Last Updated on February 11, 2023, 1:49 PM | Published: February 11, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY — A recent mailer sent by an OKC City Council incumbent showing an endorsement by Mayor David Holt prompted a round of questions on social media Friday.
And, that mailer raised questions about whether Holt actually does endorsements and, if so, for whom?
Questions on social media
One photo circulating on Twitter showed a campaign card for OKC City Council Ward 8 incumbent Mark Stonecipher with a quote from and photo of Holt.
Amy Warne, @AmyEchos on Twitter, and Frank Urbanic are challenging Stonecipher for the Ward 8 seat.
That photo prompted questions and comments about Holt and endorsements.
Mayor responds to our questions
Free Press contacted Holt later Friday asking if he had, in fact, endorsed Stonecipher.
We also asked if he regularly gives endorsements since some have been under the impression that he would not.
Holt said that he does give endorsements to encumbents when they ask for one.
“I have not endorsed in open Council races, but I consider it fairly routine to endorse incumbents if they ask,” Holt said in a message.
Holt values incumbency
“I definitely view incumbency as important,” Holt said. “Perhaps that is old-fashioned of me. From time to time, someone has occasionally expressed offense that I would endorse an incumbent I’ve known and worked with for years, and I’ve always found that odd.”
Holt said that he believes that the challenger to an incumbent “has the burden of proof to demonstrate why an incumbent should be removed.”
Record of endorsements
The mayor pointed out that this is his third Council election since he took office and that he has made endorsements of incumbents in each one.
“So actually, since I took office, there have been six instances where an incumbent Councilmember has been on the ballot,” Holt said. “Four of those six have requested my endorsements and I have said yes in all four instances.”
Holt listed these incumbent councilmembers who requested and received his endorsement:
- Mark Stonecipher, Ward 8, 2019
- Todd Stone, Ward 4, 2021
- James Cooper, Ward 2, 2023
- Mark Stonecipher, Ward 8, 2023
JoBeth Hamon, the incumbent in Ward 6, is running for re-election this cycle. And, Hamon’s name is obvious by its absence from the 2023 election list of endorsements.
We contacted both Cooper and Hamon asking if they had requested Holt’s endorsement.
Cooper confirmed that he asked for Holt’s endorsement.
But, Hamon told Free Press by message, “No, we’ve not spoken about the election.”
Stonecipher endorsement
Holt volunteered to give his reasoning on endorsing Stonecipher since that was what prompted the questions.
“In Councilman Stonecipher’s case, we have voted the same way 95 percent of the time,” said Holt. “We disagreed on his proposal for the recent homelessness ordinance, but that’s literally one moment out of thousands.”
Stonecipher drew animated opposition on social media and then, in live comments during a City Council meeting mostly from progressives.
Stonecipher’s measure was designed to clear homeless camps and clamp down on certain behaviors of people experiencing homelessness.
But, Holt did not support the proposal and neither did several others on the Council. In the course of the meeting, Stonecipher withdrew his proposal.
Holt credited Stonecipher for being “the sole reason we had a mask ordinance,” passed 6-3 in July 2020. The mayor credited the mask ordinance for saving “nearly 1,000 lives in the OKC metro.”
The mask ordinance created a backlash against both Holt and Stonecipher from among the metro’s many hard-core Trump supporters who believed that masks during the pandemic were politically “performative” and intended to hurt then President Donald Trump’s chances at re-election.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
