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

[8][10] After two-term incumbent Republican Mary Fallin announced she was giving up her seat to run for governor of Oklahoma, Lankford entered the race to succeed her.

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

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

[24] On December 21, 2017, Lankford was one of six senators to introduce the Secure Elections Act, which would authorize block grants to states to update outdated voting technology.

[26][27] Lankford was the lead Senate Republican negotiator on a bipartisan bill intended to resolve the Mexico–United States border crisis.

Two days before the vote, Trump told a radio host, "This is a very bad bill for his career", while also falsely asserting he had never endorsed Lankford.

[28] The Oklahoma Republican Party censured Lankford days before the bill was released, asserting he was "playing fast and loose" with Democrats.

[30] 119th United States Congress Committee assignments[31] Lankford supports budget austerity through lowering taxes and reducing government spending.

[39][40] He also appeared in a video ad calling for defeat of the initiative, stating: "Our families won't be better if more parents and grandparents smoke more marijuana.

[42] In 2015, Lankford introduced the Keeping out Illegal Drugs (KIDS) Act to block federal funds for Indian tribes that allow the cultivation or distribution of marijuana on their land.

This legislation is a good step in trying to protect young tribal members and fulfill our trust responsibility to Native Americans.

[45] In 2018, he strongly criticized the National Science Foundation for funding projects that seek to increase reporting on climate change in weathercasts, saying it "is not science—it is propagandizing.

In the early days of his 2010 campaign for the House of Representatives, Lankford disparaged the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr.

[51] Lankford supported Oklahoma Question 711, a statewide constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and civil unions that passed in 2004 with 75% of the vote and remained law until it was challenged in court and struck down by a federal judge as unconstitutional in 2014.

After LGBT advocates condemned his statements, Lankford defended himself on local television, reiterating his view that homosexuality is a choice.

"[55][56] In 2015, Lankford condemned the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which held that same-sex marriage bans violated the constitution.

[58][59] In August 2018, Lankford, Marco Rubio and 15 other lawmakers urged the Trump administration to impose sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act against Chinese officials responsible for human rights abuses in western China's Xinjiang region.

[60] They wrote: "The detention of as many as a million or more Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in "political reeducation" centers or camps requires a tough, targeted, and global response.

"[61] In June 2020, Lankford criticized President Trump's decision to walk to the St John's Episcopal Church near the White House, calling it "confrontational".

[62] In January 2021, after Lankford questioned the validity of the 2020 presidential election, some Black Tulsa leaders called for him to resign from both the 1921 Race Massacre Centennial Committee and the Senate.

[69] Lankford was among 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 to raise the debt ceiling.