Brent VanNorman is entering the Tulsa mayoral race

Now 64, the Indiana-born CPA, pastor, attorney and businessman is in Tulsa, and his latest challenge is a formidable one: winning the mayoral race.

“My grandson, Wolfie, who is 5 years old, asked me this the other day. He said, “Dad, why do you want to be mayor?” I said, ‘Well, because I want Tulsa to be a place where you love growing up so much that you want to stay here and raise your family,'” VanNorman said. “So that motivates me. I want this to be the household. I want to have a legacy with my family here.”

VanNorman officially kicked off his campaign Thursday night with an event at the Tulsa Country Club. He joins Tulsa County Commissioner Karen Keith, state Rep. Monroe Nichols and businessman Casey Bradford as the only announced candidates to succeed Mayor GT Bynum, who is not seeking re-election.

City Councilor Jayme Fowler announced last week that she was dropping out of the race.

Two weeks ago, VanNorman said Thursday, he wasn’t even thinking about running for mayor. Instead, he ran for the Ward 2 City Council seat held by Councilwoman Jeannie Cue, who is not seeking re-election.

“And then I started speaking at some Republican events. And it seems like people are starting to talk,” VanNorman said. “And then actually the person who approached me was Lucia O’Connor, a friend.”

O’Connor is the wife of former state Attorney General John O’Connor.

VanNorman is aware of the talk of the town that he was recruited to replace Fowler as the GOP standard bearer in the nonpartisan mayor’s race. Not so, he says, although “I wouldn’t have run if Jayme was still in the race.”

VanNorman grew up in Indiana, Ohio and, from the age of 10, in Michigan. He attended college at Anderson College in Indiana, where he earned a degree in accounting and computer science.

After working in the accounting world for about a decade, he had what he calls his first “mid-life crisis” and went to seminary. Then it was back to Michigan where he founded the Holland Community Church.

“We ended up with a mailing list of 1,500 people, did a series of five mailings and had 242 people at our first service at a Holiday Inn,” VanNorman said.

His second midlife crisis came when he decided to go to law school in the late 1990s. He graduated from Regent University Law School in Virginia when he was 40 and continued to practice in that state as an attorney in patents, with an emphasis on litigation.

VanNorman later served as an executive in various businesses, including a stint as president of TriLinc Global, a California-based impact investment firm.

He and his wife of 41 years, Marsha, began making trips to Tulsa in 2008 to visit their son, who was attending Oral Roberts University. They moved to Tulsa in August 2021.

VanNorman doesn’t see his time as a full-time Tulsan as a liability in his quest for the city’s highest office.

“If I lived here for 40 years, I wouldn’t have the life experience I have now,” he said. “So I really believe in the life experience that I’ve had, literally, traveling the world and different areas that I can bring to Tulsa.”

He noted that cities often recruit city managers from outside the city and that Tulsa recently hired an economic development director from out of state.

“You know, you go out and you find talent,” VanNorman said. “But that was not my plan to come here. He was supposed to be with my grandchildren.”

VanNorman said his priorities as mayor will be public safety, promoting business, supporting families and bringing the community together.

“I don’t think we should be separated based on the pigment of our skin,” he said. “There is only one race; it is the human race.”

Municipal elections in Tulsa are nonpartisan. While running for the District 2 City Council seat, VanNorman, a Republican, told a Republican Party meeting that he had never voted for a Democrat, an independent or a libertarian.

He said Thursday that he doesn’t think Republicans need to be enemies of Democrats.

“I needed the Republican base to get behind me and I told them the truth,” VanNorman said. “I need the Republican base to support me now. And I will tell them the truth.

“But I hope there are some people who look and say, ‘We need someone to come in who has rolled up their sleeves and run a business.’ I think I’m the only candidate other than Bradford to run a business.”

Candidates for the municipal position submit on June 10, 11 and 12. The general election is scheduled for August 27, with a runoff if necessary on November 5.