James Lankford

James Paul Lankford

(born March 4, 1968) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Oklahoma.

Lankford was born March 4, 1968, in Dallas, Texas, the son of Linda Joyce (née House) and James Wesley Lankford.

His mother was an elementary school librarian.

His maternal grandparents owned a small dry-cleaning business, his father and paternal grandparents a dairy farm.

His stepfather was a career employee of AC Delco, the parts division of General Motors.

Lankford's parents divorced when he was four; he lived with his mother and older brother for a time in his grandparents' garage apartment.

He became a Christian at eight.

His mother remarried when he was twelve, and the family moved to Garland, Texas, with his stepfather.

Lankford attended Lakeview Centennial High School in Garland.

While there, he participated in the Close Up Washington civic education program.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education (specializing in speech and history) at University of Texas at Austin in 1990, and a master's degree in Divinity at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1994.

Lankford is an ordained Southern Baptist minister.

Lankford moved to Oklahoma in 1995.

From 1996 to 2009, Lankford was president of the Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center, a youth camp operated by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.

He is an ordained Southern Baptist minister.

He was president of the Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center, a youth camp operated by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, from 1996 to 2009.

Lankford stepped down from his position at Falls Creek in 2009 to run for Congress.

After two-term incumbent Republican Mary Fallin announced she was giving up her seat to run for governor of Oklahoma, Lankford entered the race to succeed her.

He finished first in a seven-way Republican primary—the important contest in this heavily Republican district—and defeated former State Representative Kevin Calvey in the runoff.

He then defeated Democrat Billy Coyle in the general election with 62.53% of the vote.

In 2010, Lankford ran for OK's 5th congressional district.

In the Republican primary, he defeated state representative Kevin Calvey in a runoff, and he defeated Democratic nominee Billy Coyle in the general election.

Before his Senate service, he represented OK's 5th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015.

Lankford was reelected in 2012; shortly thereafter, he was named chair of the House Republican Policy Committee.

Lankford defeated Democrat Tom Guild with 59% of the vote in 2012.

Following the election, he was named chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee.

Committee assignments

In lieu of running for a third term in the House, Lankford announced he would run in the 2014 U.S. Senate special election following Senator Tom Coburn's planned resignation.

He won the June 2014 primary with 57% of the vote, becoming the Republican nominee.

Lankford won the special election with nearly 68% of the vote, defeating Democratic nominee Connie Johnson.

In January 2014, Lankford announced he would run in the 2014 Senate special election to succeed retiring Republican Senator Tom Coburn.

Lankford won the June 2014 Republican primary, defeating former state House speaker T.W. Shannon and former state senator Randy Brogdon.

In November, Lankford won the election for the final two years of Coburn's second term, defeating retiring state senator Constance N. Johnson, 67.9%-29.0%.

Independent candidate Mark Beard won the remaining 3.2% of the vote.

A member of the Republican Party, Lankford has represented Oklahoma in the U.S. Senate since 2015.

He was reelected in 2016 with nearly 68% of the vote and in 2022 with 64% of the vote.

Lankford became the state's senior senator in 2023 upon the retirement of Senator Jim Inhofe.

Lankford was elected to a full six-year term in the Senate in 2016, defeating Democratic consultant Mike Workman with 68% of the vote.

On April 6, 2021, Lankford announced he would seek reelection.