United States senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

socialite A socialite is a person, typically a woman from a wealthy or aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having ...

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a Private university, private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian Church, although it is now nondenominational, and the campus ...

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

Oklahoma House of Representatives The Oklahoma House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its members introduce and vote on bills and resolutions, provide legislative oversight for state agencies, and help to craft the state's ...

Oklahoma Senate The Oklahoma Senate is the upper house of the two houses of the Legislature of Oklahoma, the other being the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The total number of senators is set at 48 by the Oklahoma Constitution.Democratic Party's state leadership, particularly Governor David Hall and state treasurer Leo Winters, and spearheading the movement to bring the USS ''Batfish'' to Oklahoma. While a state senator, he unsuccessfully ran for

Governor of Oklahoma The governor of Oklahoma is the head of government of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Under the Oklahoma Constitution, the governor serves as the head of the Oklahoma Executive (government), executive branch, of the government of Oklahoma. The gover ...

in the 1974 election and the

U.S. House The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

in

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

. He was elected to three terms as the

Mayor of Tulsa This is a list of mayors of Tulsa, a city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Mayors of Tulsa are elected for four year terms. Mayors of Tulsa Notes See also * Timeline of Tulsa, Oklahoma References ;General Political Graveyard–Mayors of T ...

, serving between 1978 and 1984. He served in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

representing from 1987 to 1994; he resigned after his election to the United States Senate. During his Senate career, Inhofe was known for his rejection of climate science; on one prominent occasion, he displayed a snowball in winter on the U.S. Senate floor as evidence that Earth was not warming. He was also known for his support of constitutional amendments to ban

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

, and the 2006 Inhofe Amendment to make English the

national language '' '' A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection— de facto or de jure—with a nation. The term is applied quite differently in various contexts. One or more languages spoken as first languag ...

of the United States. Inhofe chaired the

U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works The United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works is responsible for legislation and oversight of the natural and built environment and for studying matters concerning environmental protection and resource conservation and util ...

(EPW) and the Armed Services Committee.

Family, early life, and education

James Mountain Inhofe was born in

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

, on November 17, 1934, the son of Blanche (née Mountain) and Perry Dyson Inhofe. He moved with his family to

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

, after his father became president of the National Mutual Casualty company in August 1942. His father, Perry Inhofe, was educated at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

and worked as a lawyer, president of multiple

insurance companies Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

, and banker. In 1949, his company, Tri-State, was ordered by the

National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States that enforces United States labor law, U.S. labor law in relation to collect ...

to cease discouraging union membership. His father was also active in the Tulsa

Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to a ...

and

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

; and he was the official sponsor of Miss Tulsa and

Miss Oklahoma The Miss Oklahoma competition selects a winner to compete on behalf of Oklahoma in the Miss America pageant. Miss Oklahoma has won the Miss America crown on five occasions. Also, in the years when city representatives were common, Norma Smallw ...

winner Louise O'Brien in 1950. His mother was a Tulsa

socialite A socialite is a person, typically a woman from a wealthy or aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having ...

and hosted guests such as

Johnston Murray Johnston Murray (July 21, 1902 – April 16, 1974) was an American lawyer, politician, and the 14th governor of Oklahoma from 1951 to 1955. He was a member of the Democratic Party. Murray was the first Native American to be elected as governor in t ...

. Inhofe's family had been involved in Oklahoma politics since the 1950s. His father, Perry Inhofe, had served on the executive committee for Democratic governor Raymond D. Gary's successful 1954 campaign. In 1958, his brother, Perry Jr., ran an unsuccessful campaign for the

Oklahoma House of Representatives The Oklahoma House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its members introduce and vote on bills and resolutions, provide legislative oversight for state agencies, and help to craft the state's ...

as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

.

Education, military and business careers

Inhofe started

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

in

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

, but moved halfway through the year to Hazel Dell in

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its population was 114,394 at the 2020 United States census, which makes it the state's List of cities in Illinois, seventh-most populous cit ...

. He skipped first grade after the schoolhouse burned down and started second grade after his family moved to

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

at Barnard Elementary School. As a teenager, he would "hire

Indians Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

to pick wild blackberries" and then sell them in his neighborhood. He went on to attend Woodrow Wilson Junior High and

Tulsa Central High School Central High School is the oldest high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was founded in 1906 as Tulsa High School, and located in downtown Tulsa until 1976. The school now has a campus in northwest Tulsa. Tulsa Central is part of the Tulsa Publ ...

, where he was a member of his high school's track team. In 1952, his mile relay quartet team broke a school record with a 3:32.6 time. In January 1953, he was elected treasurer of the Brones social club; he graduated from Central High School later that year. He attended the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

for three months and worked as a bartender. In 1956, he received a draft letter from the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

and he served from 1957 to 1958. He attained the rank of Specialist 4 and spent most of his service performing quartermaster duties at

Fort Lee, Virginia Fort Lee (formerly Fort Gregg-Adams), in Prince George County, Virginia is a United States Army post and headquarters of the United States Army Combined Arms Support Command (CASCOM)/ Sustainment Center of Excellence (SCoE), the U.S. Army Qu ...

. In 1961, his father formed a new

life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typical ...

company, Quaker Insurance, and Inhofe was appointed vice president. On June 17, 1970, Perry Inhofe died of a heart attack; Inhofe became president of Quaker Life Insurance and vice president of Mid-Continental Casualty Co. and Oklahoma Surety Co., while his brother Perry Jr. became president of Mid-Continental and Surety and vice president of Quaker Life. Inhofe and his brother eventually ended up in litigation over the companies that ended in 1990 with Perry paying $3 million to his brother.

College graduation scandal

Inhofe received a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in economics from the

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a Private university, private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian Church, although it is now nondenominational, and the campus ...

in 1973. Until his 1994 campaign for the U.S. Senate, his official biographies and news articles about him indicated that he had graduated in 1959. Inhofe initially denied the stories that uncovered the discrepancy, but later acknowledged them. After admitting that the stories were true, Inhofe explained that he had been allowed to take part in graduation ceremonies in 1959 though he was a few credits short of completing his degree, and did not finish his coursework until 1973.

State legislative career

Oklahoma House of Representatives

In February 1966, Inhofe launched his first campaign for office as a Republican; he ran for the

Oklahoma House of Representatives The Oklahoma House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its members introduce and vote on bills and resolutions, provide legislative oversight for state agencies, and help to craft the state's ...

's 71st district against incumbent representative

Warren Green Warren Everett Green (March 10, 1869 – April 27, 1945) was an American politician who served as the 13th governor of South Dakota. Green, a Republican from Hazel, South Dakota, served from 1931 to 1933. He was also a state senator from 19 ...

. He lost the May primary election and then worked on J. Robert Wooten's 1966 lieutenant gubernatorial campaign as the

Tulsa County Tulsa County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 669,279, making it the second-most populous county in the state, behind only Oklahoma C ...

campaign chair. In November 1966,

Joseph McGraw Joseph R. McGraw Jr. (born 1930) is an American politician who served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1964 to 1966 and in the Oklahoma Senate from 1966 to 1972. Education and career Joseph R. McGraw Jr. graduated from the Univer ...

resigned from the

Oklahoma House of Representatives The Oklahoma House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its members introduce and vote on bills and resolutions, provide legislative oversight for state agencies, and help to craft the state's ...

70th district to run for newly elected governor Dewey Bartlett's former state senate seat, triggering a special election. Inhofe was the first to announced his campaign for McGraw's former house seat. He won the Republican primary and the general election. He was sworn in December 29, 1966. During his time in the State House, Inhofe formed a close friendship with Democratic Representative

David Boren David Lyle Boren (April 21, 1941 – February 20, 2025) was an American lawyer and politician from Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 21st governor of Oklahoma from 1975 to 1979 and thr ...

. In the Oklahoma House, Inhofe's first successful measure was a bill to allow for

personalized license plates A vanity plate or personalized plate (United States and Canada); prestige plate, private number plate, cherished plate or personalised registration (United Kingdom); personalised plate (Australia, New Zealand, and United Kingdom) or custom pla ...

in Oklahoma that passed during his first legislative session. During his first term, he spoke against federal regulation at the

United States House Committee on Public Works The United States House Committee on Public Works was a U.S. House committee, established in 1947 by the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, that had jurisdiction over infrastructure within the United States. It was dissolved in 1968 and supers ...

Sub-committee on Roads and voted in favor of an

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

liberalization law. In 1968, he served as the vice-chair of the rules committee for the

Oklahoma Republican Party The Oklahoma Republican Party is an Oklahoma political party affiliated with the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party. Along with the Oklahoma Democratic Party, it is one of the two major parties in the state. It is currently the ...

state convention. That May, he announced he would not seek re-election to the

Oklahoma House of Representatives The Oklahoma House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its members introduce and vote on bills and resolutions, provide legislative oversight for state agencies, and help to craft the state's ...

and instead would challenge

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

state senator Beauchamp Selman for his seat in the next election.

Oklahoma Senate

Election, first term, and USS ''Batfish''

After Inhofe had already announced his campaign for the

Oklahoma Senate The Oklahoma Senate is the upper house of the two houses of the Legislature of Oklahoma, the other being the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The total number of senators is set at 48 by the Oklahoma Constitution.Beauchamp Selman announced he would not seek re-election, creating an open seat for the 1968 election. He faced Madison J. Bowers, who was endorsed by the Political Action Committee of Educators, in the Republican primary election. He won the primary and faced Democratic nominee Jerry L. Goodman in the general election. Governor Dewey Bartlett knocked doors with Inhofe during his campaign and he later won the general election. After winning the special election, Republican party officials began considering Inhofe as a potential future

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

candidate. In 1969, he was the chairman of the Tulsa County Republican Convention and he supported efforts to liberalize abortions laws in Oklahoma in the 32nd Oklahoma Legislature that passed the

Oklahoma House of Representatives The Oklahoma House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its members introduce and vote on bills and resolutions, provide legislative oversight for state agencies, and help to craft the state's ...

, but they failed in Senate committee. Republican party officials tried to recruit Inhofe to run for Treasurer of Oklahoma in 1970, but he declined to run. In 1970, Governor Dewey Bartlett created the Oklahoma Narcotics and Drug Abuse Council and appointed Inhofe as an inaugural member. That November, he was elected minority caucus chair of the

Oklahoma Senate The Oklahoma Senate is the upper house of the two houses of the Legislature of Oklahoma, the other being the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The total number of senators is set at 48 by the Oklahoma Constitution.33rd Oklahoma Legislature The Thirty-third Oklahoma Legislature was a meeting of the Oklahoma Legislature, legislative branch of the government of Oklahoma, composed of the Oklahoma Senate, Senate and the Oklahoma House of Representatives, House of Representatives. It me ...

. In 1971, Inhofe served as the chairman of the

Oklahoma Republican Party The Oklahoma Republican Party is an Oklahoma political party affiliated with the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party. Along with the Oklahoma Democratic Party, it is one of the two major parties in the state. It is currently the ...

's State Convention. While Inhofe had initially filed a resolution for Oklahoma to ratify the

Equal Rights Amendment The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, United States Constitution that would explicitly prohibit sex discrimination. It is not currently a part of the Constitution, though its Ratifi ...

in 1972, he retracted his support later that year. In 1969, Inhofe sponsored a successful bill to bring a retired

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

to Oklahoma. Inhofe initially wanted the '' USS Piranha'' for

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

, but it was determined that the

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in Colorado, specifically ...

was too shallow for the ship to travel that far upriver. The Muskogee City-County Trust Port Authority donated five acres of waterfront property to locate the ship in Muskogee. In September 1970, the USS ''Batfish'' was considered as an alternative and on December 9, 1971, the ''Batfish'' was given to the

State of Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked state in the South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northeast, Arkansas to the east, New Mexico to the west, and Colo ...

. The ship was unofficially opened to the public July 4, 1972, with its official opening on

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. It i ...

1973.

1972 campaigning and second term

In 1972, Inhofe was appointed to serve as co-chair for

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

's 1972 presidential campaign in Oklahoma with Ralph Gordon Thompson. During the campaign, Inhofe solicited

Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and major general in the United States Air Force, Air Force Reserve who served as a United States senator from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987, and was the Re ...

to write a letter of endorsement for Nixon's campaign in Oklahoma to win over

conservative Republicans The Republican Party (United States), Republican Party in the United States includes several Political faction, factions, or wings. During the 19th century, Republican factions included the Half-Breeds (politics), Half-Breeds, who supported civil ...

and he represented Oklahoma at the

1972 Republican National Convention The 1972 Republican National Convention was held from August 21 to August 23, 1972, at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida. It nominated President Richard M. Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew for reelection. The conve ...

. He also worked on U.S. senator Dewey Bartlett's campaign as the co-chair for

Oklahoma's 1st congressional district Oklahoma's 1st congressional district is in the northeastern corner of the state. Anchored by Tulsa, it is largely coextensive with the Tulsa metropolitan area. The district contains all of Tulsa County as well as portions of Creek, Rogers & Wag ...

. In his own district, Inhofe faced no Republican primary challenge and faced Democratic nominee Happy Miles in the general election. He won the general election by over 7,000 votes; afterward, he was elected by fellow Republican state senators to serve as the assistant floor leader in the 34th Oklahoma Legislature. He was elected minority leader of the

Oklahoma Senate The Oklahoma Senate is the upper house of the two houses of the Legislature of Oklahoma, the other being the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The total number of senators is set at 48 by the Oklahoma Constitution.35th Oklahoma Legislature to succeed

Donald Ferrell Donald Ferrell is an American politician and journalist who served as a Republican member of the Oklahoma Senate between 1966 and 1974, as the minority leader of the Oklahoma Senate between 1972 and 1974, and as 14th Adjutant General of Oklahoma f ...

who had lost re-election. In April 1975, he appointed the first blind page in Oklahoma history: 15 year-old Angela Keele. Later that year, Inhofe and Charles Ford wrote an article criticizing

David Boren David Lyle Boren (April 21, 1941 – February 20, 2025) was an American lawyer and politician from Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 21st governor of Oklahoma from 1975 to 1979 and thr ...

and spending by the Democratic Party in a party newspaper. Newspapers in the state responded by pointing out Inhofe had supported just as much spending; the article was syndicated by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

and Inhofe responded by publishing a ''

Tulsa World The ''Tulsa World'' is an American daily newspaper. It serves the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. The printed edition is the second-most circulated newspaper in the sta ...

''

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page," is a type of written prose commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and online publications. They usually represent a writer's strong and focused opinion on an issue of relevance to a targeted a ...

arguing he had tried to amend bills to remove wasteful spending and was consistently critical of spending. He did not seek a third term to the

Oklahoma Legislature The Legislature of the State of Oklahoma is the state legislative branch of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The Oklahoma House of Representatives and Oklahoma Senate are the two houses that make up the bicameral state legislature. There are 101 ...

and was succeeded as minority leader by Senator Stephen Wolfe.

= 1974 gubernatorial election

=

Inhofe had been floated as a potential gubernatorial candidate since 1972. Inhofe was considered a strong Republican candidate with his only weaknesses being his feuding with Leo Winters and the backlash to the '' USS Batfish'' project. By May 1973, he was openly campaigning, but had yet to officially announce his campaign. In October of that year, he was polling behind Denzil Garrison in the Republican primary 35% to 65%. Inhofe officially launched his campaign in May 1974. The main issue in both the Republican and Democratic primary campaigns was

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

during the term of incumbent Democratic governor David Hall. Inhofe defeated Garrison in the August primary. During the campaign, he lost 57 pounds and was down to 148 pounds. In a 2011 interview, Inhofe claimed that he and David Boren were both upset with Hall, so the pair decided to both campaign against him; Boren would primary him as a Democrat to weaken his campaign and Inhofe would run as the Republican challenger and defeat him. However, the plan was thrown off when Boren won the Democratic nomination. In October, then-President

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...

visited Oklahoma to campaign for Inhofe. A poll later that month by ''

The Daily Oklahoman ''The Oklahoman'' is the largest daily newspaper in Oklahoma, United States, and is the only regional daily that covers the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, Greater Oklahoma City area. The Alliance for Audited Media (formerly Audit Bureau Circul ...

'' showed Boren leading Inhofe 74%–25%. Inhofe ended up losing to Boren by 64%–36%.

=1976 congressional election

= In 1976, State Senator

Frank Keating Francis Anthony Keating II (born February 10, 1944, as David Rowland Keating) is an American attorney, politician and a former FBI special agent who served as the 25th governor of Oklahoma from 1995 to 2003. , Keating is one of only five gover ...

announced his campaign for

Oklahoma's 1st congressional district Oklahoma's 1st congressional district is in the northeastern corner of the state. Anchored by Tulsa, it is largely coextensive with the Tulsa metropolitan area. The district contains all of Tulsa County as well as portions of Creek, Rogers & Wag ...

and announced that Inhofe would be the master of ceremonies at his campaign launch announcement; however, Inhofe did not appear at Keating's announcement and instead announced he was considering his own campaign. Inhofe officially announced his candidacy on February 19, 1976. In the Republican primary, he defeated Keating and

Tulsa Public Schools Tulsa Public Schools is an independent school district serving the Tulsa, Oklahoma area in Northeastern Oklahoma. As of 2022, it is the largest school district in Oklahoma, surpassing Oklahoma City Public Schools for the first time since 201 ...

board member Mary Warner, 67%–25%–8%. In a 2011 interview, he credited his primary win to the use of the "Kasten Plan", a system of precinct organization. He also criticized Democratic presidential candidate, and U.S. senator from Oklahoma,

Fred Harris Fred, Fredric, Fredrick, Frederic, or Frederick Harris may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Fred Harris (presenter) (born 1947), British comedian and television presenter * Frederick Harris (conductor) (fl. 2000s–present), American conductor * ...

during his presidential primary campaign. During the primary, Inhofe had called for Democratic incumbent James R. Jones to be expelled from Congress for his conviction while in office for failing to report campaign contributions. Inhofe also criticized a donation Jones had received from

Ross Perot Henry Ross Perot ( ; June 27, 1930 – July 9, 2019) was an American businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He was the founder and chief executive officer of Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems. He ran an Independent politician ...

, but he retracted his accusation that the donation affected Jones's voting record after threats from Perot and his lawyers. Inhofe was endorsed by the

American Conservative Union The American Conservative Union (ACU) is an American political organization that advocates for Conservatism in the United States, conservative policies, ranks politicians based on their level of conservatism, and organizes the Conservative Poli ...

and

National Conservative Political Action Committee The National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC; pronounced "nick-pack"), based in Alexandria, Virginia, was a New Right political action committee in the United States that was a major contributor to the ascendancy of conservative R ...

during the general election. Former California governor, and future president,

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

endorsed and campaigned with Inhofe. He was also endorsed by President

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...

, U.S. representative John Rousselot of

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, and the ''

Tulsa Tribune The ''Tulsa Tribune'' was an afternoon daily newspaper published in Tulsa, Oklahoma from 1919 to 1992. Owned and run by three generations of the Jones family, the ''Tribune'' closed in 1992 after the termination of its joint operating agreement ...

''. Polling before the election showed Jones leading Inhofe, 44% to 36%. In the general election, Jones won by 54%–45%.

Mayor of Tulsa

In January 1978, the

Tulsa Daily World The ''Tulsa World'' is an American daily newspaper. It serves the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. The printed edition is the second-most circulated newspaper in the sta ...

reported Republican party officials were courting Inhofe to run for

Mayor of Tulsa This is a list of mayors of Tulsa, a city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Mayors of Tulsa are elected for four year terms. Mayors of Tulsa Notes See also * Timeline of Tulsa, Oklahoma References ;General Political Graveyard–Mayors of T ...

. He initially denied he would run for any city office and instead insisted he was considering a rematch against Congressman Jones; but, Inhofe announced his mayoral campaign in February. He won the Republican primary with over 92% of the vote, defeating Keith Robinson and Paul Cull. During the first three weeks of the primary, he was injured with a broken leg from a

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

injury and could not campaign. In the general election against

Rodger Randle Rodger Allen Randle (born October 26, 1943) is a retired American politician from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. He served twice as President pro tempore of the Oklahoma Senate and was a member of the Oklahoma Senate from 1972 to 1988.Robert LaFortune and U.S. senator Dewey Bartlett. Randle had won the Democratic primary with a coalition of

labor union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

and black voters, and Inhofe was supported in the general election by his Republican base, anti-union and anti-black Democrats, and 22% of black voters. In April, he was elected

mayor of Tulsa This is a list of mayors of Tulsa, a city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Mayors of Tulsa are elected for four year terms. Mayors of Tulsa Notes See also * Timeline of Tulsa, Oklahoma References ;General Political Graveyard–Mayors of T ...

, defeating Democrat

Rodger Randle Rodger Allen Randle (born October 26, 1943) is a retired American politician from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. He served twice as President pro tempore of the Oklahoma Senate and was a member of the Oklahoma Senate from 1972 to 1988.Tulsa Daily World The ''Tulsa World'' is an American daily newspaper. It serves the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. The printed edition is the second-most circulated newspaper in the sta ...

heralded the race as Inhofe's "first general election victory in six years, and Randle's first election loss since he entered politics in 1970." The race broke then-fundraising records for a Tulsa mayoral election with Randle raising $78,062 and Inhofe raising $48,987. Inhofe's biggest donors were the Metropolitan Builder's Association, oilman Robert L. Parker, and Paul D. Hinch. On May 2, he was sworn in as

Mayor of Tulsa This is a list of mayors of Tulsa, a city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Mayors of Tulsa are elected for four year terms. Mayors of Tulsa Notes See also * Timeline of Tulsa, Oklahoma References ;General Political Graveyard–Mayors of T ...

. Inhofe's first proclamation as mayor was to celebrate Sun Day and support

alternative energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...

; in the proclamation he said, "I think we're all interested in looking for alternative sources of energy. And of course, we want clean sources." In his first month in office, he decried the city's reliance on federal funding, promised to "seek minorities to fill positions in city government, and nominated

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, senior citizen,

anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its Abortion by country, legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in r ...

, and

Christian fundamentalist Christian fundamentalism, also known as fundamental Christianity or fundamentalist Christianity, is a religious movement emphasizing biblical literalism. In its modern form, it began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among British an ...

members to the Tulsa Human Rights Commission. In January 1979, Inhofe attended the first swearing in of a

governor of Oklahoma The governor of Oklahoma is the head of government of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Under the Oklahoma Constitution, the governor serves as the head of the Oklahoma Executive (government), executive branch, of the government of Oklahoma. The gover ...

to occur in Tulsa when

George Nigh George Patterson Nigh (born June 9, 1927) is an American politician and civic leader from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Nigh served as the 17th and the 22nd governor of Oklahoma and as the eighth and tenth lieutenant governor of Oklahoma. He was t ...

was sworn in to serve the last five days of

David Boren David Lyle Boren (April 21, 1941 – February 20, 2025) was an American lawyer and politician from Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 21st governor of Oklahoma from 1975 to 1979 and thr ...

's term after Boren was elected to the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

. In February, he appointed Ronald L. Young, the first

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

to ever serve on the City Commission. In December 1979, Inhofe officially announced his re-election campaign for a second term as mayor. He ran unopposed in the Republican primary and later won the general election, fending off Democratic nominee Richard Johnson and Independent candidate Robert Murphy. He broke

Rodger Randle Rodger Allen Randle (born October 26, 1943) is a retired American politician from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. He served twice as President pro tempore of the Oklahoma Senate and was a member of the Oklahoma Senate from 1972 to 1988. He lost his 1984 re-election campaign to Terry Young.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

In

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

, when Representative James R. Jones decided to retire to run for the U.S. Senate, Inhofe ran for the 1st District and won the Republican primary with 54% of the vote. In the general election, he defeated Democrat Gary Allison 55%–43%. In

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

, he won reelection against Democrat Kurt Glassco 53%–47%. In

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

, he defeated Glassco again, 56%–44%. After redistricting, the 1st District contained only two counties, all of

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

and some parts of Wagoner. In

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

, Inhofe was reelected with 53% of the vote.

Tenure

In 1987, Inhofe voted against President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

's budget, which included tax increases and no increase in defense spending. He first came to national attention in 1993, when he led the effort to reform the House's

discharge petition In United States parliamentary procedure, a discharge petition is a means of bringing a bill out of committee and to the floor for consideration without a report from the committee by "discharging" the committee from further consideration of a bi ...

rule, which the House leadership had long used to bottle up bills in committee.

U.S. Senate

Inhofe was the longest-serving

U.S. senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

from

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

, having served between 1994 and 2023.

Elections

In 1994, incumbent senator

David Boren David Lyle Boren (April 21, 1941 – February 20, 2025) was an American lawyer and politician from Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 21st governor of Oklahoma from 1975 to 1979 and thr ...

, who had been serving in the Senate since 1979, agreed to become president of the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...

and announced he would resign as soon as a successor was elected. A special election was scheduled, in which Inhofe

defeated Defeated may refer to: * "Defeated" (Breaking Benjamin song) * "Defeated" (Anastacia song) *"Defeated", a song by Snoop Dogg from the album ''Bible of Love'' *Defeated, Tennessee Defeated is an unincorporated community in Smith County, Tennessee ...

Congressman

Dave McCurdy David Keith McCurdy (born March 30, 1950) is an American lobbyist, lawyer, and former politician who was the Democratic U.S. Representative from Oklahoma's 4th congressional district, in office from 1981 to 1995. Described as a moderate or con ...

in the general election. 1994 also saw the Republican Party take both houses of the U.S. Congress and the Oklahoma governorship. Inhofe took office on November 17, giving him more seniority than the incoming class of senators. After serving the last two years of Boren's term, he won his first full term in 1996. He was reelected in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

,

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

,

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, and

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

.

Tenure

Fundraising

In the 2008 election cycle, Inhofe's largest campaign donors represented the

oil and gas A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geologi ...

($446,900 in donations), leadership PACs ($316,720), and

electric utilities An electric utility, or a power company, is a company in the electric power industry (often a public utility) that engages in electricity generation and Electricity retailing, distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. El ...

($221,654) industries/categories. In 2010, his largest donors represented the oil and gas ($429,950) and electric ($206,654) utilities. President Joe Biden meets with a bipartisan group of Senators

President Joe Biden meets with a bipartisan group of Senators

The primary PACs donating to his campaigns were

Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) is a Frederick, Maryland-based American non-profit political organization that advocates for general aviation. AOPA's membership consists mainly of general aviation pilots in the United States ...

($55,869),

United Parcel Service United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) is an American multinational corporation, multinational package delivery, shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907. Originally known as the American Messenger Company specializi ...

($51,850),

National Association of Realtors The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is an American trade association for those who work in the real estate industry. it had over 1.5 million members, making it the largest trade association in the United States including NAR's institute ...

($51,700),

NRA Political Victory Fund The Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) is the political action committee (PAC) of the National Rifle Association of America (NRA). Founded in 1976, the Fund endorses political candidates on behalf of the NRA and contributes money to those candidate's ...

($51,050), and

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is an American professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. This medical association was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was 271,660 ...

($51,000). Additionally, if company-sponsored PACs were combined with employee contributions,

Koch Industries Koch, Inc. () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas, and is the second-largest privately held company in the United States, after Cargill. Its subsidiarie ...

would be Inhofe's largest contributor, with $90,950 according to

OpenSecrets OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks and publishes data on campaign finance and lobbying, including a revolving door database which documents the individuals who have worked in both the public sector an ...

.

Armed Services Committee

As a member of the Armed Services Committee, Inhofe was among the panelists questioning witnesses about the 2004

Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse During the early stages of the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency were accused of a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These abuses ...

, saying he was "outraged by the outrage" over the revelations of abuse. Although he believed that the individuals responsible for mistreating prisoners should be punished, he said that the prisoners "are not there for traffic violations ... they're murderers, they're

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

s, they're

insurgents An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregular forces face a large, well ...

". In 2006, Inhofe was one of only nine senators to vote against the

Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (DTA) is an Act of the United States Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on December 30, 2005. Offered as an amendment to a supplemental defense spending bill, it contains provisions ...

, which prohibits "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment of individuals in

U.S. Government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executi ...

custody. When chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...

was absent seeking medical treatment for brain cancer, Inhofe became acting chairman of the committee. During this time, Inhofe helped secure the passage of the record $716 billion

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 The John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA 2019) is a United States federal law which specifies the budget, expenditures and policies of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for fiscal year 2019. It was s ...

. McCain died in August 2018, and Inhofe lauded him as his "hero". Inhofe also said that McCain was "partially to blame for" the White House's controversial decision to raise flags back to full mast after less than two days, as McCain previously "disagreed with the President in certain areas and wasn't too courteous about it". On March 6, 2019, Inhofe said he intended to put language in the next defense authorization act to reinforce

President Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

's decision to withdraw from the

Iran nuclear agreement The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA; (, BARJAM)), also known as the Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal, is an History and culture of negotiation in Iran, agreement to limit the nuclear program of Iran, Iranian nuclear program in return f ...

and reintroduce severe sanctions on Tehran.

Committee assignments and caucus membership

During the 115th, 116th, and 117th Congresses, Inhofe was a member of the following committees: * Committee on Armed Services ** Subcommittee on Airland **

Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

** Subcommittee on Strategic Forces *

Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation The United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is a standing committee of the United States Senate. Besides having broad jurisdiction over all matters concerning interstate commerce, science and technology policy, a ...

*

Committee on Environment and Public Works The United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works is responsible for legislation and oversight of the natural and built environment and for studying matters concerning environmental protection and resource conservation and util ...

* Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Caucus memberships * International Conservation Caucus * Senate Army Caucus * Senate Diabetes Caucus * Senate General Aviation Caucus * Senate Rural Health Caucus * Senate Tourism Caucus * Sportsmen's Caucus

Retirement

On July 15, 2021, Inhofe told ''

Tulsa World The ''Tulsa World'' is an American daily newspaper. It serves the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. The printed edition is the second-most circulated newspaper in the sta ...

'' he planned to retire at the end of his current term, in 2027. In February 2022, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' reported that Inhofe was planning to resign at the end of the 117th Congress. A special election for Inhofe's replacement was held in 2022 while he remained in office. He endorsed his former chief of staff, Luke Holland, in the special election.

Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district is one of five United States congressional districts in Oklahoma and covers approximately one-fourth of the state in the east. The district borders Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Texas and includes (in who ...

Congressman

Markwayne Mullin Markwayne Mullin (born July 26, 1977) is an American and Cherokee Nation, Cherokee businessman and politician who has served as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from Oklahoma since 2023 ...

won the Republican primary and the special election. Inhofe resigned on January 3, 2023. It was reported in February 2023 that the primary reason for Inhofe's retirement was related to him suffering symptoms of

long COVID Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

, which had severely limited his capacity to do day-to-day activities, after an initial infection he had described as "very mild".

Political positions

Inhofe was ranked the most

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

member of Congress on the 2017 GovTrack report card. He received the same ranking for 2018. For 2019, he was ranked as the fifth-most conservative member of the U.S. Senate with a score of 0.91 out of 1, behind

Marsha Blackburn Mary Marsha Blackburn (née Wedgeworth; born June 6, 1952) is an American politician and businesswoman serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from Tennessee. Blackburn was first ...

(R-TN),

Joni Ernst Joni Kay Ernst (née Culver; born July 1, 1970) is an American politician and retired military officer serving since 2015 as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from Iowa. A member of the ...

(R-IA),

Mike Braun Michael Braun (born March 24, 1954) is an American businessman and politician serving as the 52nd governor of Indiana since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, he served from 2019 to 2025 as a United States senator from Indiana and from 2 ...

(R-IN), and

Ted Cruz Rafael Edward Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz was the solicitor general of Texas from 2003 ...

(R-TX).

Environmental issues

Inhofe was best known for his denial of

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

, which he called a "hoax", and his defense of the

oil industry The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The largest volume products ...

, a major industry in Oklahoma. In December 1997, Inhofe called the

Kyoto Protocol The was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that global warming is oc ...

, an international treaty to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate chan ...

into the atmosphere, a "political, economic, and national security fiasco."

Committee on Environment and Public Works

Before the Republicans regained control of the Senate in the November 2002 elections, Inhofe had compared the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...

to a

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

bureaucracy, and EPA Administrator

Carol Browner Carol Martha Browner (born December 16, 1955) is an American lawyer, environmentalist and businesswoman who served as director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2011. Brown ...

to

Tokyo Rose Tokyo Rose (alternative spelling Tokio Rose) was a name given by Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II to all female English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. The programs were broadcast in the South Pacific ...

. In January 2003, he became Chair of the

Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works The United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works is responsible for legislation and oversight of the natural and built environment and for studying matters concerning environmental protection and resource conservation and util ...

, and continued challenging mainstream science in favor of what he called "sound science", in accordance with the Luntz memo. Beginning in 2003, when he was first elected Chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Inhofe was the foremost Republican promoting

climate change denial Climate change denial (also global warming denial) is a form of science denial characterized by rejecting, refusing to acknowledge, disputing, or fighting the scientific consensus on climate change. Those promoting denial commonly use rhetor ...

. He famously claimed in the Senate that global warming is a

hoax A hoax (plural: hoaxes) is a widely publicised falsehood created to deceive its audience with false and often astonishing information, with the either malicious or humorous intent of causing shock and interest in as many people as possible. S ...

, invited contrarians to testify in Committee hearings, and spread his views via the Committee website run by

Marc Morano Marc Morano (born 1968) is a former Republican political aide who founded and runs the website ClimateDepot.com. ClimateDepot is a project of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), a US non-profit organisation that promotes climate ...

as well as through his access to conservative media. In 2012, Inhofe's ''The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future'' was published by WorldNetDaily Books, presenting his

global warming conspiracy theory Climate change denial (also global warming denial) is a form of science denial characterized by rejecting, refusing to acknowledge, disputing, or fighting the scientific consensus on climate change. Those promoting denial commonly use rhetor ...

. He said that, because "God's still up there", the "arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous", but also that he appreciated that this argument was unpersuasive, and that he "never pointed to

Scriptures Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and ...

in a debate, because I know this would discredit me." As Environment and Public Works chairman, Inhofe gave a two-hour Senate floor speech on July 28, 2003, in the context of discussions on the McCain-Lieberman Bill. He said he was "going to expose the most powerful, most highly financed lobby in Washington, the far left environmental extremists", and laid out in detail his opposition to

attribution of recent climate change The scientific community has been investigating the causes of climate change for decades. After thousands of studies, the scientific consensus is that it is "unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land since pre-i ...

to humans, using the word "hoax" four times, including the statement that he had "offered compelling evidence that catastrophic global warming is a hoax" and his conclusion that "manmade global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people". He supported what he called "sound science", citing contrarian scientists such as

Patrick Michaels Patrick J. Michaels (February 15, 1950 – July 15, 2022) was an American agricultural climatologist. Michaels was a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute until 2019. Until 2007, he was research professor of environmenta ...

,

Fred Singer Siegfried Fred Singer (September 27, 1924 – April 6, 2020) was an Austrian-born American physicist and emeritus professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia, trained as an atmospheric physicist. He was known for rejecting ...

,

Richard Lindzen Richard Siegmund Lindzen (born February 8, 1940) is an American atmospheric physicist known for his work in the dynamics of the middle atmosphere, atmospheric tides, and ozone photochemistry. He is the author of more than 200 scientific papers ...

, and

Sallie Baliunas Sallie Louise Baliunas (born February 23, 1953) is a retired astrophysicist. She formerly worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian and was the Deputy Director of the Mount Wilson Ob ...

as well as some mainstream scientists. Two of these,

Tom Wigley Tom Michael Lampe Wigley is a climate scientist at the University of Adelaide. He is also affiliated with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR, Boulder, CO). He was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advanc ...

and Stephen Schneider, later issued statements that Inhofe had misrepresented their work. On July 29, the day after his Senate speech, Inhofe chaired an Environment and Public Works hearing with contrarian views represented by Baliunas and

David Legates David Russell Legates is a former professor of geography at the University of Delaware. He is the former Director of the Center for Climatic Research at the same university and a former Delaware state climatologist. In September 2020, the Trump ...

, and praised their "1,000-year climate study", then involved in the

Soon and Baliunas controversy The Soon and Baliunas controversy involved the publication in 2003 of a review study titled ''Proxy climatic and environmental changes of the past 1000 years'', written by aerospace engineer Willie Soon and astronomer Sallie Baliunas and published ...

, as "a powerful new work of science". Against them,

Michael E. Mann Michael Evan Mann (born 1965) is an American climatologist and geophysicist. He is the director of the Center for Science, Sustainability & the Media at the University of Pennsylvania. Mann has contributed to the scientific understanding of his ...

defended mainstream science and specifically his work on reconstructions (the hockey stick graph) that they and the Bush administration disputed. During the hearing Senator

Jim Jeffords James Merrill "Jim" Jeffords (May 11, 1934 – August 18, 2014) was an American lawyer and politician from Vermont who served as a member of the Vermont Senate from 1967 to 1969, Attorney General of Vermont from 1969 to 1973, and later serve ...

read out an email from

Hans von Storch Hans von Storch (born 13 August 1949) is a German climate scientist. He is a professor at the Meteorological Institute of the University of Hamburg, and (since 2001) Director of the Institute for Coastal Research at the Helmholtz Research Centre ( ...

saying he had resigned as editor-in-chief of the journal that published the Soon and Baliunas paper, as the peer review had "failed to detect significant methodological flaws in the paper" and the critique by Mann and colleagues was valid. In a continuation of these themes, Inhofe had a 20-page brochure published under the

Seal of the United States Senate The United States Senate is represented by many symbols, including its seal, the eagle and shield, and the Senate gavel. Seal The seal of the United States Senate is the seal officially adopted by the United States Senate to authenticate certain ...

reiterating his "hoax" statement and comparing the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to "provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies". The World Met ...

(IPCC) to a "

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

style trial". In a section headed "The IPCC Plays Hockey" he attacked what he called "Mann's flawed, limited research." The brochure restated themes from Inhofe's Senate speech, and in December 2003 he distributed copies of it in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

at a meeting about the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the UN process for negotiating an agreement to limit dangerous climate change. It is an international treaty among countries to combat "dangerous human interference with th ...

, where he met "green activists" with posters quoting him as saying that global warming "is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people". He signed a poster for them, and thanked them for quoting him correctly. In an October 2004 Senate speech he said, "Global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people. It was true when I said it before, and it remains true today. Perhaps what has made this hoax so effective is that we hear over and over that the science is settled and there is a consensus that, unless we fundamentally change our way of life by limiting

greenhouse gas Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the gases in the atmosphere that raise the surface temperature of planets such as the Earth. Unlike other gases, greenhouse gases absorb the radiations that a planet emits, resulting in the greenhouse effect. T ...

emissions, we will cause catastrophic global warming. This is simply a false statement." In January 2005 Inhofe told

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg T ...

that global warming was "the second-largest hoax ever played on the American people, after the

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and Jurisprudence, jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the State (polity), state. Conceptually, the term refers to ...

", and that

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

would not be restricted by the Clear Skies Act of 2003. In a Senate Floor "update", he extended his argument against Mann's work by extensively citing

Michael Crichton John Michael Crichton (; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author, screenwriter and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavil ...

's fictional thriller ''

State of Fear ''State of Fear'' is a 2004 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton, his fourteenth under his own name and twenty-fourth overall, in which eco-terrorism, eco-terrorists plot mass murder to publicize the danger of global warming. Despite being ...

'', mistakenly describing Crichton as a "scientist".. Reprinted from ''

The American Prospect ''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and Progressivism in the United States, progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The America ...

'', January 10, 2005. On August 28, 2005, at Inhofe's invitation, Crichton appeared as an expert witness at a hearing on climate change, disputing Mann's work. In his 2006 book ''

The Republican War on Science ''The Republican War on Science'' is a 2005 book by Chris Mooney, an American journalist who focuses on the politics of science policy. In the book, Mooney discusses the Republican Party leadership's stance on science, and in particular that o ...

'', Chris Mooney wrote that Inhofe "politicizes and misuses the science of climate change". During the

2006 North American heat wave The Summer 2006 North American heat wave was a severe heat wave that affected most of the United States and Canada, killing at least 225 people and bringing extreme heat to many locations. At least three died in Philadelphia, Arkansas, and India ...

, Inhofe said that the environmentalist movement reminded him of "the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

, the

Big Lie A big lie () is a gross distortion or misrepresentation of the truth primarily used as a political propaganda technique. The German expression was first used by Adolf Hitler in his book ''Mein Kampf'' (1925) to describe how people could be in ...

": "You say something over and over and over and over again, and people will believe it, and that's their strategy." In a September 2006 Senate speech Inhofe argued that the threat of global warming was exaggerated by "the media,

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

elites In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...

and our pop culture". He said that in the 1960s the media had switched from warning of global warming to warning of

global cooling Global cooling was a conjecture, especially during the 1970s, of imminent cooling of the Earth culminating in a period of extensive glaciation, due to the cooling effects of aerosols or orbital forcing. Some press reports in the 1970s specu ...

and a coming

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

, then in the 1970s had returned to warming to promote "climate change fears". In February 2007 he told ''

Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

'' that mainstream science increasingly attributed climate change to natural causes, and only "those individuals on the far left, such as Hollywood liberals and the United Nations", disagreed. In 2006, Inhofe introduced Senate Amendment 4682 with

Kit Bond Christopher Samuel Bond (March 6, 1939 – May 13, 2025) was an American attorney and politician from Missouri. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as a United States Senate, U.S. Senator from 1987 to 20 ...

(R- MO), which would have modified oversight responsibility of the Army Corps of Engineers. The

League of Conservation Voters The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is an American environmental advocacy group. LCV says that it "builds political power for people and the planet." Through its affiliated super PAC, it is a major supporter of the Democratic Party. The org ...

, an environmentalist group, said analyses for corps projects "have been manipulated to favor large-scale projects that harm the environment." During the

109th Congress The 109th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, from January 3, 2005, to January 3, 2007, du ...

, Inhofe voted to increase

offshore oil drilling Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the ter ...

, to include provisions for drilling in the

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR, pronounced as “''ANN-warr''”) or Arctic Refuge is a national wildlife refuge in northeastern Alaska, United States, on traditional Inupiaq, Iñupiaq and Gwichʼin, Gwich'in lands. The refuge is of ...

in the House Budget Amendment, and to deny funding for both low-income energy assistance and environmental stewardship, citing heavy costs and unproven programs. In May 2009, Inhofe gave support to the idea that

black carbon Black carbon (BC) is the light-absorbing refractory form of Chemical_element, elemental carbon remaining after pyrolysis (e.g., charcoal) or produced by incomplete combustion (e.g., soot). Tihomir Novakov originated the term black carbon in ...

is a significant contributor to global warming. Inhofe received money from the

fossil fuel industry A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geologi ...

. For example: "

Exxon Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the largest direct successor of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the modern company was form ...

's beneficiaries in Congress include the Oklahoma senator Jim Inhofe, who called global warming a hoax, and who has received $20,500 since 2007, according to the Dirty Energy Money database maintained by Oil Change International."

Climatic Research Unit email controversy

On November 23, 2009, as the

Climatic Research Unit email controversy The Climatic Research Unit email controversy (also known as "Climategate") began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) by an external attacker, copying thous ...

emerged, Inhofe said the emails confirmed his view that scientists were "cooking the science". On December 7 on the

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

program '' The Situation Room'', Inhofe said that the emails showed that the science behind climate change "has been pretty well debunked"; the

fact checking A fact is a true datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scientific facts are verified by repeatable careful observation or measurement by experiments or other means. For e ...

organization

PolitiFact PolitiFact.com is an American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, with offices there and in Washington, D.C. It began in 2007 as a project of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' (then the ''St. Petersburg Times ...

concluded that Inhofe's statement was false. On the same day, Inhofe said he would lead a three-man "truth squad" consisting of himself and fellow senators

Roger Wicker Roger Frederick Wicker (born July 5, 1951) is an American politician, attorney, and United States Air Force, Air Force veteran serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from Mississi ...

and

John Barrasso John Anthony Barrasso III ( ; born July 21, 1952) is an American physician and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from Wyoming, a seat he has held since 2007. A mem ...

to the

2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit, was held at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7 and 18 December. The conference included the 15th session of the Conference of the Partie ...

in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. Inhofe was unable to secure meetings with any negotiators or delegations to the conference and only met with a small group of reporters. The minority group of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works prepared a report on "the CRU Controversy", published in February 2010, which listed as "Key Players" 17 scientists including Mann and Phil Jones. Inhofe said it showed that the controversy was "about unethical and potentially illegal behavior by some of the world's leading climate scientists."
On May 26 Inhofe formally requested that the Inspector General of the

United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business and governmental decision making, establishing industrial standards, catalyzing econ ...

investigate how the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

(NOAA) had dealt with the emails, and whether the emails showed any wrongdoing; it found no major issues or inappropriate actions.

Global warming temperatures

In July 2010 Inhofe said, "I don't think that anyone disagrees with the fact that we actually are in a cold period that started about nine years ago. Now, that's not me talking, those are the scientists that say that." The

Union of Concerned Scientists The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is a nonprofit science advocacy organization based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. Anne Kapuscinski, Professor of Environment ...

said that Inhofe was wrong, pointing to a NOAA report indicating that the summer of 2010 had so far been the hottest on record since 1880. Inhofe added, "People on the other side of this argument back in January, they said, 'Inhofe, it has nothing to do with today's or this month or next month. We're looking at a long period of time. We go into twenty year periods. During a House committee hearing in 2011, Inhofe testified, "I have to admit—and, you know, confession is good for the soul ... I, too, once thought that catastrophic global warming was caused by anthropogenic gases—because everyone said it was." Under questioning from committee member

Jay Inslee Jay Robert Inslee ( ; born February 9, 1951) is an American politician and lawyer who served from 2013 to 2025 as the 23rd governor of Washington. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 1993 to 1995 and again from 1999 to 2012 as a ...

, Inhofe dismissed the notion that he was less knowledgeable than climate scientists, saying that he'd already given "five speeches on the science."

2015: Chair of Environment and Public Works committee

On January 21, 2015, Inhofe returned to chairing the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works as part of a new Republican majority in the Senate. In response to NOAA and NASA reports that 2014 had been the warmest year globally in the

temperature record Global surface temperature (GST) is the average temperature of Earth's surface. More precisely, it is the weighted average of the temperatures over the ocean and land. The former is also called sea surface temperature and the latter is called ...

, he said, "we had the coldest in the western hemisphere in the same time frame", and attributed changes to a 30-year cycle, not human activities. In a debate on the same day about a bill for the

Keystone XL pipeline The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010, formerly owned by TC Energy. It is now owned by South Bow, following TC Energy's spin off of its liquids business into a separate publi ...

, Inhofe endorsed an amendment proposed by Senator

Sheldon Whitehouse Sheldon Whitehouse (born October 20, 1955) is an American lawyer and politician serving since 2007 as the junior United States senator from Rhode Island. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 1993 to 1998 as the United States Att ...

, "Climate change is real and not a hoax", which passed 98–1. Inhofe clarified his view that "Climate is changing and climate has always changed and always will. There is archaeological evidence of that, there is biblical evidence of that, there is historical evidence of that", but added, "there are some people who are so arrogant to think they are so powerful they can change climate." On February 26, 2015, Inhofe brought a snowball to the Senate floor and tossed it before delivering remarks in which he said that environmentalists keep talking about global warming even though it keeps getting cold.

Hydraulic fracturing

On March 19, 2015, Inhofe introduced S.828, "The Fracturing Regulations are Effective in State Hands (FRESH) Act." The bill would transfer regulatory power over hydraulic fracturing from the federal government to state governments. In his announcement of the bill, Inhofe said that hydraulic fracturing had never contaminated ground water in Oklahoma. The U.S. senators from seven states (Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Dakota and Texas) cosponsored the bill.

Paris Agreement

Inhofe co-authored and was one of 22 senators to sign a letter to President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

urging him to withdraw the United States from the

Paris Agreement The Paris Agreement (also called the Paris Accords or Paris Climate Accords) is an international treaty on climate change that was signed in 2016. The treaty covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance. The Paris Agreement was ...

. According to

OpenSecrets OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks and publishes data on campaign finance and lobbying, including a revolving door database which documents the individuals who have worked in both the public sector an ...

, Inhofe had received over $529,000 from the oil and gas industry since 2012.

Foreign policy

Israel Anti-Boycott Act

In October 2017, Inhofe co-sponsored the

Israel Anti-Boycott Act The Israel Anti-Boycott Act (IABA) (; ) was a proposed anti-BDS law and amendment to the Export Administration Act of 1979 designed to allow U.S. states to enact laws requiring contractors to sign pledges promising not to boycott any goods from ...

(S. 720), which would have made it a federal crime for Americans to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

s in the occupied

Palestinian territories The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine ...

if protesting actions by the Israeli government.

Western Sahara

Inhofe supported the

Polisario Front The Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro (Spanish language, Spanish: ; ), better known by its acronym Polisario Front, is a Sahrawi nationalism, Sahrawi nationalist liberation movement seeking to end the occupatio ...

and traveled to

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

many times to meet with its leaders. He urged Morocco to hold a referendum on independence for

Western Sahara Western Sahara is a territorial dispute, disputed territory in Maghreb, North-western Africa. It has a surface area of . Approximately 30% of the territory () is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 70% is ...

. In 2017, Inhofe blocked the Trump administration's nomination of J. Peter Pham for

Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs The assistant secretary of state for African affairs is the head of the Bureau of African Affairs, within the United States Department of State, who guides operation of the U.S. diplomatic establishment in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa and ...

, citing a disagreement over Western Sahara. After the December 2020

Israel–Morocco normalization agreement The Israel–Morocco normalization agreement is an agreement announced by the United States government on December 10, 2020, in which Israel and Morocco agreed to begin normalizing relations. On December 22, 2020, a joint declaration was sign ...

, Inhofe sharply criticized the Trump administration for recognizing

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

's claim over Western Sahara, calling the decision "shocking and deeply disappointing" and adding that he was "saddened that the rights of the Western Sahara people have been traded away".

War in Afghanistan

Inhofe opposed the 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan under President Biden, saying that Biden should maintain "a relatively small troop presence until the conditions outlined in the 2020 U.S.-Taliban Agreement are fully implemented."

Immigration

Inhofe wrote the Inhofe Amendment to the

Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA, ) was a United States Senate bill introduced in the 109th Congress (2005–2006) by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) on April 7, 2006. Co-sponsors, who signed on the same day, were Sen. Chuck Hagel (R- ...

, which was debated in Congress in May 2006. The amendment would make English the

national language '' '' A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection— de facto or de jure—with a nation. The term is applied quite differently in various contexts. One or more languages spoken as first languag ...

of the United States and require that new citizens take an English proficiency test. The amendment was passed on May 18, 2006, with 32 Democrats, one

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

, and one Republican dissenting. The measure had 11 cosponsors, including one Democrat.

Social issues

Gun policy

In the aftermath of the

2017 Las Vegas shooting On October 1, 2017, a mass shooting occurred when 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in from his 32nd-floor suites in the Mandalay Bay hotel. He fired m ...

, Inhofe blamed the "culture of

sanctuary cities A sanctuary city is a municipality that limits or denies its cooperation with the national government in enforcing immigration law. Proponents of sanctuary cities cite motives such as reducing the fear of persons which illegally immigrated fr ...

" for the shootings.

LGBT rights

Inhofe was generally seen as overtly hostile by

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

advocacy groups, earning a 0% in every one of his terms on the

Human Rights Campaign The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is an American LGBTQ advocacy group. It is the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization within the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization focuses on protecting and expanding rights for L ...

's position scorecard. Inhofe was in favor of a constitutional amendment banning

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

, against adding

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns ar ...

to the definition of

hate crime Hate crime (also known as bias crime) in criminal law involves a standard offence (such as an assault, murder) with an added element of bias against a victim (individual or group of individuals) because of their physical appearance or perceived ...

s, and voted against prohibiting job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In 2008, Inhofe said his office "does not hire openly gay staffers due to the possibility of a conflict of agenda." Inhofe campaigned for his Senate seat in 1994 using the phrase "God, guns, and gays." In 2008, his campaign was noted by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

for running an ad with "anti-gay overtones" featuring a wedding cake with two male figures on top, fading into his opponent's face. In 1999, along with Republican colleagues

Tim Hutchinson Young Timothy Hutchinson (born August 11, 1949) is an American politician, lobbyist, and former United States senator from the state of Arkansas. A Republican, he was the first Republican U.S. senator to represent Arkansas since the reconstr ...

and Bob Smith, and Republican Senate Majority Leader

Trent Lott Chester Trent Lott Sr. (born October 9, 1941) is an American lobbyist, lawyer, author, and politician who represented Mississippi in the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 1989 and in the United States Senate from 1989 to 2007. ...

, Inhofe stalled the nomination of

James Hormel James Catherwood Hormel (January 1, 1933 – August 13, 2021) was an American philanthropist, LGBT activist, diplomat, and heir to the Hormel meatpacking fortune. He served as the United States Ambassador to Luxembourg from 1999 to 2001, and was ...

, a gay man, as US Ambassador to Luxembourg for over 20 months specifically because of Hormel's sexual orientation. President Bill Clinton eventually appointed him in a recess appointment, making him the United States' first openly gay ambassador in June 1999, and angering Inhofe, who held up seven more Clinton appointees in retaliation. In 2015, Inhofe condemned the Supreme Court ruling in ''

Obergefell v. Hodges ''Obergefell v. Hodges'', ( ), is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of th ...

'', which held that same-sex marriage bans violated the Constitution.

Racial and gender civil rights

In 1995, Inhofe voted to ban affirmative action hiring with federal funds. In 1997, he voted to end special funding for minority- and women-owned businesses. The bill he voted for would have abolished a program that helps businesses owned by women and minorities to compete for federally funded transportation; it did not pass. The next year, Inhofe voted to repeal the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program, which is designed to "remedy ongoing discrimination and the continuing effects of past discrimination in federally-assisted highway, transit, airport, and highway safety financial assistance transportation contracting markets nationwide" by allocating 10% of highway funds to benefit the business enterprises of racial minorities and women. Overall, in 2002, the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

(ACLU) rated Inhofe at 20%, indicating that he held an anti-racial civil rights record. Four years later, on December 31, 2006, the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

(NAACP) rated Inhofe at 7%, indicating that he held an anti-civil rights and anti-affirmative action record.

Privacy

In 2001, Inhofe voted to loosen restrictions on cell phone wiretapping. The bill, which passed, removed the requirement that a person or party implementing an order to wiretap a private citizen's cellphone must ascertain that the target of the surveillance is present in the house or using the phone that has been tapped.

Free speech and expression

In 1995, Inhofe co-sponsored a constitutional amendment to the

U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally including seven articles, the Constituti ...

that would give Congress and individual U.S. states the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the American flag. The bill's primary sponsor was

Orrin Hatch Orrin Grant Hatch (March 22, 1934 – April 23, 2022) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019. Hatch's 42-year Senate tenure made him the longest-serving Republican U.S. senat ...

(R-UT).

GI Bill reform

Inhofe, an initial sponsor of Senator

Jim Webb James Henry Webb Jr. (born February 9, 1946) is an American politician and author. He has served as a United States senator from Virginia, Secretary of the Navy, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, Counsel for the United States ...

's

Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 is Title V of the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2008, , , an Act of Congress which became law on June 30, 2008.https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/06/20 ...

, subsequently withdrew support for this bill to support S. 2938, a competing bill that would have provided benefits beyond those offered in Webb's bill. But he voted to enact Webb's legislation in June 2008. Inhofe agreed to support legislation allowing military mental health specialists to talk with veterans about private firearms in an effort to reduce suicides.

Economic issues

Aviation

Trained by the U.S. Navy, Inhofe was one of the few members of Congress holding a Commercial Airman certificate. In 1994, when he first ran for the U.S. Senate, he used his plane as a daily campaign vehicle to travel throughout Oklahoma and visit almost every town in the state. He was influential in Senate and Congressional debates involving aircraft regulation. In 2012, he authored the Pilot's Bill of Rights bill.

Taxpayer-funded travel

Inhofe said that he made over 140 trips to Africa over about 20 years and helped to get

United States Africa Command The United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM, U.S. AFRICOM, and AFRICOM) is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense, headquartered at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany. It is responsible for ...

established. He made multiple foreign trips, especially to Africa, on missions that he described as "a

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

thing" and that were paid for by the U.S. government. He used these trips for activities on behalf of The Fellowship, a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

organization. Inhofe said that his trips included some governmental work but also involved "the political philosophy of Jesus, something that had been put together by Doug Coe, the leader of The Fellowship ... It's all scripturally based." Inhofe used his access as a senator to pursue religious goals.

Federal disaster relief

Inhofe consistently voted against federal disaster relief, most notably in the case of relief for the 24 states affected by

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...

, but argued for and voted for federal aid when natural disasters hit Oklahoma. In defense of his decision to vote against a relief fund for Sandy but not in Oklahoma after tornadoes ravaged it in May 2013, he claimed the situations were "totally different", in that the Sandy funding involved "Everybody getting in and exploiting the tragedy that took place. That won't happen in Oklahoma." Inhofe pointedly did not thank President Obama for his attention to the tragedy in his state, so as to not be compared to

Chris Christie Christopher James Christie (born September 6, 1962) is an American politician and former United States Attorney, federal prosecutor who served as the 55th governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018. A member of the Republican Party (United States) ...

.

Sought federal environmental cleanup funds

Inhofe was instrumental in securing millions of dollars of federal funds to clean up contamination at a former mining hub in northeast Oklahoma after the affected site had spent decades on the Environmental Protection Agency Superfund list. He supported participation in the massive federal government buyout program for the

Tar Creek Superfund site Tar Creek Superfund site is a United States Superfund site, declared in 1983, located in the cities of Picher, Douthat and Cardin, Ottawa County, in northeastern Oklahoma. From 1900 to the 1960s lead mining and zinc mining companies left beh ...

that purchased homes and businesses within a 40-square-mile (104-square-kilometer) region where for decades, children consistently tested positive for dangerous levels of lead in their blood.

Earmarks

In April 2021, Inhofe expressed support for bringing back earmarks to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

. The ''

Tulsa World The ''Tulsa World'' is an American daily newspaper. It serves the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. The printed edition is the second-most circulated newspaper in the sta ...

'' credited Inhofe for how he "relentlessly pursued" federal investment for highways, aviation, and military bases in the state.

Tribal sovereignty

In 2005, Inhofe included a midnight rider in that year's transportation bill that prevented

federally recognized tribes This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes are legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United States.

in Oklahoma from administering

Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency may refer to the following government organizations: * Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland), Australia * Environmental Protection Agency (Ghana) * Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) * Environmenta ...

regulations, a practice allowed by federal law in other states.

Presidential Impeachments

On February 12, 1999, Inhofe was one of 50 senators to vote to convict and remove Bill Clinton from office. On February 5, 2020, he voted to acquit Donald Trump, and on February 13, 2021, he voted to acquit Trump for the second time.

2016 presidential election

Early during the Republican Party presidential primaries in 2016, Inhofe endorsed fellow Republican

John Kasich John Richard Kasich Jr. ( ; born May 13, 1952) is an American politician and author who was the 69th governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001, and a Republican candidate for the pre ...

. During Donald Trump's presidency, he voted in line with Trump's position 94.2% of the time.

Purchase of Raytheon stock

In December 2018, Inhofe bought $50,000 to $100,000 worth of stock in

Raytheon Raytheon is a business unit of RTX Corporation and is a major U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. Founded in 1922, it merged in 2020 with Unite ...

, a major defense contractor that has billions of dollars' worth of contracts with the Pentagon. The week before, he had successfully lobbied the Trump administration to increase military spending. Ethics watchdogs said the purchase raised conflict of interest concerns, and noted that members of Congress are not allowed to purchase stocks on the basis of information that is not publicly available. Inhofe sold the stock shortly after reporters asked him about the purchase. He said the purchase was made by a third-party adviser who manages Inhofe's investments on his behalf.

Judiciary

In March 2016, around seven months before the next presidential election, Inhofe argued that the Senate should not consider Obama's Supreme Court nominee because "we must let the people decide the Supreme Court's future" via the presidential election. In September 2020, less than two months before the next presidential election, Inhofe supported an immediate vote on Trump's nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy caused by Justice

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg ( ; Bader; March 15, 1933 – September 18, 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until Death and state funeral of Ruth Bader ...

's death. Inhofe also voted to confirm

Neil Gorsuch Neil McGill Gorsuch ( ; born August 29, 1967) is an American jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was Neil Gorsuch Supreme Court ...

and

Brett Kavanaugh Brett Michael Kavanaugh (; born February 12, 1965) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, and has served since Oct ...

(Trump's other two Supreme Court nominations) while voting against

Sonia Sotomayor Sonia Maria Sotomayor (, ; born June 25, 1954) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, and has served since ...

and

Elena Kagan Elena Kagan ( ; born April 28, 1960) is an American lawyer who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was Elena Kagan Supreme Court nomination ...

(Obama's two Supreme Court nominations). All four were successful.

2020 presidential election

Inhofe refused to support delaying the certification of the

2020 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala H ...

and said doing so would have violated his oath of office.

2021 storming of the United States Capitol

On May 28, 2021, Inhofe abstained from voting on the creation of an independent commission to investigate the

January 6 United States Capitol attack On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of Donald Trump, President Donald Trump in an attempted self-coup,Multiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * * two months afte ...

.

Personal life

Jim Inhofe boards his airplane positioned in front of Base Ops following a brief visit to Tinker Air Force Base

On December 19, 1959, Inhofe married Kay Kirkpatrick, with whom he had four children. His mother, Blanche M. Inhofe, died in 1975. On November 10, 2013, one of Inhofe's sons, Perry Inhofe, died in a plane crash in

Owasso, Oklahoma Owasso () is a city in Rogers and Tulsa Counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and the largest northern suburb of Tulsa. The population was 39,328 persons as of the 2022 census estimate, compared to 28,915 at the 2010 census, a gain of 36 per ...

, flying alone for the first time since training in a newly acquired

Mitsubishi MU-2 The Mitsubishi MU-2 is a Japanese high-wing, twin-engine turboprop aircraft with a Cabin pressurization, pressurized cabin manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It made its maiden flight in September 1963 and was produced until 1986. It ...

.

Molly Rapert Molly Inhofe Rapert (born October 6, 1963) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business. She is also the Director for the Center for Teaching Effectiveness. She is the daughter of Jim In ...

, an academic, is Inhofe's daughter. Inhofe had his pilot's license since he was 28; he flew a

Van's Aircraft RV-8 The Van's RV-8 is a tandem two-seat, single-engine, low-wing homebuilt aircraft sold in kit form by Van's Aircraft. The RV-8 is equipped with conventional landing gear, while the RV-8A version features tricycle landing gear. The design is ...

. He attended the

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh EAA AirVenture Oshkosh (formerly the EAA Annual Convention and Fly-In), or just Oshkosh, is an annual air show and gathering of aviation enthusiasts held each summer at the Wittman Regional Airport and adjacent Pioneer Airport in Oshkosh, Wiscon ...

for 20 years; in 2021, he said, "I've slept in the same tent for 20 years. If you're not sleeping in a tent, it's not like being at Oshkosh." Inhofe had to emergency-land his plane multiple times throughout his career. He was the first recipient of the U.S. Air Force Academy's Character and Leadership Award for his character and leadership in public service. Towards the end of his life, Inhofe had symptoms of long COVID, which severely limited his capacity to do day-to-day activities. Inhofe died from complications of a stroke at a hospital in Tulsa, on July 9, 2024, at the age of 89.

Electoral history

Oklahoma House

Oklahoma Senator

Oklahoma governor

1976 U.S. House

Tulsa mayor

U.S. Representative

U.S. Senator

Notes

References

Sources

*

External links

* * *
Inhofe, James Mountain
entry in

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture The Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) is an agency of the government of Oklahoma dedicated to promotion and preservation of Oklahoma's history and its people by collecting, interpreting, and disseminating knowledge and artifacts of Oklahoma. T ...

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