Democrats Crash The Party

Tulsa's Mayoral Race

On Tuesday night, a remarkable thing happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In the race for mayor, two Democrats, neither of whom finished with a majority of the votes, will be on the ballot in the Fall.

Let me repeat that.

Two Democrats in Tulsa, which, let’s remember is in Oklahoma, will run against each other to become the mayor of the state’s second largest city. Karen Keith, a 70-year-old white woman, and Monroe Nichols, a 40-year-old black man, beat Brent VanNorman, a Republican businessman . . . in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

This may just be a local story.

Unless it’s not.

We are a state which gave Trump 65 percent of the vote in both 2016 and 2020. He also carried Tulsa County both times her ran, in 2020 by 16 percent over Joe Biden, and in 2016 by 23 percent over Hillary Clinton. The city of Tulsa has a different DNA than the county — we are more progressive and have a higher percentage of Democrats — but we have also had Republican mayors for the last 16 years, and 20 out of the last 22. We, here in Tulsa, may not be the brightest shade of red in Oklahoma but the hue is plenty recognizable.

Come November, that will change.

In what was supposed to be a nonpartisan election — and which candidates belonged to which party was the worst-kept secret in town — Keith, a Tulsa county commissioner, and Nichols, a representative in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, defeated eight candidates, including Brent VanNorman, a transplanted Michigander, a Republican, who, along the way, made no secret of his party affiliation or his belief in what it takes to serve in government.

Brent VanNorman is a conservative businessman who is running for mayor in Tulsa, Oklahoma. On Sunday, he made an appearance at right-wing Christian nationalist MAGA pastor Jackson Lahmeyer’s church, where he declared that “we need to get back” to requiring elected officials to be Christian. VanNorman opened his remarks by saying that Proverbs 14‘s “righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” is one of his favorite Bible verses. After declaring that “righteousness [also] exalts a city,” VanNorman then cited Proverbs 29 to declare that “when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.” As such, VanNorman then proclaimed, “my number one qualification for being mayor of Tulsa is that I am an unashamed follower of Jesus.”

VanNorman tried to walk back those comments by admitting that if he had do it over again, he wouldn’t have said the Christian Nationalist parts out loud — or, more precisely, not as loudly.

“No, no, no, no. My point would be that I think people that are informed by Christian values make good public servants and they have a servant’s heart.”

Yeah. Much better.

Remarkably, Nichols and Keith received a combined 37,186 votes to VanNorman’s 18,457, meaning, unless Keith pulled from Republicans (I doubt Nichols did), Democrats seemed more enthusiastic about this election than Republicans. If I had to guess right now, I’d say Keith, with whom I’m friends (and who’s much more centrist than Nichols), picks up the majority of VanNorman’s support and becomes the next mayor. On the other hand, almost nobody had Nichols finishing first.

What’s key here, certainly refreshing, is that come November, on the ballot, will be Donald Trump, a convicted felon and a Republican, and First District Congressman Kevin Hern, who voted against certifying the election in 2020 and a Republican — and two Democratic candidates for Tulsa mayor.

That ain’t nothing.