Congressional observers know Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) as a deliberative man who thinks before he speaks, but the Oklahoma Republican doesn’t hesitate when asked about the role of faith in his personal life and political career.
“The most important decision is one I make every day—who am I going to follow, and what is going to be my foundation today? My faith in Jesus Christ has remained a firm foundation in my life, and my faith is by far the most important decision I make,” Lankford told The Epoch Times.
“I would want to be known for doing the right thing the right way. That’s a legacy that makes a lasting difference, not just making good policy, but living as a role model.”
That phrase—“doing the right thing the right way”—is one his devoted staff members often hear because Lankford makes it clear in meetings that it best describes what he expects of himself and those around him.
Politics is said to produce “strange bedfellows,” but sometimes religious faith does too, and Lankford shares with his good friend Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) the distinction of being the present Senate’s sole divinity school graduates (Coons from Yale, Lankford from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary).
“I enjoy serving with James Lankford because, although we disagree on a wide range of political, social, and economic issues, he and I have become genuine friends ... and despite the differences in how we apply our faith to public policy, it gives us a common foundation for how we understand the world and interact with each other. James is a good husband and father; he’s funny and warm and engaging, and even though we are from different states, different backgrounds, and different parties, I genuinely enjoy serving with him,” Coons told The Epoch Times.
In a legislative body of high achievers with big IQs and bigger egos, Lankford increasingly stands out as a consistent and thoughtful conservative and as one of the upper chamber’s most skillful architects of bipartisan cooperation.
Thus, Lankford is being seen with increasing frequency these days working with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), the former Arizona Democrat who entered the 118th Congress as an independent (although she still upholds the Democratic Senate’s 51–49 majority).
Despite her changed party status, Sinema remains chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management. Lankford is the top Republican on the panel, and immigration issues are a major priority for officials in Arizona and Oklahoma.
“James is a strong partner in finding common sense solutions, especially in our work together on the Senate Border Management Subcommittee to keep American families safe and secure. I’m proud to work with him as we strengthen our border and hold the [Biden] administration accountable, and I’m grateful to count him as a friend,” Sinema told The Epoch Times.
Last month, the two appeared together in a Fox News “Common Ground” segment aired as the end of Title 42 grew near, amid worries that what was already an all-but-unmanageable border situation would descend into utter chaos.
“The administration has known for two years that the end of Title 42 is coming, and it was never intended to be a long-term solution. James and I together ... have been calling on the administration to prepare for the end of Title 42. Unfortunately, they have not done it; they have not prepared for the end of Title 42,” Sinema told Fox News’ Bret Baier.
Lankford said: “There are more than 2 million people a year entering the country illegally and then saying, ‘I have fear of my country,’ which is what the drug cartel told them to say. Then they are allowed to come into the country and request an asylum hearing. Depending on when it was requested, it will be about 18 years before it’s actually settled, and so they are free to go anywhere in the country they wish.”
Lankford also noted that Title 42 had turned away only about 30 percent of such illegal immigrants, requiring them to return to Mexico to await resolution of their cases. That reality, combined with the flood of drugs, including the fentanyl that has killed more than 100,000 Americans during the Biden administration, is boosting hopes that a comprehensive border security and immigration reform package may be possible in 2023.
Seeking Immigration Reform
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told Roll Call that he’s “looking for any port in a storm” when asked whether the House action would help bring about a comprehensive legislative long-term solution to the immigration crisis.Similarly, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) called the House bill “a good starting place.”
Lankford is all but certain to be deeply involved with Sinema, Tillis, Durbin, and other senators from both sides of the aisle as a Senate version of immigration reform takes shape in the coming days.
First elected to the House of Representatives in the Tea Party revolution of 2010, Lankford is a former Southern Baptist minister who was well-known to young Oklahomans thanks to his tenure managing Falls Creek, a Baptist youth camp, the largest youth encampment in the United States. He immediately made a mark in the lower chamber as an outspoken opponent of earmarking and other forms of wasteful federal spending.
Earmarks—typically obscurely written funding provisions inserted into much larger bills to benefit a single representative or senator—were a key issue in 2010 largely because of Lankford’s Senate predecessor from Oklahoma, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).
In 2005, Coburn exposed the infamous $398 million “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska and dozens of other similarly controversial earmarks in an effort that led to the House’s ban on earmarks in 2011 and the Senate’s in 2014. More recently, both chambers brought earmarks back despite opposition from Lankford and other conservatives.
In 2013, Coburn, who was known to his Senate colleagues as “Dr. No,” announced his retirement due to cancer. Lankford stepped up to win a crowded Republican primary, then gained a landslide general election victory in 2014. He was elected to a full six-year term in another landslide in 2016 and to a second term in 2022, garnering more than 64 percent of the vote.
Schatz pointed out that Lankford’s voting record on issues such as cutting federal spending and taxes is consistently strong, with a rating on CAGW’s scoring system of 96 percent over his career, including three years in which the Oklahoman compiled perfect 100s.
Passion for Religious Freedom
But as important as fighting waste and fraud in government spending is for millions of Americans, protecting religious liberty is the issue that most stirs Lankford’s passion and prompts a studied, deliberative eloquence on the Senate floor during the many momentous debates that happen there.“There are three major problems in the bill on the issue of religious liberty. If these three things are not changed in this bill, it will put religious liberty at great risk for millions of Americans who ... have sincerely held religious beliefs,” Lankford told colleagues in a characteristically careful but pointed analysis.
The first was that “any individual or entity acting under the color of state law” would be subject to penalties for failing to support same-sex or interracial marriage.
“This would be an entity that a state hires to fulfill something for them. This could be a private prison, for example, it could also be an adoption agency [or] foster care agencies. It could be an entity that actually does housing for immigrants’ families, a homeless shelter contracted by the state to provide services. It could be any number of entities,” Lankford said.
Because many such agencies are faith-based, the Respect for Marriage Act “would be a new restriction on those religious entities that formally held contracts that then would very well be pushed out from providing those services ... or abandoning their faith.”
The second problem Lankford pointed to was the proposal’s creation of a new “private right of action” for “an individual who senses that they have been harmed” by a covered entity.
“Now, it’s not defined what ‘harm’ means in this new statute, it just says if someone feels they’ve been harmed, they would now have the opportunity to sue someone else,” he said.
Such an opportunity will inevitably mean that “there will be a lot of lawsuits,” according to Lankford.
“For anyone who believes this new right to sue people won’t be used and won’t be used quickly by lawyers and outsider groups all around the country, you are kidding yourself,” he said. “What it really does is it silences any individual who may disagree, and it discourages any faith-based entity from cooperating with government.”
Finally, Lankford pointed to the bill’s phrase, “If a benefit does not arise from a marriage”—he said he asked multiple lawyers to define it and received widely different, even conflicting, answers in response.
“It is clear what it doesn’t mean. When it says all these different rights being granted that don’t include marriage, it doesn’t include your belief about marriage,” he said.
Consequently, beliefs about marriage can still be the basis for destructive litigation against individuals and entities that degrades religious freedom.
The Respect for Marriage Act amendment lost narrowly, but the careful reasoning and considered delivery of the floor speech prompted an admiring former Coburn confidant who asked to not be named to describe Lankford to The Epoch Times as “a legislator, not a headline-chaser.”
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said: “In this town, it’s nearly impossible to be both principled and get things done. Sen. Lankford does both with a smile on his face, which makes him such a great conservative lawmaker and good friend.”
“His forthright, yet not bombastic, approach to reining in the out-of-control federal government waste and bureaucracy are exactly what’s needed as we try to wrestle the D.C. behemoth to the ground,” Manning said.
Whatever the challenge, Lankford isn’t likely to change his approach, because he’s optimistic about the days ahead.
“While it’s not hard to find yelling and disagreement on TV or on social media today, I have colleagues on both sides of the aisle who want to get work done,” he told The Epoch Times.
“That was true when I was first elected to the House, and it’s true now in the Senate. There are many members who are working together to fix the problems our nation is facing.”
