OKC Republican Mayor David Holt Slams GOP as Morally Bankrupt After Midterm Results

OKC Republican Mayor David Holt Slams GOP as Morally Bankrupt After Midterm Results

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Republican Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt delivered a blistering rebuke of his own party Tuesday night, declaring that a “political party that is morally and intellectually bankrupt deserves the rebuke of the American people” after Democrats seized control of both chambers of Congress, KOCO reported.

The statement, posted to social media around 10 p.m. as results poured in, marked one of the sharpest condemnations of the GOP leveled by a Republican officeholder on Election Night. Holt, who has been a leader of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, framed the Democratic victory not as a partisan win but as a national corrective.

Holt’s Post: ‘Time to Make America Good Again’

In a message that invoked unity over division, Holt wrote that the results had “rejuvenated” the American experiment.

OKC Republican Mayor David Holt Slams GOP as Morally Bankrupt After Midterm Results
Photo: thehill.com

“A political party that is morally and intellectually bankrupt deserves the rebuke of the American people. It is now time to make America good again. That is an endeavor to which all Americans can contribute, for we are not Democrats, Republicans or Independents. We are humans, and the things that unite us far exceed the things that divide us. We are the caretakers of the American experiment, and the experiment has been rejuvenated tonight.”

What the Election Actually Delivered

Democrats took back control of both the U.S. House and Senate in the midterm elections, giving the party the power to obstruct President Donald Trump’s agenda, block judicial nominees, and increase oversight. The wins extended well beyond traditional strongholds. Democrats captured Senate seats in battleground states including Texas, where James Talarico defeated Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton to become the first Democrat to hold a Senate seat from the Lone Star State since 1988, and Kansas, where Adam Hamilton unseated incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall to become the first Democratic senator from the Sunflower State since 1939. Additional Democratic Senate victories came in Michigan, Ohio, and Iowa.

In Oklahoma itself, the GOP maintained a strong hold: Republican Rep. Kevin Hern defeated Democrat N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas in the race for the state’s open Senate seat, and Republicans kept control of all statewide offices and congressional seats. Mike Mazzei, who won the governor’s race, acknowledged the difficulty nationally while celebrating locally.

OKC Mayor David Holt says 'morally and intellectually bankrupt' GOP deserved voters’ rebuke

According to Yahoo News, Mike Mazzei acknowledged the night had been difficult for Republicans nationwide, “but thank the Lord for Oklahoma.”

Democrats won control of Congress nationally while Republicans maintained a strong hold in Oklahoma when Holt posted his message. He is a Republican mayor of a increasingly Democratic-leaning urban county who has repeatedly broken with his party’s national leadership.

OKC Republican Mayor David Holt Slams GOP as Morally Bankrupt After Midterm Results
Photo: yahoo.com

A Pattern of Dissent

This was not Holt’s first public break with Trump or the MAGA wing of the GOP. In 2021, just days before the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol, Holt published an article on the political analysis website The Bulwark stating that “the American people chose President-elect Joe Biden,” and that the only way for Trump to remain in office after Jan. 20 was to overthrow the republic. He wrote then that Trump “did not win the 2020 election,” adding that no agency tasked with guarding election security had found systematic fraud and that none of the court cases had gone anywhere.

More recently, Holt wrote a column critical of Trump’s policies in 2024, though he stopped short of formally endorsing Kamala Harris in that year’s presidential election, according to a correction in the Oklahoman’s reporting carried by Yahoo. Trump went on to win Oklahoma County by less than two points that November — a margin that had analysts wondering whether Harris could carry the county as Democrats gained ground in the OKC metro.

Holt, first elected in 2018 and reelected in February, has used his perch at the U.S. Conference of Mayors to advocate for bipartisan municipal priorities, and he has publicly condemned the Trump administration’s escalating immigration enforcement policies.

Why This Matters Beyond Oklahoma

When Republican Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt called his own party morally and intellectually bankrupt on the night Democrats won control of Congress, the criticism came from a Republican. For voters in Oklahoma City, Holt’s words came on Tuesday even as Republicans maintained control of all statewide offices in the state.

With control of both chambers, the party now faces the practical test of legislating, and Holt’s call to “make America good again” reads as much as a challenge to his own party as to the winners.

Holt closed his post with a line that will likely outlast the election returns themselves: “We are the caretakers of the American experiment, and the experiment has been rejuvenated tonight.”

Worth a look

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