In January 2013, Taylor announced that she would run again for her old job as mayor of Tulsa in the 2013 election. In the mayoral primary election on June 11, 2013, in which the city used a new non-partisan election system for the first time, Taylor finished first with 42.1% of the vote, ahead of her successor Dewey F. Bartlett Jr., who had 34.2%. She and Bartlett met in a runoff election on November 12, 2013, and Bartlett prevailed, receiving about 55% of the vote.