Despite an October drought in Tulsa, there has been no shortage of mud for slinging between candidates seeking the city’s top municipal office. During the final month of the Tulsa mayoral race, both candidates have traded increasing negative attacks — from minor disputes over copyright, and data access to some of the harshest criticisms possible involving sexual abuse and racist dog whistles.
Anti-Karen Keith mailers claim that “under her watch children were raped, neglected, and abused,” a reference to the ongoing scandal over allegations of systemic sexual abuse at Tulsa County’s juvenile detention center. Distributed by an OKC-based PAC called The Oklahoma Project, the mailers perhaps ironically claim Keith “failed our community.”
Keith has denied knowing about the abuse before the scandal became public, although court documents in pending litigation allege otherwise. After initially denying all responsibility for the facility, county commissioners voted to take over its management, and conditions are reportedly improving.
“These ads exploit the horrific abuse of children and is nothing more than a smear campaign,” Keith said in a statement Tuesday evening. “It is utterly false that I or my fellow commissioners ever knew that children were being sexually or physically abused and did nothing about it — and Monroe and his dark money allies know it’s false. I’ve dedicated my career to serving Tulsa and protecting its citizens. Monroe Nichols’ attempt to distort the facts and manipulate voters with outrageous accusations shows exactly why he is unfit to lead our city.”
Meanwhile, an anti-Monroe Nichols website cites from data from a 13-year old article to claim Nichols is “weak on gangs” because “after Nichols was hired by the City of Tulsa to reduce gang activity, gang membership skyrocketed by 50 percent within a year.” The color-coded comment appears on NoShowMonroe.com, a site launched by Keith’s campaign that continues her efforts to paint Nichols as a soft-on-crime liberal who hates the police.
Nichols, whose father was a police officer, has scoffed at the notion he is anti-police and has argued Keith chose the line of attack “because of my race and the perception that folks like me are hostile to law enforcement.”
Keith and Nichols participated in a primary debate, runoff debate and a Tulsa World forum that are publicly available online. Despite the negative turn in campaigning, Tulsa’s two mayoral candidates have appeared on stage together to share their visions for the city more than any other candidates in Oklahoma.
With the testy Tulsa mayoral race in full swing, voters will select their city’s next mayor Nov. 5 on the same ballot that features the presidential contest.
Candidates trade accusations, talk deportation at forum
Keith, who was elected county commissioner in 2008, has won four elections as Tulsa County’s only Democrat in county government during that timeframe. During her tenure, she supported building the Family Center for Juvenile Justice, campaigned for Tulsa’s Vision 2025 initiative and lobbied for funding to improve Tulsa’s levy system. A lawsuit filed by former inmates of the juvenile detention center alleging systemic sexual abuse within the facility names Keith as a defendant and has been consistently referenced by her 2024 campaign opponents.
Nichols (D-Tulsa) was elected to the Oklahoma House in 2016 and has also won four elections. While Democrats in the GOP-dominated Oklahoma Legislature typically struggle to pass legislation, Nichols supported legislation to reduce rape test kit backlogs and expand a housing tax credit so that cities like Tulsa could qualify. Throughout the campaign, Keith has noted Nichols’ large number of missed votes this year, has criticized his stances on policing and has argued that his potential political ambitions as a young politician could be a distraction.
Keith and Nichols emerged atop the nonpartisan Tulsa mayoral race from a crowded field Aug. 27. Leading Republican candidate Brent VanNorman finished third and reportedly has been promised a spot in a Keith’s transition team should she become mayor, a potential agreement that makes overtures to the conservative voters Keith hopes to court in the unusual-for-Oklahoma matchup between two elected Democrats.
On Oct. 22, a Tulsa World forum drew one of the most heated moments of the campaign, with both candidates yelling over each other for about 30 seconds before moderators regained control. Sparking the outburst, Keith accused Nichols of leading a misinformation campaign and being behind mailers sent across the city that blame her for the juvenile detention center scandal.
“Just today, this mailer was in mailboxes, which is a complete and total lie,” Keith said while holding the mail piece on stage. “And this was pushed out earlier by the Monroe camp, and now it’s continuing. I mean, this is dark money, (but) I think we know where it has come from. It is really unfortunate, because for somebody like me who has worked so hard in this community for 20 years to have my name drug through the mud like this is not — it doesn’t feel great.”
Although he has criticized Keith for the juvenile detention center scandal, Nichols denied any involvement with the negative mailers.
“I think it’s only fair to say that the first time I saw what she just pulled out is when somebody showed it to me in the lobby,” Nichols said. “To suggest that it was something I did is not correct and it is — and I’m sorry, because I know we’re not supposed to be doing this (kind of personal attack at the forum) — but it is the latest in a string of things where things are semi-true, kind-of-true, but not true at all that has happened. Did somebody endorse you? No they didn’t. But maybe kind of. Did Monroe do that? Monroe did not do that, Karen, and it’s not fair to say that I did.”
As Nichols finished his response, both candidates attempted to continue talking over each other about how the Tulsa mayoral race turned negative.
“Monroe, you pushed this narrative. Your team —” Keith said as Nichols repeated, “No, no, no. No, Karen.”
A moderator chime in after about 30 seconds of yelling.
“Stop, please. Stop. Monroe gets 20 seconds,” the moderator said.
Keith protested.
“He’s already had a minute,” Keith exclaimed.
Ultimately, the discussion calmed down and candidates continued without another major incident.
“What you were talking about (…) is the result of a federal lawsuit where 30 kids were abused in the Family Center for Juvenile Justice. I did not make that up. That was covered in the [Tulsa World], probably covered in The Eagle, it’s been widely covered,” Nichols said. “It is not that I was pushing it out. There is a federal lawsuit that the county commissioners are named in. Do not make that as though I made it up, because I did not, and I did not send out that mailer.”
Keith disagreed.
“Earlier, your team pushed this narrative out on X and some other social media. That’s where this originated,” Keith said. “So it doesn’t mean that you pushed this particular piece out, but the narrative.”
She continued by calling the lawsuit a “nonissue.”
“The county commissioners built the building. The district court judges have run it for 50 years,” Keith said. “We have now taken over that facility.”
Candidates were also asked if they would support former President Donald Trump’s plan to have local law enforcement assist with mass deportations if elected.
“In talking with both Sheriff (Vic) Regalado and the chief, they are not going to participate in some kind of roundup like the former president is describing,” Keith said. “I don’t think it makes any sense for municipalities to be participating in that. But I will tell you, if there are issues and somebody is picked up and they are illegal, then they will be taken and they will go through a process to be taken back to their homeland.”
Nichols said his administration would not cooperate with a federal mass deportation effort.
“Yeah, I mean the answer is ‘No,’ and it’s not because of Sheriff Regalado or Chief (Dennis) Larsen,” Nichols said. “The question is, as mayor, will you allow that to happen? And the answer is ‘No.'”
Photography drama exposed in recent weeks
As early voting began Wednesday, criticism of both Tulsa mayoral candidates — largely online — reached new heights.
Beyond the mud-slinging mailers, other drama has also arisen, including concerns about a photo Keith’s campaign used on the NoShowMonroe.com website. Photographer Jamie Glisson sent a cease and desist letter for unauthorized use of a photo she made of Nichols. Glisson sent a press release announcing her grievance, and the photo has since been replaced with Nichols’ legislative headshot.
In similar photography drama, Keith’s campaign edited a picture of her driving a miniature car in a parade to remove a pair of bystanders from the background. Most commenters online focused on the removal of a man in a Monroe Nichols campaign t-shirt: prominent Tulsan David Blatt, the former executive director of the Oklahoma Policy Institute and an employee of Oklahoma Appleseed, an organization heavily critical of Keith’s response to the juvenile detention center scandal.
Meanwhile, the family of the late U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe has also been drawn into Tulsa mayoral race photography drama.
On a piece of Keith campaign literature, she appears in a photo alongside Inhofe with a handwritten note reading, “You Karen Keith are not only my favorite Democrat, but my hero.”
One of Inhofe’s daughters, Molly Rapert, objected to the Keith campaign’s use of her father’s likeness in a now-deleted Facebook post.
“A few weeks ago, I was approached by several people asking permission to publicize dad’s friendship with Karen Keith and, based on my prior conversation with Dad about his choice not to support her candidacy, I did not give permission,” Rapert told the Tulsa World. “I expressly asked the people involved to NOT do this.”
A few days later, the Tulsa World reported that another of Inhofe’s children, Katy Inhofe, posted a statement in support of Keith.
“Dad and Karen have been friends for a long time and I have many memories of Dad calling her ‘his favorite Democrat’ just as he wrote on their picture. My sister said it well, ‘Dad had a long friendship with Karen Keith and admired her commitment to Tulsa.’ Dad respected the way Karen is able to work with people from both parties for the good of Tulsa,” Katy Inhofe wrote. “We do believe that Karen would never intentionally want to hurt our family and my sister’s intention was never to imply a lack of support for her candidacy. I can only speak for our immediate family, but we will be voting Karen.”
Edited image of Nichols called ‘full racist’
While some of the photography drama has been laughable, a PAC’s mailer opposing Nichols and supporting Keith has been criticized as an example of subtle racism in campaign that could culminate in Tulsans electing the city’s first Black mayor more than 100 years after the Greenwood District burned to the ground.
Tulsa County Board of Commissioners candidate Sarah Gray posted a photo on X that features a photo of Nichols that appears to have been altered to darken his skin, furrow his brow and add additional frown lines to his face.
“I have to wonder who on Karen Keith’s campaign team decided, once again, to go full racist and try to make @Monichols look like a ‘scary Black man’ on their mailer,” Gray wrote.
Similar to Nichols’ disassociation with The Oklahoma Project’s negative mailer distributed about Keith, however, the image-altered mailer aimed at making Nichols look angry came from a PAC called Proven Tulsa Leadership, LLC.
Responding to the Keith campaign’s claims he voted to “defund the police” by opposing SB 825 in 2021, Nichols told the Tulsa World that the lines of attack against him are playing on stereotypes “because of my race and the perception that folks like me are hostile to law enforcement.” (SB 825 prevented municipal governments from redirecting tax revenue approved by a vote of the people away from “funding public safety or any other governmental purpose” without another vote of the people.)
Similarly, Nichols has bristled at his characterization on NoShowMonroe.com, which says Nichols is “weak on gangs.”
The website cites (but does not link to) a 2011 Tulsa People article that makes no mention of Nichols, who was hired by former Mayor Kathy Taylor in 2006 to work on preventing gang activity. While Keith’s website criticizing Nichols says gang activity increased by 50 percent, the article does not. The majority of the data included in the story is attributed to Sean Larkin, a former TPD officer who was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal corruption probe that resulted in the conviction of former officer Jeff Henderson (who was been featured multiple times on Larkin’s podcast Coptales and Cocktails). Larkin was subsequently barred from testifying in federal court for 11 years. Larkin left the department in 2021 to work as a consultant for Live PD.
Keith’s linking of the man who could become Tulsa’s first Black mayor to “gang” violence with little supporting evidence has drawn criticism for playing into racial stereotypes, and it’s not the first time she has been accused of using racist undertones during the campaign. Nehemiah Frank, founder and editor of the Black Wall Street Times, accused Keith’s campaign of employing racist dog whistles earlier in the campaign when discussing sanctuary cities.
Asked to respond to allegations that her “weak on gangs” rhetoric constitutes a racist dog whistle, Keith’s campaign provided a short statement.
“Public safety is a top issue for Tulsans, and voters need to understand Rep. Nichols’ record,” Keith said.
