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You are here: Home / 2026 Campaign / Trump-Backed Pastor Quits After Kissing Scandal

Trump-Backed Pastor Quits After Kissing Scandal

June 17, 2026 at 3:25 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A Trump-backed pastor has dropped out of Oklahoma’s Republican House primary after his intimate relationship with a campaign aide was exposed, the Daily Mail reports.

The astonishing collapse comes after an investigation that exposed Jackson Lahmeyer’s intimate relationship with campaign fundraiser Caitlin Simmons Key, a former Miss Oklahoma USA.

Key said that she and Lahmeyer, who is married, kissed on several occasions during the heat of the campaign. He sent her thousands of text messages, in one telling her “I enjoyed those lips,” and recounted leaving Mar-a-Lago for a strip club at 1am after being offered cocaine.

New York Times: Trump rescinds endorsement of right-wing pastor after texting scandal.

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About Political Wire

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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