A day after advancing to a Republican runoff, megachurch pastor Jackson Lahmeyer suspended his congressional campaign on Wednesday amid a flirtatious texting scandal with a former Miss Oklahoma.
Lahmeyer, who is married with five children, received President Trump’s backing, but also faced a firestorm over his past flirtatious messages with the beauty queen, one of his former staffers.
“After prayerful consideration with my wife, Kendra, and my team over the last twenty four hours, I’ve made the difficult decision to suspend my campaign for Congress,” Lahmeyer said in a statement.
“I do not want to be a distraction to my family, my church, and the great people of Oklahoma’s 1st Congressional District, who deserve a strong conservative voice representing them in Washington.”
Just prior to suspending his campaign, Trump took to Truth Social and switched his endorsement to Oklahoma state Rep. Mark Tedford.
Tedford had topped Lahmeyer in the first round, with 32% support, compared to the pastor’s 26%. The seat had been held by Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), who is vying for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s old Senate seat.
“I greatly appreciate Jackson Lahmeyer’s hard work under difficult circumstances,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “[W]hen it comes to the current Congressional race for Oklahoma’s 1st Congressional District, I Will be supporting America First Patriot, Mark Tedford. Mark is Pro-Trump and MAGA all the way!”
The president had initially backed Lahmeyer, citing his work co-founding the Pastors for Trump religious leader coalition in 2022.
But the Daily Mail published a piece on Sunday detailing how Lahmeyer, a self-described “MAGA Warrior,” sent racy text messages to former Miss Oklahoma USA Caitlin Simmons Key — one of his former campaign fundraisers.
The report included messages inviting her to his hotel room and visiting a strip club around 1 a.m. Key used to be a fundraiser for his campaign. In one message, he wrote, “I enjoyed those lips.”
“Jackson if u become congressman & if ever got caught u would be headlines,” she wrote in one of the messages.
At one point, Key pressed Lahmeyer to rethink his marriage and asked him about considering a divorce, which he promptly dismissed.
“U r in love with me and we don’t even have sex,” she texted him.
His wife found out around Mother’s Day and reportedly slammed the ex-beauty queen, writing, “You are a home wrecking whore. Did you enjoy ruining our family.”
Lahmeyer’s wife claimed he came clean to her, after she questioned a Facebook post from Key, who shared Trump’s endorsement of the “MAGA Warrior,” noting she was ready to “get to DC.”
Key reportedly continued to receive payments from the campaign despite being cut off by Lahmeyer. The pastor claimed he told his wife that he had gotten way too close to Key, but it wasn’t romantic.
“There’s a real problem with the fact that he’s married and a pastor,” Key told the outlet.
“There is a responsibility when you are leading people in the name of Christ to hold yourself to a higher standard.”