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Jackson Lahmeyer, an evangelical pastor in Owasso, Oklahoma, is one of those religious figures who seems to enjoy being offensive.
On social media, he declared that Martin Luther King Jr. “would be MAGA” if he were alive today. He called the LGBTQ+ community “sick” and accused it of promoting pedophilia. He called Black Lives Matter a terrorist organization and Anthony Fauci a mass murderer. He called Kamala Harris a “lying whore.” And he declared, as Alex Jones was battling lawsuits over his claims that the child victims of the Sandy Hook shooting were actors in a false flag operation, that Jones “did nothing wrong.”
It’s that pugnacious energy that has allowed Lahmeyer, from his pulpit in Oklahoma, to be able to name-check some of the most famous members of the MAGA universe as friendly acquaintances. And it’s what has allowed him to declare himself the leader of a religious group of political significance and to muscle his way into the White House, where he has been photographed laying hands on President Donald Trump in prayer, and relishing his position on Trump’s National Faith Advisory Board.
It’s also the energy that he hopes to use to win the seat in Congress that is now open thanks to a reshuffling in Oklahoma politics caused by Markwayne Mullin’s appointment as secretary of Homeland Security.
On Tuesday night, Lahmeyer, a 34-year-old who preaches in suits, announced that he was running to represent Tulsa’s solidly red district, which is currently held by Rep. Kevin Hern. That seat is now suddenly up for grabs because Hern has plans to run for Mullin’s vacant Senate seat, with backing from the GOP leadership.
Among those who follow the jostling for power within the MAGA movement, Lahmeyer is a familiar name. He first came to national attention during the COVID pandemic, when he offered to sign religious exemption forms for the vaccine for anyone willing to donate at least $1 to his church, Sheridan Church. (This, he said, was the cost of joining the church.) The idea of a pastor selling vaccine exemption slips without knowing if someone had any kind of genuine religious reason for their opposition to the vaccine stirred up enough outrage to make Lahmeyer a national villain.
From that point, Lahmeyer branded himself as a “fighter” for MAGA and for Christianity. In 2022, he challenged U.S. Sen. James Lankford in the primary, calling Lankford a coward and a RINO. His problem with Lankford, who initially opposed the certification of the 2020 election, was that Lankford walked back his election fraud claims after the storming of the Capitol. Lahmeyer asserted he was running to be a real fighter for the things he and his supporters knew to be true: that Trump had rightfully won the 2020 election and that America was founded as a Christian nation. “Vote for Christian Nationalism today,” he posted on Election Day.
Lahmeyer’s campaign went hard on cameos from celebrity politicians. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Trump strategist Roger Stone campaigned for him. He secured endorsements from Rudy Giuliani and Sebastian Gorka. He tried and failed to secure Donald Trump’s endorsement by flying a campaign message over Mar-a-Lago, according to the Oklahoman. In the end, he spent a significant portion of his budget on travel and on bringing in the speakers, the Oklahoman reported, and neglected traditional political ad buys. Still, he managed to take 26 percent of the vote.
His campaign defeat led to another pivot, this time to launching “Pastors for Trump,” an evangelical group meant to mobilize pastors to help with Trump’s 2024 election and advocate for Christian interests in government upon his victory. The group held prayer calls that included Flynn, Stone, and Giuliani, and Trump himself at one point tried calling in. (The connection was too bad for Trump to be heard.) It’s unclear how much Pastors for Trump actually helped, but Lahmeyer claimed in his announcement on Tuesday that he’d “led crusades across this nation that reached millions.” Sheridan Church itself has, at different points, hosted events with Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Lara Trump, Kash Patel, Alina Habba, Roger Stone, Riley Gaines, and Tim Tebow.
This new campaign will be no less celebrity-forward. In his announcement, he introduced himself with a video flashing his appearances on various right-wing TV and streaming shows, such as Steve Bannon’s War Room. It ran through photos of him with the various MAGA celebrities, with a heavy focus on the Trump sons. He announced he was running because “President Trump needs a few more bold America-first fighters in Washington, D.C., to help move his agenda forward.” The issues he mentioned were protecting borders; cracking down on crime; helping with affordability (through fewer taxes and less regulation); preventing Chinese citizens from owning farmland; and “ensuring Sharia law never takes root in this nation.”
So far, on social media, his campaign has been amplified by Giuliani, Flynn, and Matt Gaetz—all men who have been ousted from power because of criminal complaints.
Lahmeyer only has a few months to secure the Republican nomination, and he is running against state-level politicians with a history of actual governance. If he wins, he’ll undoubtedly be another strong voice for Christian nationalism in MAGA. If he doesn’t, he’ll almost certainly find another way to stay in the public eye. Lahmeyer is out to prove a truth of the MAGA era: The spirit of the right-wing media attention-seeker is unkillable.