor and at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa for former President Gerard Clancy.
During the campaign, Nichols ran as an agent of change with concrete plans to address the city’s major challenges, including a housing shortage, homelessness and the sometimes complicated relations with area tribes.
“I think voters saw that we had plans for how we are going to address the biggest problems facing Tulsa,” Nichols said. “It wasn’t about how long people know somebody. … It was who has the ability to lead.”
Keith, 70, was a longtime television newscaster before going to work for former Mayor Bill LaFortune and the Tulsa Regional Chamber. She has represented District 2 on the Tulsa County Board of Commissioners since 2008.
VanNorman is an accountant, lawyer and former pastor who moved to Tulsa in August 2021.
The other candidates to actively campaign for mayor were Casey Bradford and John Jolley, neither of whom broke 2% of the vote.
A Democratic Victory
The city’s municipal elections are nonpartisan, but it’s fair to say that Tuesday’s mayoral election was a good one for Democrats. VanNorman is a life-long Republican who played up his conservative Christian credentials throughout the campaign. But it was Keith and Nichols, life-long Democrats, who finished the day with the vast majority of votes.
Abysmal Turnout
Turnout was abysmal. Only 56,585 of the city’s 219,897 registered voters, or 26%, cast ballots Tuesday.
Only 710 votes separated Nichols and VanNorman, and just 438 votes separated Keith from VanNorman.
You'll find up-to-the-minute results for the runoff elections in Oklahoma here, updated frequently.
Electioneering Issues
Tulsa County Election Board Secretary Gwen Freeman said Tuesday’s vote went smoothly except for the growing problem of electioneering at polling places.
State law prohibits persons from campaigning within 300 feet of the entrance of a polling station.
Freeman said her office received calls from more than 30 polling places about people campaigning where they weren’t supposed to.
“It seems like every election that we have, it increases a little bit,” Freeman said. “It seems like it's becoming more of a persistent problem.”
The race for Tulsa mayor is now down to two candidates, and the focus shifts to the runoff election in November. Both Nichols and Keith have their work cut out for them as they seek to secure the support of voters and ultimately claim the city's top spot.
