OKLAHOMA CITY – David Holt was sworn in for a third term as Mayor of Oklahoma City in a small ceremonial event Tuesday in the Mayor’s Office at City Hall.
Holt won re-election to the office in a landslide victory February 10th, taking over 86% of votes casts and making him the fifth OKC Mayor elected to a third term.
Tuesday’s ceremonial oath was administered by students Grayson Petty of Putnam City North High School and Thomas Suarez of Mount St. Mary High School, both members of Mayor Holt’s 2025-26 Youth Council.
Before taking the oath, Holt gave remarks in a video address in which he highlighted the city’s economic and political diversity, touted major upcoming City projects – including the Clara Luper Civil Rights Center, the new Animal Welfare Center, events of the 2028 Olympics, the billion-dollar new downtown arena, and the $2.7 billion GO bond projects – and reaffirmed a new commitment to improved public transit.
Holt will also take a formal oath of office with Oklahoma City Clerk Amy Simpson.
Read Mayor Holt’s Third Inaugural remarks in full below:
Hello, I’m David Holt, the Mayor of Oklahoma City, and I’m speaking to you from the Mayor’s Office, on the third floor of City Hall, in the heart of our championship city.
Twenty years and three months ago, I first walked into this office to become Mayor Mick Cornett’s chief of staff, and I served in that capacity for almost five years. Those five years gave me a deep appreciation for city government generally, and our government specifically. I truly believed and do believe that no government in America is more visionary and effective than the one operating in this City Hall at 200 N. Walker.
For the next eight years, I served in the Oklahoma Senate, and in 2018, the people of Oklahoma City saw fit to return me to this office, but this time, as the Mayor. Little did we know what challenges and opportunities would lie ahead, but in many ways, the last eight years have been transformational for our city. And we have faced the challenges and seized those opportunities together, as one OKC.
Only four of our previous mayors in our 137-year history had served a third term, but continuity has been critical to our city’s modern renaissance. We have had only two mayors since 2004, only four elected mayors since 1987. And so, in February, I asked for four more years, and the people of Oklahoma City delivered a historic vote of support – 86.5 percent. We proved once again to ourselves and to the nation that even in a diverse city that is 50-50 on national politics, that we can work together as Republicans, Democrats and Independents to get things done.
And so today begins the next four years. In a few moments, I will take my oath of office. The next four years in Oklahoma City will be remarkable. I have said before that all we do is win in OKC, and we will enjoy the fruits of those victories over the next four years.
We will open MAPS 4 projects like the animal shelter, the Clara Luper Civil Rights Center, the Diversion Hub, Palomar, our entrepreneurship center, our mental health crisis center, our multipurpose stadium, our youth centers and youth soccer facilities, and much more.
In the next four years, we will open our billion-dollar arena, which will be among the finest on the planet, and will make a statement to the world about our aspirations as a city.
And speaking of the world, we will welcome that world to OKC as we host two sports and seven events of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, an opportunity without precedent that will once again change the way we see ourselves and the way the world sees us.
And we will begin in earnest the implementation of our $2.7 billion investment in core infrastructure approved by the voters last fall.
During my tenure as mayor, we as voters have approved five billion dollars worth of investments in our city’s quality of life and core infrastructure. We’ll cut the ribbon on more than half of that in the next four years.
I thank the members of the City Council, the City Manager and our city staff, and you, the voters and taxpayers, for this success. And I’m honored that I get to spend the next four years continuing this work with you.
The next four years will not just be about cutting ribbons. This renaissance in our city began with a bold vision – the passage of MAPS in 1993. And it has been sustained because each bold vision has led to the next. In the next four years we will seek to make a new commitment to public transit. That is the most important thing we can do to answer the population growth that has emerged as the natural result of our success. When I was born, we were the 37th-largest city. When I took office as Mayor, we were the 27th-largest city. Now we are the 20th-largest city, and this continuous growth means that we will have to invest in transportation.
Over the next four years, we will also continue our work on other core city services. We will begin deployment of over $1.3 billion in improvements to city streets, the largest commitment in city history. We will continue our support of public safety – police and fire – and we will continue our work to address other challenges of growth, like homelessness, where our efforts have reduced unsheltered homelessness four years in a row.
And we have every reason to believe that our economy will continue to thrive and diversify, because we have learned that nothing inspires economic growth like investing in ourselves. And no city invests in itself like OKC.
We are building a city full of opportunity for future generations. And ultimately, we are building this city for our kids. That’s one of the reasons why when I took office eight years ago that I decorated my conference room here with the images of Oklahoma City’s kids. And so it is fitting that on this third inauguration day, it is the next generation that will administer my oath of office for my third term as Mayor of Oklahoma City.
The Youth Council is a program managed by Leadership Oklahoma City that gives OKC high school students the opportunity to engage for a year with our city government and its elected officials. My two youth councilmembers this year have been Grayson Petty of Putnam City North High School and Thomas Suarez of Mount St. Mary High School. Grayson and Thomas will administer my oath today. And also joining me is my wife Rachel. Without her and our kids, George and Maggie, none of this would be possible.
Thank you, the people of Oklahoma City, for bestowing upon me this trust. It is the greatest honor of my life to serve as your mayor. Now, let’s begin another four years together.
Brett Fieldcamp is the owner and Editor in Chief of Oklahoma City Free Press. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly two decades and served as Arts & Entertainment Editor before purchasing the company from founder Brett Dickerson in 2026.
He is also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
