Battle for Oklahoma GOP: Lahmeyer bringing campaign to Norman

Jun. 24—NORMAN — On Saturday the battle for the Oklahoma GOP will begin when a far-right Senate candidate campaigning on debunked election conspiracies brings his campaign rally to Norman.

Jackson Lahmeyer, a Tulsa- based pastor, is running a primary challenge against current Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who Lahmeyer says failed former President Donald Trump by not objecting to the electoral college on Jan. 6.

Lahmeyer has promoted numerous debunked conspiracy theories, including the idea — disproven by hundreds of failed lawsuits, recounts and the Supreme Court of the United States — that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

Because of his belief in "the Big Lie" and debunked claims of voter fraud, Lahmeyer said the biggest issue he is running on is election integrity.

"[Election integrity] is the number one issue that faces this country," Lahmeyer said. "Election integrity is monumental. We have to have confidence, whether we win or whether we lose — we win some battles, we will lose some battles, that's how politics goes — but you have to have confidence that the election was fair and the election was legal."

Lahmeyer's "OKC Freedom Rally" campaign event is scheduled for Saturday at Embassy Suites in Norman and is slated to include a number of politicians, pastors, a convicted felon and individuals who were at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Saturday's speakers

The headliner for the event is General Michael Flynn, a former national security advisor to Trump and a vocal proponent of the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen.

Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with a Russian ambassador in 2017, and was later pardoned by Trump after he lost the election back in November 2020.

Another scheduled speaker is Mark McCloskey, who, along with his wife, pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protestors peacefully marching through their neighborhood in Missouri. McCloskey recently pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault, a misdemeanor charge, and must forfeit his gun.

McCloskey is running to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate.

The most recent addition to the lineup is Leigh Dundas, who videoed herself at the Capitol on Jan. 6 cheering on insurrectionists{/a}.

"This is a country that was birthed in a revolution, and God help us, we are going to fight another one if that is what it takes," Dundas says in the video.

Lahmeyer's speaker lineup also includes Dr. Lee Merritt, who was at the Capitol insurrection.

"I was right in the heart of it," Merritt said on a podcast about Jan. 6.

Merritt is a member of America's Frontline Doctors, a group that has spread debunked claims about COVID-19 and how to treat it.

"Most [voters] do not know who these people are," said Pat McFerron, a Republican strategist and pollster in Oklahoma. "This actually reminds me a lot more of the Dan Fisher race for governor 2018. It's that same group, and he got like 7% of the vote."

Though the rally speakers' names are well known among those who heavily follow politics and the Republican party, McFerron said the average voter who isn't as invested in politics doesn't know who they are.

No guarantees

Despite the far-right hype around Lahmeyer, McFerron said he does not consider this a "competitive primary," pointing to the nearly $32,000 Lahmeyer's campaign has on hand compared to the over $1 million at Lankford's disposal.

"This kind of attack from the right is not unusual in Oklahoma politics at all," McFerron said. "...You can look at any number of candidates against Frank Lucas over time, or, James Taylor trying to primary Tom Cole. I think you will see Lahmeyer, yes, [will] get some votes, but it won't be anything that ever really threatened [Lankford]."

On a statewide level, McFerron pointed to the 2014 gubernatorial primary, when incumbent Mary Fallin defeated primary challenger and far-right candidate Randy Brogdon.

Even if Lahmeyer gets Trump's endorsement, McFerron said Republicans are still independent thinkers, and conservative ideals are not owned by Trump.

"A lot of Oklahomans like Donald Trump, support him, and we saw that with the elections, but the Trump name — when you look at the Republican primary for governor last time, Donald Trump Jr. came to town and held events for Todd Lamb," McFerron said.

Lamb lost the 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary to current Gov. Kevin Stitt.

A changing party

Contrary to McFerron, some experts believe that while Lankford has incumbency on his side, the current state of the Republican party could make this race more difficult.

John Bennett, chair of the Oklahoma Republican Party, will speak Saturday in what McFerron said is a rare occurrence. It's unusual for the chair of the state party to seemingly campaign against an incumbent candidate of the same party, he said.

"It makes things complicated for [Lankford] if he loses support of his state's party," said Rachel Blum, an associate professor of political science at the University of Oklahoma. "You could think there's a world where Republican constituents are going to move separately from the party or in opposition to it, but usually, the party is that link. Which means he is losing connection with his constituents. That's what the party really has the power to do."

Blum is the author of the book "How the Tea Party Captured the GOP," which traces how the Republican party went from a social conservative movement to a mainstream fringe group with the creation of the Tea Party.

"When the Tea Party first started, I noticed a lot of things about it that were different from other types of movements or factions that had existed within my lifetime, or at least when I was old enough to pay attention," she said. "If you look at the history of the Republican Party, for example, it was really dominated by the Christian right, or a faction that we now call the Christian right, that Moral Majority of the Christian coalition."

That evolution eventually led the party to elect Trump, Blum said, which makes people like Lahmeyer more comfortable running for office on an extremist platform.

Extreme primary challenges show up across the country all the time, but in deep red Oklahoma, where 77 of 77 counties voted for Trump, a far-right primary challenger is a lot more plausible, she said.

"Because whoever wins the Republican primary is almost certain to win the Senate seat, it doesn't matter so much if it's someone who is a little on the fringe wins the primary," Blum said. "Because partisanship being what partisanship is, Republican Oklahomans are not going to go to the polls and decide to split their ballot. They will, even if they think he's a little on the fringe, still vote for him because he has an 'R' by his name."

The Lahmeyer-Lankford race does prove that political parties are not monolithic, Blum said.

"Nomination contests get to be these fascinating insights into the different players in that coalition and who's jockeying for power and what groups have the upper hand at the time," Blum said. "So the fact that someone like James Lankford, who's really been regarded as a pillar of social conservatism, could face a challenge from the right shows us that the Republican coalition has shifted such that the old extremists are the new moderates.

"James Lankford is seeing a future iteration of himself in this primary."

Reese Gorman covers COVID-19, local politics and elections for The Transcript; reach him at rgorman@normantranscript.com or @reeseg_3.