Mayor David Holt begins tenure as leader of nation’s mayors
Published on July 08, 2025
The evening of Sunday, June 22, was historic for Oklahoma City. On that night, the Oklahoma City Thunder won Game 7 of the NBA Finals and the city’s first major league professional sports championship. Mayor David Holt was heavily invested in that outcome, but that was only half of the history he was part of that day. Earlier that same day, Mayor Holt was installed as the 83rd President of the United States Conference of Mayors at the Conference’s Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida. For the next year, Mayor Holt will lead the nation’s mayors and represent them on the national and international stage.
The United States Conference of Mayors was formed in 1932 and is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. Today, there are over 1,400 such cities in the country, and each member city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor.
“There is no more important place in human existence than the city, and there is no higher office than the Mayor,” Holt said in remarks he delivered in Tampa upon his installation as President. “The Conference of Mayors sits at the epicenter of America’s future. If that future is to be as bright or brighter than the past, it will be because of the work that happens right here.”
“This Conference is fortunate to lean on the leadership of Mayor Holt in this time of opportunity and need for America’s cities,” said Tom Cochran, CEO and Executive Director of the Conference. “He champions the value of local leadership, and he embraces the power this Conference has to unite so many voices to improve the lives of the people of America’s cities. I know his colleagues are grateful to have him steering the ship.”
A member of the Osage Nation, Mayor Holt is believed to be the first Native American President of the United States Conference of Mayors. He is the second Oklahoma City Mayor to serve as President. Oklahoma City becomes only the 18th city to have had at least two USCM Presidents. Then-Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett served as President in 2016-2017. Mayor Cornett also hosted the Annual Meeting in Oklahoma City in 2010 when Holt served as his chief of staff. With both presidencies having occurred in the last decade, the honor speaks to Oklahoma City’s broader rise in recent years. That rise includes its jump from the 37th-largest city in the 1970 Census to its status today as America’s 20th-largest city, with over 712,000 residents.
Mayor Holt’s responsibilities will include speaking for the nation’s mayors over the next year, providing oversight of the organization’s administration, marshalling mayors around policy positions and advocacy, and convening the mayors. Mayor Holt will host a meeting of mayors in leadership in Oklahoma City in September, and he will preside over the Conference’s annual January winter meeting in Washington, DC and the annual meeting in Long Beach, CA next June.
“America’s mayors are the greatest leaders that this nation has, and I am deeply honored to have this role representing mayors and cities on the national and international stage,” said Mayor Holt. “I am deeply grateful to my fellow mayors for the trust they have placed in me. This is also a wonderful platform for Oklahoma City, and I’m grateful to have this opportunity to represent our city.”
Other notable mayors who have served as President through the years include Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans, Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, Marc Morial of New Orleans, Richard M. Daley and Richard J. Daley of Chicago, and Fiorello LaGuardia of New York. Through the years, mayors from Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, Denver, Seattle, Houston, Kansas City, Detroit, San Francisco, Cleveland and Milwaukee have all served as President.
Mayor Holt succeeds Columbus, OH, Mayor Andy Ginther. Mayor Holt will serve with Vice President Todd Gloria, Mayor of San Diego, and Second Vice President Leirion Gaylor Baird, Mayor of Lincoln, NE.
At the Conference of Mayors, Holt previously served as Vice President, Second Vice President, Trustee, and Advisory Board Member, as well as in numerous committee roles. In 2021, he served with then-President and Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley as the national co-chair of mayoral efforts to enact the Bipartisan Instructure Law.
Mayor Holt was elected Mayor of Oklahoma City in 2018 with 78.5 percent of the vote and was re-elected in 2022 by a 40-point margin and with the second-most votes in OKC mayoral history. He is also the Dean of the Oklahoma City University School of Law. He has a B.A. from The George Washington University and a J.D. from the Oklahoma City University School of Law. He is married to Rachel, who is President and CEO of the United Way of Central Oklahoma, and they have two children, George and Margaret.
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