Tulsa mayoral candidates Karen Keith and Monroe Nichols are seeking to set themselves apart as the Nov. 5 runoff approaches.

The two Democrats share similar policy goals: tackling homelessness, expanding affordable housing, boosting economic development, addressing racial disparities, and improving police-community relations. Both have also pledged to be nonpartisan and say they may include Republicans in their administrations.

Both candidates have had conversations with Republican Brent VanNorman, who finished third in the August mayoral election. VanNorman will join Keith’s transition team if she wins, The Tulsa World reported. Nichols, meanwhile, said in an interview with The Frontier that he had discussed a potential finance-related role with VanNorman.

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“We were talking about his background in business and thinking about how we may resource things at the city,” Nichols said. “But there was never a time we made any promises or any commitment around a transition team or anything like that.”

The candidates met with voters and took questions from a panel at a forum on Tuesday at the University of Tulsa, where their differences in backgrounds and rhetoric became more clear. 

Keith, a longtime Tulsa County Commissioner, highlighted her relationships with city developers and her ability to “cut red tape.” 

“When I worked for Mayor LaFortune, everyone was talking about how the permitting and inspections department was running developers off,” Keith said. “I’ve been working with these developers, so I’m uniquely positioned to get that fixed.”

She said these ties are crucial to boost affordable housing, economic activity, and the city’s sales tax revenue. Keith also stressed she has no plans to seek higher office if she is elected as mayor and criticized Nichols for missing votes in his current job as a state legislator representing north Tulsa.

Nichols, in contrast, presents himself as a nonpartisan innovator. 

“I’m hesitant to politicize the campaign. It really is going to be about how do we get things excellent at the city,” he said. “I’m very determined not to just tell people why they shouldn’t vote for somebody else, but give them reason to vote for me.” 

Nichols proposes building 6,400 new affordable housing units by 2028 and reducing abandoned properties by 60%.

Racial issues are another point of contrast. Nichols, the current chairperson for the Oklahoma Legislative Black Caucus in the state house, pledged to continue the search for 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre graves and said he supports studying reparations for the massacre’s descendants. Keith, on the other hand, says she is only open to continuing the search for graves if Tulsans support it and opposes direct reparations.

Looking ahead, Nichols says he is “very optimistic” about the race, citing internal polling data. Keith, meanwhile, said she is focused on fundraising, aiming to counter a new wave of super PAC-funded ads accusing her of negligence at the Tulsa County Juvenile Justice Center.

“We’re working as hard as we can to raise as much as we can,” she said.