Jayme Fowler announced his candidacy for Tulsa mayor on Tuesday morning, becoming the first member of the city's municipal government to join the race.
For the past three years, Fowler has represented District 9 on Tulsa City Council, which includes Brookside, the Gathering Place, the northern half of the 61st and Peoria neighborhood and the Saint Francis area. He's a managing partner at Oak Creek Private Wealth and previously served as president of the Memorial High School Endowment.
As a councilor, Fowler has championed Tulsa police and fire and economic opportunity zones in the city, according to his news release. He has recently pushed for an ordinance to reduce the number of stray shopping carts in Tulsa.
If elected mayor, Fowler said he’d want to improve Tulsa Public Schools, grow the city, address homelessness and make Tulsa safer.
In reference to TPS — which has become a discussion point among several councilors over the past two months — Fowler said he’d look at consolidating the district’s facilities, citing fewer students than in decades past. He also wants to bring in thought leaders from "all four corners" of Tulsa with an unemotional approach to share ideas for improvement in the district.
"Not only that — every school aside from Washington is over 60 years old. So we could probably use three or four brand new vibrant high schools. I think that’s something we probably need to take a look at," he said.
Fowler said his heart goes out to TPS Superintendent Deborah Gist, who is stepping down from her position to shield the district from state control. He said he would push for respect and decorum when discussing education in Tulsa, which he said was lacking before Gist announced her departure.
Fowler says his push for mayor is decades in the making — he first aspired for the position when he was 26 and living in Atlanta. He said it was on a list he made of 100 things he wanted to accomplish in his life.
With this in mind, he called his run for mayor "unbelievable."
"I believe the best formula to put our city on a fast track to economic prosperity is with a proven free-market thinker who can work with diverse parties to get things done. I want to bring a unique skill set to the Mayor’s office that puts proven business principles to work for Tulsans. Together, it’s time we reimagine our city’s full potential with a business-minded approach to local government,” Fowler said in his news release.
Fowler joins the mayor's race with state Rep. Monroe Nichols and county commissioner Karen Keith. He is the first Republican in the race for the nonpartisan position.
