Mike Harris is a candidate in Ward 1 in the upcoming City Council election on Tuesday, February 10th.
Harris has lived in Sapulpa the last 10 years, but actually got his start here in 1972 when he was in 6th grade and graduated from Sapulpa High School, but left when he began his career as primary buyer for Hobby Lobby stores, before joining a traveling gospel quartet and then switching to media and joining a television station network called All American Network. He eventually became a general manager and lived in St. Joseph, Missouri, while helping to start and run stations in Chicago, Hawaii, New Mexico, and elsewhere.
The stations were eventually sold to the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and Harris took a job with LeSEA Broadcasting (now known as Family Broadcasting Corporation), where he ran the Channel 47 station in Tulsa, until he pivoted again to become Vice President and COO for three long-term care hospitals and a nursing agency.
Beams of Light Church in Sapulpa needed a pastor and asked Harris to fill in. Eventually, they asked him to become their lead pastor. That was 10 years ago.
Harris’s involvement in a group called “City Elders” helped turn his interest to local government, and he says his heart for the city in a pastoral manner has inspired him to run for the city council. “I could lend a hand and be a servant in that respect, too.”
Harris says his intention isn’t to unseat anyone. “I have no reason to have anything against anybody on the council,” he said. “I have a lot to bring to the table as a Sapulpan.”
Harris remarked back on his experience in construction work in the mid-to-late 1980s: “I’ve poured concrete all over this state,” he said. “Not only reading prints, but ran backhoes for streets and new drainage, digging out the inlets, all that. I believe I have experience that would be beneficial to the city.”
“I feel like I’m literally qualified to serve in that capacity … I think that I have something to contribute to knowing why those decisions need to be yay or nay.”
When asked whether he’d have done something different as a city councilor, he pointed back to the recent Dewey Streetscape project, where he questioned the need to “shut down in such a strong way” and its effect on the shop owners. “Now we’re on the backside of that, and you can see the result. It’s gorgeous,” Harris said. “Hopefully, shop owners can get back to a high-speed chase to getting back in the black, if they’re in the red.”
Harris also said that he would work as a city councilor to raise Sapulpa’s prestige in the eyes of business owners and other public servants.
“I want Sapulpa to be a draw where our police and firefighters go, ‘man, they take care of you. They pay you well.’ I want Sapulpa to be top of my list to come work. I don’t want Sapulpa to be just a ‘catch the crumbs’ type of city,” he says. “I think it ought to be a draw where everybody says, ‘man, that’d be a good place to serve.'”
Learn more about Mike Harris at mikeforsapulpa.com. See the full interview we did with Harris below:
2026 City Council Election Information
Wards 3 and 5 are also being contested, and those elections will take place on Tuesday, April 14th. Wards 2 and 4 do not have contenders, so the incumbents in each of those seats (Vice-Mayor Carla Gunn and Mayor Craig Henderson, respectively) will retain their positions for another term.
Sapulpa City Council Election Candidates
Ward 1
- Elizabeth Nicolas (Incumbent)
- Brandon Mull
- Mike Harris
Ward 2
- Carla Gunn (Incumbent)
Ward 3
- Alexander Hamilton (Incumbent)
- Charlie Leroy Harrison
Ward 4
- Craig Henderson (Incumbent)
Ward 5
- David Mortazavi (Incumbent)
- Kent Glesener
