Oklahoma City Mayor Shares Election Message With Swing State Voters

In an Op-Ed published in The Philadelphia Citizen on Thursday, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt shared a message that he called a "philosophy" for the criteria voters could consider this November.

Holt, a longtime Republican and who once worked in the George W. Bush White House, spent much of his early career excitedly participating in the national arena of politics.

In 2012, he served as an elector for Oklahoma and voted for Mitt Romney. That's also when Holt, at the time a State Senator, first took notice of the chaos of politics.

"It was always this battle about Ron Paul delegates trying to take over the party," Holt said in an expanded interview with News 9 about his 1300-word Op-Ed. "As a Sen., I authored a new law to basically make it impossible to not vote as an elector for the candidate you had pledged to vote for."

His political appetite is now primarily defined by what he calls his three Cs: character, competence, and commitment.

"I can't even get, as a voter or as an American, to the policy until I get past the hurdle of character," he said.

The headline for his latest Op-Ed reads as "A Republican Mayor's Unexpected Vote," which seemingly indicated a possible endorsement. But according to Holt, the outlet rewrote the headline despite his suggestion being "I'm Voting For Virtue."

However, Holt clarified, there was no endorsement in his words.

No mention was made of either major party candidate. Except for one reference to him attending Republican National Conventions, he didn't name any party.

"I'd say all party politics is often kind of bitter and fought over seemingly a very narrow band of the ideological spectrum," he said. "The author's intent is to articulate the worldview that character matters, fundamentally."

The full Op-Ed can be read here.