YouSaid · the spoken record

David Holt

lines on the record: 35
first: 2026-01-20
most recent: 2026-01-20
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I think cities are still exploring it. Lots of swirling conversations. Would I say that in Oklahoma City it is as yet revolutionized anything we're doing? No. I don't want to seem like a Ludite that like I'm cautioning that there's a possibility this isn't as big of a deal as everybody's saying that it is. Because it might be, but the idea that it would severely diminish the need for staff or anything like that. I mean, we're not seeing that impact yet in cities. But to be frank, I mean, governments are not usually the most innovative entities in this country. I mean, like we'll be a little bit of a lagging indicator. We all want to be better than that. But I've given up hope that we're going to be the greatest innovators. I mean, we will be more cautious and we will wait to see some of these applications in the private sector probably before we'll fully adopt them.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As conference president, I asked my fellow mayors to sign the Oklahoma City Declaration, and I would encourage your viewers and listeners to check it out. Just Google Oklahoma City Declaration. We've had over 230 mayors sign it so far. And it is a rebuttal to that extremism and that polarization. To survive another two hundred and fifty years and talks about pluralism and it talks about compromise and it also talks about very practical and explicit daily behaviors because we got to get back to that as Americans. We got to understand civics. We got to understand the way that groups behave and function. And we got to work together again.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We're going to figure it out, and our political system is created for us to arrive at a compromise that probably isn't exactly what any of us wanted, but it's good enough and we'll move on and we'll accept that we're different, right? And so the extremes don't accept that difference. They want to annihilate everybody else. But that acceptance of pluralism is like an inherent value In American government, that we have to embrace, and so I guess I apply it to this question of urban versus rural. I just accept it, you know, like it's okay that some people want to live in the country and some people want to live in the city, like live with it. It's fine. We can all enjoy. There's plenty of room in this country still. We can enjoy different lifestyles and we shouldn't have to be angry that other people don't want to live that way.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A simpler existence and less diversity in the people you encounter? Great, right? Like I don't think that's, I don't think you have to worry about how I'm living my life. There is, of course, again, like so many things in American life these polar opposites that want to create a debate about that, you know, but I guess it gets back to a word I haven't yet been able to work into this conversation, which is maybe the most important word in American politics, and that is pluralism. Pluralism is a very political science-y-sounding word, but it is the idea that we're all going to disagree on our lifestyle choices, where we want to live, our politics, and that's okay.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, of course, and that's okay, like, you know, it's a free country. Like, you know, that's what I always think is, you know, why do we have to obsess over the way other people choose to live their lives, right? So yeah, I don't necessarily want to live in rural America, but that's okay. Like, you know, that's, I, I know people who do. My dad lives on a ranch. I've had lots of relatives that have lived in, you know, very, very low population areas. And there are various reasons why that's very attractive to different personality types. And I think that's great. On the flip side of that, you know, why should people judge if you want to live in a city and you want to be around diversity of religion and sexuality and ethnicity? And that doesn't bother you, you know? And maybe if it bothers you and you want to live out in the country and have”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Cities, you know, and that's not reality that serves someone's political purpose, I guess. But no, I think on the ground in reality, cities are actually having a great time”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Here the chief economic and cultural engines of the country. And so, I mean, relative to non-urban places, we're still where it's at. And I don't see that changing. And, you know, maybe the trade-off has historically been higher levels of crime. But right now, practically every American city is experiencing historic declines in the crime rates. Yeah, I think American cities are in a great place. They are still the place where talented and intelligent and creative people flock is still the place where innovation happens. And right now it's not a place that's any more dangerous than other places. That's not the rhetoric that emanates out of DC. And so that can like kind of warp your thinking. Well, I don't know. I mean, I keep hearing that there's like, you know, that there's a carnage across our American.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Back into the other levels of government in this country because I think we provide a great example that it is actually possible it doesn't have to be this way.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, I mean, we are kind of the last bastion of responsible governance in the country. And yeah, God help us if we tip into this insanity and hyperpartisanship and polarization and ultimately just this ineffectiveness that happens at the extremes of the ideological spectrum. And yeah, I mean, I am fearful of that here in Oklahoma. There's a petition right now being gathered. We'll see if it makes it to the ballot, but it would actually create statewide a top two election system like we do in Oklahoma City. And I'm very vocally supporting that. So I would say like, I'm not just resigned to the reality that state and national politics have to be dysfunctional. I'm using this platform to push back and hope that we can be a bulwark that is actually pushing effective government.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“About it. Sure, 15% of the country thinks there should be no immigration, 15% of the country thinks you should just like take the fences down and just let's all live in one happy world. And then the 70% of us in the middle have a common sense immigration policy that we could probably write if you could just put all of us in a room one day. But like we never get to do that because the debate is controlled by these two polar opposites. And again, I just think it looks like from the outside that I guess those are the two viewpoints and they'll never reconcile. And the reality is no, there's a bunch of us who could figure this out if you would just sort of let us speak with one voice. But again, our electoral system doesn't really encourage that.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, the historical American answer to that problem has often been immigration. And yeah, sure. I mean, it has to be like controlled and, you know, regulated. I mean, it's not an argument for open borders, but you can't just close your border either. I mean, you have to find some reasonable middle ground where you are taking in a pretty healthy number of immigrants and you will find if you don't do that, yeah, you're going to suffer economic consequences. And then, of course, there are these wonderful byproducts of it, great culture, great, you know, diversity, that diversity of thought and experience. But really, I think in many ways, if you just want to be practical about it, and probably you could find the greatest consensus around the idea that it's just an economic necessity to have, you know, pretty strong immigration in your communities.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I mean, it can if you want to act like it's a weakness, but it is actually historically been one of the great strengths for America just from a business perspective, right? I mean, we need people to take jobs of all kinds in Oklahoma City. We have a record streak right now of unemployment below 4%, 50 straight months. So, you know, what we've had is a workforce shortage in Oklahoma.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of the major aspects of my general philosophy that appears the most Republican, right? I'm a free market, pro-business mayor.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't really see a pathway to meet those needs and those challenges without a strong economy, right? So like I got to have, I've got to have a business community that's thriving and certainly I play a role in that ensuring that we have the regulatory and tax environment that's helpful to them. And also as a mayor, you're often out there cheerleading or recruiting. You're kind of like the business recruiter in chief. So no, I'm a big believer. I mean, sure, you shouldn't be a tool of crony capitalism. I mean, that's a different thing. I guess that's like the fear of it going too far. But to me, that's at that point, you're not really supporting business growth. You're just supporting individual businesses. But overall, a fair and neutral pro-business environment is very important to, I think, a city like mine. And that's probably the”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm a believer in Oklahoma City's history for a very strong partnership between elected city leaders and the business community. Those 15 initiatives that I mentioned, the Chamber of Commerce ran every one of the campaigns because we can't really run a campaign. You know, like I can have an idea and I can post about it on my Facebook, but like the government can't pay to run TV ads and mail you persuasive mail pieces about it like somebody else outside of City Hall has to do that legally and practically, right? And so we've had a great relationship with our business community here. And ultimately besides the elections, I mean, you need a strong economy, right? To really enjoy all of your aspirations. You know, when people in my community talk about the very real human challenges that we face, like homelessness and poverty, and to me, it's like.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Looks like any leadership position, I mean, you can't fight every battle, you know, and of course, but there will, there's always somebody who thinks you should, so that's the deal is making sure you exercise your influence where it really exists and when it's best utilized and then otherwise, yeah, maybe sometimes you just got to keep your head down.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Productive. That's what leadership is just trying to caught in the middle of those forces. And sometimes you just have to suck it up and take it. But you know deep down you're doing the right thing for your people”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, of course, as a mayor, like you get emails when the whopper didn't have cheese on it, you get emails when, you know, everything under the sun. And so certainly, certainly your residents also believe that when federal government forces are coming into your city, that there's something you should be able to do. But I mean, the reality of it is what it is. Like there's not a lot that you can do. I mean, you legally can't really stand in the way of the federal government. You can try to use rhetoric, but that's its own issue because that rhetoric doesn't seem to be doing much to persuade the actions of the federal government and its leadership. And sometimes that rhetoric can actually write, kind of cause a counterreaction that's worse, you know. Sometimes you have residents who want the emotional satisfaction of you screaming at people, but you kind of know that that's actually going to be counter.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I mean, there's probably not a lot of mayors of any political persuasion who like intervention in cities. I mean, so that's one thing that's, you know, going to be, you know, nonpartisan among mayors, even a Republican mayor believes in local control, right? So I don't think it'll be particularly rancorous. We'll definitely talk about it. It's a challenging situation in so many ways, but not the least of which is there's no like easy solution for a city, you know, you are in our form of government. You're kind of a subservient level. You know, you can't really.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We work with Bloomberg and Harvard, and there is kind of a new mayor school. It's two days long, and it happened back in December. And though the new mayor of New York was not there, there actually were quite a few big city and small city mayors there. The third thing we do is we support each other. I would say that is not insignificant. And I always like to bring it up. I mean, there's only one person in your city who knows what you're going through. You know, you need that friend group, really, of peers who can support you. And we do that for each other. I mean, you know, modern technology allows, you know, an almost endless conversation to be happening among mayors.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, so the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the organization I serve as president of for the next six months, I've been doing it about six months. I serve one year term as the president. We've been around for nearly 100 years. We advocate as a group. And so that's like why we go to DC every January and why we're going to DC at the end of this month. We speak as one and we do so in a very bipartisan fashion. We're like, there's a lot of groups like this for different levels of government. There's a national governors association. There's several organizations for state legislators and so on. But we're kind of the only one left that is very and truly bipartisan. And so it's not to say that we're all the same, but we sure work really hard to find the common ground and the things that we can advocate for jointly in Washington. So that's our first purpose. And we've been very influential through the years. The second thing we do.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, if the water system doesn't work for about three days, you'll start my citizens will start dying, right? So like I've got to pick up the trash, produce the water, you know, do all these core services. And so we really kind of have no choice but to just get it done. Like, I can't settle for this partisan nonsense and bickering.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“First of all, I reject the notion that Americans are polarized. I believe that those 15% at both extremes that control the primaries are polarized and they're producing polarizing candidates, but I would argue there's still 70% of us in the middle who just want to work together and we learn how to compromise in kindergarten and we're still capable of it, but we're not getting a chance to do it in our electoral systems. But mayors, for the most part, most of us are elected through what I just described, which is basically a top two system where all the voters get to see all of the candidates and all of the candidates have to face all of the voters. Yeah, it incentivizes us differently. And so, yeah, we tend to be, we tend to operate in a much more pragmatic fashion. And I guess the other thing, of course, that makes us unique is like, we got to get things done. So, I mean, the services we provide to you are literally necessary for human survival.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That. But when we elect mayors, everybody gets to vote. And I think this is so critical. So I talk about it a lot because it sounds like wonky and sort of like, well, that's obscure. I want to talk about the issues, you know, but I'm telling you like every issue is built on the foundation of how you elect people and how we elect people in America is killing us. You know, like we've got to get back to a system like we have in a lot of cities where everybody votes. And I'm telling you, when everybody votes, we're not as crazy as we look like we are. We're actually pretty normal and we can compromise and we can work together.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To just talk about the issues that are important to the 70% of people in the middle and really kind of ignore the extremes that are so powerful in closed partisan primaries and build a coalition of normal Republicans, Democrats, and independents that represent that seventy percent. So when I say it's important when I say that the city is a microcosm of the country, both politically and demographically, because we are proving through my elections and through the elections that we have for these initiatives, because I got 78 and 60% in my two elections and my initiatives have gotten 72, 71, and 75%. If you're that divided on national politics, but you're able to come together on these local issues and these local candidates, to me, the only difference between the two is the way that we run the election. And of course, when we elect congress people here in Oklahoma City, we vote through the closed partisan primary and all.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When I run for election as mayor, I don't go through a closed partisan primary like most people do around the country when they run for governor or US Senate or whatever, they first face the most extreme voters that this country has who have kind of a different priority list than the rest of us. This is going to be true in a red state and a blue state, right? If you're running in a closed Republican primary, you got to be all MAGA, you got to be part of the Trump cult, you know. But if you're running in a blue state, in a closed partisan primary, especially in a lot of, you know, certain really hardcore blue areas, you practically have to pretend to be a communist, you know. And so like here in Oklahoma City, however, I face all of the voters on election day, Republicans, independents, and Democrats, and it incentivizes me and all of my predecessors.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Course, it's a reflection of me. I'm an authentic person, but what incentivizes me as mayor operates on a couple levels. One, the city is much more purple than people might think from the outside looking in. I mean, yeah, the state hasn't voted for a Democrat for president since Lyndon B. Johnson, but the city is basically 50-50. In the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections, Trump won this county 4948, that exact same number in both of those elections, which is a really pretty good microcosm of the country, and we're also a pretty good microcosm of the country demographically. But we work together and get things done, which leads me to my second point about, I think, what makes me who I am as mayor of this city. We have an electoral system that is actually pretty common among cities for whatever historical reason.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's true of cities and businesses and products and everything. You can't always just market your way out of a problem. I mean, sometimes you actually have to address the problem. And I think that we understood that we couldn't just like come up with a flashy TV ad to make Oklahoma City look better than it was.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“fifteen and O had never lost one. To invest in our cities quality of life and core infrastructure to the tune of just under ten billion dollars, and so that investment in ourself is really the key to our success, and in my lifetime we've gone from being the 37th largest city to the twentieth largest city, and you don't make that kind of movement in the top 40 without doing something dramatic and the dramatic thing we did was invest in ourselves and really improved our quality of life. And as a result, the theory has been proven out. Our economy is strong, everything about our city has improved.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“be and really that in a modern America the jobs follow the people not the other way around you thought you used to think like well people moved where there was economic opportunity but in fact like people just moved where they wanted to live and then the economic the people who who offer economic opportunity had no choice but to go where those people are, where those talented people are. And so in 1993, we passed a sales tax initiative called Maps, Metropolitan Area Projects. And it invested just in quality of life stuff. It built the arena that the Thunder just won the championship in. It built a downtown ballpark. It built things that you don't necessarily need for human survival, but are actually pretty existential to a city's survival. And that has made all the difference. And we're now on maps four. That's my version as mayor. And actually over this 30 years, our voters have voted 15 times.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, here's it in a nutshell. It really begins in the 1980s when we experienced an oil bust. And that was a depression, an economic depression for our city. And then we tried to, we were trying to chase this United Airlines facility in the early 90s. It was kind of like the Amazon 2 of its time. Lots of cities were trying to get this big job opportunity, thousands of jobs, and we didn't get it. And it went to Indianapolis. Our mayor at the time, this is sort of like a famous story locally, supposedly called the CEO of United Airlines. And he asked, why didn't you come here? I mean, we had like passed a tax incentive for him. We did all these things. And he said, well, Mayor, I just couldn't imagine making my employees live in Oklahoma City. Oof. And you know, it was that moment that really finally crystallized for us that our quality of life was not where it needed to be.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A great product to sell, but oftentimes I deal with a lot of ignorance about my city or just, you know, kind of a blank stare, right? And so it's oftentimes I have a blank canvas upon which to paint.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, yeah, absolutely. What I really want people to know about Oklahoma City is that it has all of the amenities of a great American city and it's in a very dynamic growth phase right now, you know, and that this is really kind of our golden age. And we're offering a very unique value proposition in American life right now, which is we sort of still have all of the ease of living and cost of living of a smaller place, but you can go to James Beard Award winning restaurants. You can watch the NBA champions. You can go to great art museums. You can go to great parks. And you can enjoy all the amenities that you would expect to find in a much larger place. And I think that is a unique combination. Now, sometimes many people take you up on it that you start to lose that easily living and that cost of living advantage. But in the meantime, I say enjoy it. So I think obviously I spent a lot of time selling my city.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As a mayor who's wanting you to take my city seriously, I often lead with 20th largest city because I know you probably don't think of us as being that big. I'm probably going to talk about the thunder because that is front of mine.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What we've had is a workforce shortage in Oklahoma City. Now, for basically the whole time I've been mayor. I need people to take these jobs and all kinds of jobs, highly skilled jobs and low skilled jobs. And so the historical American answer to that problem has often been immigration. And yeah, sure. I mean, it has to be like controlled and, you know, regulated. I mean, it's not an argument for open borders, but you can't just close your border either. You have to find some reasonable middle ground where you are taking in a pretty healthy number of immigrants. If you don't do that, yeah, you're going to suffer economic consequences.”
2026-01-20 · Masters of Scale · Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT