Wednesday, June 12, marked the end of the filing period for Tulsa mayor and city council hopefuls.   The City of Tulsa candidate race is non-partisan (requiring no primary races) with the first election date being August 27, and if a runoff election is needed it will be held on November 5, 2024.

This is a list the candidates and a brief introduction to them.

The mayoral race collected the most candidates at seven.  Current Tulsa Mayor G. T. Bynum will not be running for re-election making this an open seat.

  • Casey Bradford, 32, served in the Army as a Mandarin Chinese linguist and upon leaving the military opened the Shady Keys Dueling Piano Bar in 2019.
  • Kaleb Hoosier, 34, is a businessman with skills in business administration, management and finance.
  • John Jolley, 62, owner of Big Guys, Inc., who also graduated from the University of Tulsa in petroleum engineering.
  • Karen Keith, 70, is currently a Tulsa County Commissioner for District 2. She was first elected in 2008 and is in her fouth term. Before entering politics she was in tv news broadcaster.
  • Monroe Nichols, 40, has served as the state representative for District 72 since 2016.  He was involved in the founding of Impact Tulsa, and  holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics from the University of Tulsa and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma.
  • Paul Tay, 61, is a perennial candidate
  • . Brent L. VanNorman, 64, is a CPA, an attorney, President of TriLinc and a former pastor.

District 1 Tulsa City Council race has two candidates with Vanessa Hall-Harper, 52 being the incumbent since 2016. Her opponent is Angela K. Chambers, 53, who co-owns the WFPG radio station (The Greenwood Beat.)

Council District 2 drew five candidates in an open seat vacated by Jeannie Cue as she is running for the open Tulsa County District 2 County Commissioner.

  • Anthony Archie, 36, is a geography and science teacher in Tulsa Public Schools. He is an ORU seminary graduate and also a minister at the Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian church. He is married with three children. He and his wife own and operate a small business, Oklahoma Toffee Company.
  • Aaron L. Bisogno, 37, a loan specialist who ran against Cue for this seat in 2016 and in 2022.
  • W.R. Casey Jr., 58
  • Stephanie Reisdorph, 37, is a mental health therapist.
  • Rhene D. Ritter, 54, has worked for the City of Tulsa in economic development, finance, and grant management.

In Tulsa Council District 3 Christa Patrick the current councilor has elected to not run for re-election.   Jackie Dutton, 64, is the owner of Mad Dog Liquor and listed on the Tulsa Democrat party website.

Susan Frederick, 62

Laura Bellis, 35 is the incumbent in the District 4 race. She is a community health access strategist and organizer.

She will face off with Aaron Griffith, 49.

Grant Miller is the incumbent in Council District 5, he is not running for re-election.  Alicia Andrews, 57 and Karen Gilbert, 55 will compete in the August 27 election.

Alicia Andrews is the chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party, while Karen Gilbert is a former city councilor for District 5 from 2011-2018.

Christian Bengel is the incumbent in District 6 having won the last election in 2022.  He will face Uriah Davis in the August election, who has a Masters in Global Studies and works at Chase Travel.  Bengel is an Army Vet, who has worked for the City of Tulsa, and Verizon and currently works for a national technology company.

In District 7, Lori Dector Wright, 49, is an incumbent first elected in 2018.  She appears on the Tulsa County Democrat election page, and has worked at a variety of jobs as an opera singer, Director of Education and Membership for the National Sweet Adelines, and was the Executive Director of Kendall Whittier Incorporated, a non-profit until 2023.

She has drawn two opponents in this race:  Eddie Huff, 72, and Margie Alfonso, 89.

Huff is a self-employed financial services expert, and a former regular on the “Pat Campbell Show” on KFAQ.  Alfonso has run for several elected positions in the past.  She ran for OK House District 79 in 2020, and for Tulsa County Commissioner District 3 in 2022.

Chris Cone, 38 will be competing with Incumbent Phil Lakin, 56 for the District 8 Council seat.

Cone is a Financial Advisor for DP Financial & Tax, lnc., while Lakin has been a council member since being elected in 2011.   He has been  C.E.O. of the Tulsa Community Foundation (TCF) since 1999.

There are five candidates for the Council District 9 seat.  Incumbent Jayme Fowler, 65 is running for the District 9 seat for a third term.  Fowler is Managing Partner at Oak Creek Private Wealth.  Earlier he had announced for entering the Mayor’s race, but later withdrew his bid and never filed for mayor, instead he filed to continue his bid to remain the Councilor for District 9.

Carol Bush, 63, is a former State House Representative of District 70 in Tulsa from 2016 to 2022. For 17 years she owned and operated several retail stores, and has served as executive director of the Tulsa Crime Prevention Network.

Lee Ann Crosby, 40, ran against Jayme Fowler in 2020 and 2022, losing both times.

Julie Dunbar, 54, is a Licensed Mental Health Therapist, and public speaker married to former City Councilor Todd Houston.

Matthew Nelson, 39, is the owner of Alvin Stone, Inc., a family business since 1999.

The City Auditor had only one filing by Nathan Pickard, 41, and will not have a vote, since he is elected due to no opposition.