Oklahoma City’s next mayor is an OCU alumnus making history.
David Holt got 78.5 percent of the vote in the Feb. 13 election for mayor, while Candidates Taylor Neighbors and Randall Smith split the rest of the votes. Holt will be sworn in April 10.
“I’m just very grateful to the people of Oklahoma City,” Holt said. “It’s the greatest honor of my life to be the mayor of my hometown.”
Holt will become Oklahoma City’s first new mayor in 14 years, following Mick Cornett. He also will be the city’s first American Indian mayor, the city’s youngest mayor in more than a century and the nation’s youngest mayor of a city with more than 500,000 people.
Holt has a law degree from the OCU School of Law. He attended three-hour night classes at OCU, four nights a week for three and a half years before graduating in 2009 with a juris doctor.
“I’m proud of my OCU degree. OCU has been very supportive of my career, and I’m proud that they take pride in me,” Holt said.
Holt said he feels tied to the university. He taught a class on policy in 2012 with President Robert Henry, who he said has always been a friend and supporter.
“I wish I could do it every semester. It was a blast,” Holt said. “Robert Henry has been a friend throughout this adventure that I’ve been on.”
In an email statement to Student Publications, Henry wrote that Holt is “bright, innovative and creative.”
“I think he will be a mayor in the tradition of the Norick family that has provided two great mayors of Oklahoma City-both lovers of OCU as well,” he wrote.
Jim Norick served as mayor in 1959 and 1967. Ron Norick, his son and chairman of the board of trustees, was mayor in 1987. Henry bought Jim Norick’s cufflinks at an estate sale and gave them to Holt in 2015.
“He said he was giving them to me because he wanted me to be mayor some day,” Holt said. “I’ve had them ever since, and I never wore them until Tuesday on election day.”
Holt is an attorney and a Republican State senator for Oklahoma’s 30th district. He will resign from the Senate before being sworn in as mayor. Holt said he’s proud of serving as a senator and staying focused on improving life in Oklahoma.
“A lot of the headlines out of the legislature are goofy things that are not helping our state be a better place, and I always try to stay focused on things that I sincerely felt—and I think others would’ve felt—made the daily lives of Oklahomans better,” he said.
Holt said he has always been open to compromise, which may have helped him win the mayoral election.
“I ended up getting 80 percent of the vote. I mean, who gets 80 percent of the vote? But it’s because I embraced the idea that partisanship is holding us back,” Holt said.
David Hall, sociology/music education junior, said he was concerned with Holt’s membership to the American Legislative Exchange Council, an “organization of state legislators dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism,” according to alec.org.
“However, there was no better candidate when you look at experience and ability to truly make a difference in changing the face of Oklahoma City—there’s no way around that fact,” Hall said.
Hall said the mayor in Oklahoma City has the same power as city councilors, so special interest ties wouldn’t affect the city.
“Considering he did not have to have tons of work put in to win, he has virtually no extra power, and we, as a city, now only need 6,498 signatures to create the city, schools and structure we want for the next four years through initiative petition,” he said. “I do not think the special interest groups are something to worry about anymore.”
Holt will replace Cornett, Oklahoma City’s longest-serving mayor. He said it would be easier to follow an unpopular, failed mayor, but is confident that he can keep moving the city forward.
“I think the people of Oklahoma City want to see the momentum continue, and so I think we’ll all work together and it will be successful,” he said.
Holt said the city is going in the right direction and he wants to keep it that way. He campaigned on improving infrastructure, investing in police and fire protection, and promoting job growth. He said he wants the diversity of Oklahomans to be represented.
“The diversity of the city is not really accounted for in our leadership and our decision-making process,” he said. “The city is changing. The city has become more diverse and the decision-making process needs to account for that.”
Holt said he wants to make sure OCU’s graduating students can enter a good job market without having to leave.
“We would love for them to use that great education here in Oklahoma City and so we want to make sure we have a job environment for them,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re meeting their needs, and so we also have to talk to them and ask them. It’s not enough for us to assume we know what a 21-year-old wants.”
Since the city and the university share a name, they are tied for eternity, Holt said. He said he wants the city to have a quality of life students enjoy and to “make OCU the highlighted institution in our community that I think it should be.”
“I feel the obligation to take responsibility for this community’s future. OCU is a big part of that. I value the students that we have at that institution,” Holt said. “I hope that, whether they’re here for four years or lifetime, they feel a part of Oklahoma City, and I hope they feel that the door is open to the mayor’s office for them.”
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