The Black Chronicle Endorses David Holt for Mayor of OKC

OKLAHOMA CITY — Seems like every time you turn around, there’s Mayor David Holt. The man is everywhere.
He’s out doing ribbon cuttings and all kinds of other things you would expect to see a mayor doing, but he’s also cutting his own path in this city, this state and this nation with his unique approach to leadership. And he has raised Oklahoma City’s profile, both for the rest of the nation and for the citizens of this city, inspiring hometown pride every time he is handed a microphone.
He’s on the local news, celebrating a city art installation. He visits a local neighborhood ministry thanking them for providing a food pantry and other services to the community.
He not only marched in the Dr. Martin Luther King Day Parade, but he spoke that Sunday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, and then was awarded the Clara Shepard Luper Community Service Award at the Prayer Breakfast in Midwest City.
“Mayor Holt has led with an inclusive ‘One OKC’ philosophy that has fully welcomed the city’s diverse communities into OKC’s renaissance,” reads the writeup explaining why Holt was chosen for the award named for Oklahoma City’s iconic Civil Rights leader. “He has worked to ensure that investments from initiatives like MAPS 4 equitably impact parts of the city like Northeast OKC. And he has elevated the city’s civil rights story like never before, led by his inclusion of the Clara Luper Civil Rights Center in MAPS 4.”
During the recent blizzard, he posted a video of himself, bundled up in a thick coat, doing a ride-along with Brandon the snowplow driver, posting a video telling people where to find a map of city snow routes.
Turn on the television, there he is again – on a nationwide broadcast, bragging on our NBA Championship team, the OKC Thunder. Or bragging on Oklahoma City hosting Olympic games in 2028.
Holt was elected to serve as the President of the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) for the 2025-2026 term, installed on June 22, 2025. In this role, he represents the entire nation’s mayors, advocating for city policies and presiding over meetings.
In August, he penned an essay that was printed by the New York Times defending diversity, equity and inclusion policies, even as the federal government – and his fellow Republicans – did their best to remove every vestige of the policy not just from government entities, but from educational and private institutions as well. He got a lot of heat from members of his political party for that.
In September, he issued the “Oklahoma City Declaration” denouncing political violence, noting the Murrah Building bombing as a scar in downtown Oklahoma City which “reminds us of the traumatic and tragic outcomes of political violence.”
“We are humans first, Americans second, and partisans last,” reads the declaration.
After two protestors were killed in Minneapolis by ICE agents, Holt led the Conference of Mayors in calling on national leaders to deescalate the situation in Minnesota.
He was recently seen out helping collect signatures for State Question 836, which would open up Oklahoma’s primaries to all voters regardless of political affiliation. The Oklahoma City Mayor’s race is nonpartisan, Holt has noted on several occasions, and thus the candidates for the office have to focus more on the needs and desires of all residents, rather than simply touting the party platform.
“I would argue there’ still 70% of us in the middle who just want to work together we’ve got to get things done,” Holt said during a recent interview on the podcast Rapid Response. “I can’t settle for this partisan nonsense and bickering.”
Holt has been Mayor of Oklahoma City for eight years now, overseeing a staggering amount of change. Multi-million-dollar city projects have been completed without a snag. The city’s population is higher than ever before, making OKC, for the first time in history, the 20th-largest city in the United States. This is no longer flyover country: the eyes of the nation are upon us with increasing regularity these days. It’s nice to see someone representing us well, someone who is serious about getting their job done and doing it well.
We, at The Black Chronicle, can think of no better ambassador for our city, and no one better suited to take the wheel, guiding our city into what promises to be a glorious future. We wholeheartedly endorse David Holt to continue in his role as Mayor of Oklahoma City.