Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) will announce Wednesday afternoon that he is running for Senate, Punchbowl News reports.
“Hern, in his fourth term in the House, will run for the seat being vacated by Markwayne Mullin, who President Donald Trump nominated to be secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.”
Former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R) is running for U.S. Senate, Tulsa World reports.
Also the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency appointed by Donald Trump, Pruitt has filed to campaign for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK).
“Scott Pruitt, who ran the Environmental Protection Agency under Donald Trump before resigning under a crush of ethics scandals, called two major Republican donors while weighing a run for Senate in Oklahoma in recent weeks,” the Washington Post reports.
“Pruitt dialed up two billionaires who made their fortunes in the fossil fuel industry — oil tycoon Harold Hamm and coal baron Joseph W. Craft III.”
Former Trump national security official Alex Gray (R) will run to fill the unexpired term of retiring Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), according to the McCarville Report.
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) may announce his resignation in the next few days, the New York Times reports.
Oklahoma state Sen. Nathan Dahm (R) announced his primary challenge of Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) on the back of a pickup truck with a red “Trump 45” license plate, according to the McCarville Report.
In addition to challengers in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate next year, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said he is contending with opposition from a high-ranking member of his own party, Tulsa World reports.
According to The Oklahoman, Oklahoma Republican Party chairman John Bennett told reporters that Lankford’s decision not to object to the results of the 2020 presidential election after the Jan. 6 insurrection was proof that the senator couldn’t keep promises made to constituents.
Said Lankford: “It’s more unheard of than it is rare. I’d say it’s highly unusual for a state party chair in any state in America to come out and say, ‘I’m not going to at least be neutral.’”
The Frontier: “By most accounts, Sen. James Lankford is the type of politician a person like Jackson Lahmeyer would seem to support. Both have been pastors and subscribe to a deeply conservative and evangelical faith tradition. Their views against abortion, defense of the 2nd Amendment, and that conservative culture is under attack from the ‘radical left’ also align.”
“But where Lahmeyer diverges is in his belief that Donald Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
More about Taegan Goddard →