Brent VanNorman to join Karen Keith's transition team if she wins Tulsa mayor election (2025)

Former Republican mayoral candidate Brent VanNorman, whose supporters will play a key role in determining who leads the city over the next four years, said he would accept a position on Democrat Karen Keith’s transition team should she win the Nov. 5 runoff election.

VanNorman confirmed that news Sunday night after he and Keith posted separate Facebook messages that seemed to indicate as much.

“Yes, if Karen is elected, I will accept her offer to serve on her transition team,” VanNorman told the Tulsa World.

In her two-paragraph post, Keith said she has gotten to know VanNorman during the campaign and that he not only brings expertise in finance and business “but shares my collaborative vision for making Tulsa a better city to live, work and raise a family.”

“This is a nonpartisan election and the challenges we face from homelessness and public safety to permitting and business development affect our entire community, regardless of party affiliation” Keith wrote. “If I am fortunate to be elected Nov. 5, in the name of unity, I would welcome Brent to join my bipartisan transition team to work alongside Democrats, other Republicans and Independents to ensure a city government that will work for all Tulsans.”

Keith confirmed the offer Sunday night and reiterated that it was for a position on her transition team, not in her administration.

In his post, VanNorman said that while he was disappointed not to be in the runoff election, he was grateful for the opportunity to potentially still have the opportunity “to serve the good people of Tulsa.”

“I thank Karen Keith for reaching across the aisle for this offer,” VanNorman said.

Keith faces fellow Democrat Monroe Nichols in the Nov. 5 runoff election for mayor. Both are working to court Republican voters after Keith narrowly edged out VanNorman in the Aug. 27 general election.

Only 731 votes separated Nichols and VanNorman, and only 437 separated Keith and VanNorman.

VanNorman, who has lived full time in Tulsa less than four years, ran a particularly strong campaign emphasizing his conservative Republican credentials as a businessman, attorney and devout Christian.

“My opponents on this stage tonight are both liberal Democrats. They’re great people; they’re wonderful to be around. They’re well intended, but their policies will lead us toward being the next Seattle, the next Portland, the next Minneapolis or the next San Francisco,” VanNorman said in a forum at Cain’s Ballroom in August. “I’m different from that.”

VanNorman has said previously that he does not intend to endorse either Nichols or Keith.

A recent picture of Keith and VanNorman having lunch stirred up all kinds of speculation on social media. But VanNorman said Sunday the topic of his joining Keith’s transition team never came up that day.

“The offer came recently and was not extended at our lunch meeting,” VanNorman said.

Monroe Nichols and Karen Keith will appear on stage to take questions from journalists Tuesday night

The two people who want to be Tulsa’s next mayor and those running for the last open City Council seats will come together Tuesday to meet voters and answer their questions.

The free in-person event is sponsored by the Tulsa World, the University of Tulsa, the Tulsa Press Club and the Tulsa Voter Coalition.

The event starts at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Lorton Performance Center on the TU campus, 550 S. Gary Place. From 5:30 to 6:30, each candidate will be available to talk with voters at tables set up in the lobby of the center.

The City Council candidates include District 2’s Anthony Archie and Stephanie Reisdorph, District 7’s incumbent Lori Decter Wright and Eddie Huff, and District 9’s incumbent Jayme Fowler and former state Rep. Carol Bush.

At 7 p.m., mayoral candidates Monroe Nichols and Karen Keith will appear on stage to take questions from Tulsa World staff writer Kevin Canfield, Editorials Editor Ginnie Graham and Oklahoma Eagle Managing Editor Gary Lee.

The forum will be recorded and air the next day on Public Radio 89.5 KWGS, a listener-supported service of TU, and on publicradiotulsa.org.