Note: The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
On Aug. 27, Tulsans will vote for their next mayor. The three highest-polling candidates are Karen Keith, Brent VanNorman, and Monroe Nichols. Public Radio Tulsa is interviewing all three candidates ahead of the vote.
Nichols is a state representative for parts of midtown, downtown, west and north Tulsa, and is the director of policy and partnerships for the organization StriveTogether. We spoke with Nichols to discuss what he wants to accomplish as mayor and address questions that have come up in his campaign.
Max Bryan: Why did you decide to run for mayor?
Monroe Nichols: I think being mayor is where you can have the greatest impact on the community, from how we’re protecting communities to how we’re educating kids in school, to how we’re coming together to improve our economy, and really our long-term economic viability. Those things all originate and can really be made better by a strong mayor who’s interested in moving the community forward.
It’s a unique job in the world of elected politics, but it really is about community building. And that’s what I’ve done my entire career, so I’m really excited about it.
MB: Just briefly, can you touch on some things that you’d like to accomplish as mayor?
MN: We’ve been clear since I kicked off the campaign in July of 2023. This campaign has been clear from the start about getting elected so we can end homelessness by 2030, we can improve student outcomes by redefining the mayor’s role in education, really thinking about economic expansion through strengthening our workforce, and making Tulsa the safest big city in the country.
We’ve talked about these issues from the start, we’ve released plans around those, [we’re] prepared to get in the mayor’s office and do just what I just described.
MB: On your campaign, you’ve brought up several new initiatives like the office of children and families and appointing the director of tribal policy and partnerships. Other proposed initiatives having to do with equity have stalled in city government. So how do you plan to get these things across the finish line?
MN: I think equity is certainly at the center of some of that, but the fact is, if we don’t do those things well, we as a community overall won’t make any progress. So some of those things have stalled — I think it’s maybe lack of experience in those spaces, maybe in the mayor’s office. I think some of it is also the fact that these things are hard to do — you can lose focus. But I started my career in the mayor’s office; we did some really difficult things back in those days. I’ve been at OU Tulsa as chief of staff for the president, founded nonprofit Impact Tulsa, and have been in the Legislature now. So that well-rounded experience — bringing that in to understand what leverage do you pull to do these things — I think is going to be the difference maker in those past stalled initiatives, and just really being a vision of how we’re going to govern here in Tulsa moving forward.
MB: You’ve been an outspoken critic of State Superintendent Ryan Walters. Walters has begun praising Tulsa Public Schools after threatening the district’s accreditation last year. Do you plan to keep speaking out against Walters as mayor, even with the progress TPS has made with him?
MN: Absolutely. I’m the only person in this campaign that’s ever spoke out against Ryan Walters at all. I think the success at TPS is more to do with Dr. [Ebony] Johnson, the board of education, the educators in our schools, than it does with Ryan Walters. The State Department of Education has done nothing in the way to support Tulsa Public Schools since they’ve threatened to take it over. And if you remember, Ryan Walters didn’t want Ebony Johnson to have the job in the beginning, so I’m not sure he has a sense of what it takes to improve a district. I do think we have some folks here that do.
Even since TPS has been on this track of making those improvements, what have we heard from Ryan Walters? He wants the Bible as mandated teaching in schools. He is now saying everybody now wants all of these dangerous things in our school systems. He has not done anything to talk about improving education — in fact, we’re 49th or 50th in the country, which goes to show the effectiveness of that department.
And so as he continues to be someone who kind of throws out these weird conspiracy theories and really impacting education here in a negative way, I’ll continue to speak out against him. My Republican colleagues in the House are now doing the very same thing. Ryan Walters is a problem for the state of Oklahoma, and it’s not just Democrats who think it — everybody in the Legislature is starting to get there, and I just happen to be one of his chief critics from the start.
MB: At the mayoral debate earlier this month, your voting record in the Legislature came into question, specifically when it came to a bill that secured money for the Tulsa area’s levee system. In light of this, what assurances can you give Tulsans about seeing projects you would take on as mayor through to the end?
MN: That’s a great question. So, the levee bill came up on a day that required me to be in my office at the Capitol. I think what voters can be very comfortable with [is], the day before at the budget committee, which I’ve served on for six years, we got it out. The next day, we had worked enough on that bill that it passed 87-0. So not only did we do the work to get that stuff pulled together, we also did the work to make sure that it passed.
The fact is, my name is on that bill. My name is on that bill because I believe in it. West Tulsa is kind of newly part of House District 72, and in the first two years that I’ve represented that side of town, I was able to secure $50 million to protect properties and homes in that part of the community. And so it wasn’t to do it so you can hold a press conference.
Mayors have to walk and chew gum at the same time, and that day, I was walking and chewing gum. And so while I missed the floor vote, I made sure it got out of committee, certainly made sure my colleagues in the House understood how important it was to Tulsa, and certainly helped secure the $50 million on an 87-0 vote.
