Anti-polarizing strategies from a purple city, with OKC Mayor David Holt
Masters of Scale
WaitWhat
4.6 • 4.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
Mayors are unique leaders in America, often more loved and less polarized than state or federal politicians, with a different mandate and metric for success. Mayor of Oklahoma City, David Holt, is also the current president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and he joins Rapid Response to discuss how cities deliver for their residents, navigate macroeconomic forces and federal policy, and improve public trust. Holt shares what it means to govern a politically “purple” city, and how forces of politics and society may make us appear to be more polarized than we really are.
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Transcript
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| 1:31.9 | What we've had is a workforce shortage in Oklahoma City now for basically the whole time I've been mayor. |
| 1:37.9 | So I need people to take these jobs and all kinds of jobs, you know, highly skilled jobs and |
| 1:43.6 | low-sk skilled jobs. |
| 1:44.7 | And so the historical American answer to that problem has often been immigration. |
| 1:51.9 | And yeah, sure, I mean, it has to be like controlled and, you know, regulated. |
| 1:55.5 | I mean, it's not an argument for open borders, but you can't just close your border either, you know. |
| 2:00.1 | I mean, you have to find |
| 2:01.3 | some reasonable middle ground where you are taking in a pretty healthy number of immigrants. |
| 2:06.8 | If you don't do that, yeah, you're going to suffer economic consequences. |
| 2:14.1 | That's Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, as U.S. cities of all sizes face unprecedented pressure from federal budget shifts, ice raids, and potential National Guard presence. |
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