Bynum worked as a staffer for
United States senators Don Nickles from 2000 to 2005 and
Tom Coburn from 2005 through 2006. In 2006, he returned to Tulsa to work for a real estate auction company, Williams & Williams. In May 2007, he was promoted to director of corporate communications and public affairs for Williams and Williams. He was laid off in 2009, along with a third of the Williams & Williams employees. In 2009, he and a partner, Stuart McCalman, opened a lobbying firm, Capitol Ventures Government Relations, working on behalf of municipalities and businesses.
City council In 2008, Bynum filed to run for office in District 9 to succeed the retiring city councilor Cason Carter. He won election to a two-year term and was re-elected three times.
Mayor of Tulsa Bynum ran for mayor of Tulsa in 2016, and defeated
Dewey F. Bartlett Jr., the
incumbent mayor, in the June 2016 election by a 56 percent to 38 percent margin. By receiving over 50% of the vote, he avoided the August
runoff election. He was inaugurated as mayor on December 5, 2016. He is the third-youngest person to serve as mayor of Tulsa. Bynum did not run for a third term in 2024.
Tenure Though the Tulsa Health Department urged Bynum to postpone
Donald Trump's
June 20, 2020 rally due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, Bynum said that he would not use his emergency powers to stop the rally from happening. In addition to his work as a staffer and politician, Bynum is the founder of The Greater Tulsa PAC; a
political action committee created to support nonpartisan, "pro-Tulsa candidates" for the
Tulsa City Council. Jacob Heisten, a registered Republican and former aide to
Senator Jim Inhofe, is listed as the PAC's chairman. In June 2023, severe storms hit parts of Oklahoma that involved hurricane-force winds and tornadic activity that knocked out power for days for more than 100,000 energy customers, mostly in Tulsa, during a severe heat waves which left at least 3 people dead. Bynum requested Governor
Kevin Stitt to declare a state of emergency, but Stitt was in
Paris and unable to declare an emergency from outside the state. Lieutenant Governor
Matt Pinnell was also out of state attending an annual lieutenant governor's conference in
Georgia. Once
Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat was informed he was the acting Governor, he declared the state of emergency. Stitt visited the city six days after the storm and met with Bynum. Bynum authorized city attorneys to appeal the
United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit's decision in
Hooper v. Tulsa to the
United States Supreme Court. The
Hooper decision requires
tribal citizens to be prosecuted for traffic violations in
tribal court instead of
municipal court. == Personal life ==