We have some pretty cool news to report from the southern fringes of the metro!
Yesterday, a loyal circle of hip, cool, and possibly stoned Norman voters flocked to the ballot hot box and overwhelmingly elected Ward 7 Councilman Stephen Tyler Holman as the city’s new mayor.
Holman—a real estate agent, Friendly Market budtender, and part-time bouncer at the famed Campus Corner dive The Deli—defeated incumbent pastoral grandpa Larry Heikkila and something called a Riley Mulinix by taking home 61% of the vote.
Here are the details from the future unemployed journalists at the OU Daily:
Ward 7 Councilmember Stephen Tyler Holman won the election for mayor of Norman Tuesday night, defeating incumbent Mayor Larry Heikkila and attorney Riley Mulinix.
As of 8:02 p.m., Holman received 61.09% of 18,452 total votes cast, according to unofficial results from the Oklahoma State Election Board’s website. Heikkila received 35.05%, and Mulinix received 3.86%.
That’s badass! I’ve actually met Stephen a couple of times over the years, most recently while hitting up The Deli before the blistering hot OU–Tennessee game in September. He was working the door, and he was very nice and cordial, even pretending to remember me after I reintroduced myself.
Unfortunately, our conversation got cut short when he had to step away and go full Patrick Swayze on some unruly Vols fans, tossing them straight through the venue’s front window for harassing Kelly Lynch.
Okay, I may be embellishing a little.
The crowd at The Deli is about as intimidating as a lasagna roll at Victoria’s, but I have to get people to read this stuff somehow!
For what it’s worth, this isn’t the first time I’ve written about Stephen.
In case you forgot, he was arrested for selling "drug paraphernalia" at the Friendly Market way back in 2015. With marijuana and paraphernalia now legal in Oklahoma, that sting has aged about as well as a dried-out pre-roll. Fortunately, Holman was acquitted by a jury.
Here’s what he told the kids at the OU Daily about his landslide election night win:
“After serving with four different mayors and almost 40 different council members over the last 12 years, I felt strongly that this was the right time to step up and make this kind of leap,” Holman said. “I felt very inspired by the support from people all across Norman—bipartisan support—which really lets me know that I've been doing what I think I've been doing the last 12 years, which is making an effort to work with everybody as best as I can.”
Stephen’s got four jobs—so yeah, working with everybody checks out.
The important question now is whether he’ll keep his side gigs or solely focus on being mayor. For example, when David Holt was elected mayor of Oklahoma City, he quit his job as a bouncer at Lady Foot Locker to fully devote himself to advancing the policies and ideas of the local ruling class. Will Holman do the same for Norman’s counterculture and vow to keep the city weird?
I would assume the answer to all those questions is “Yes.”
Apparently, Stephen isn’t wasting any time settling in—just like he didn’t waste time checking IDs at The Deli.
According to our made-up sources, he’s considering hiring famed Oklahoma multitasker Mike Hosty as his Chief of Staff, while Calvin from the Norman Transcript is the front-runner for press secretary. Now, if he can just find room in his inner political circle for Wampus from Forward Foods, Norman will take over the world.
Anyway, we’d like to once again congratulate Stephen on the big win. The next time I see him at the door of The Deli before a football game, hopefully he’ll let me cut in line.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
