Rev. Jackson Lahmeyer, the Tulsa megachurch pastor who founded Pastors for Trump and carried President Donald Trump's endorsement into Oklahoma's 1st Congressional District primary, admitted Thursday to a sexual affair with a former Miss Oklahoma who had helped raise money for his campaign. The admission came one day after he abruptly dropped out of the race.
Lahmeyer told the Daily Mail he had sex with Caitlin Key, Miss Oklahoma USA 2007, in 2022. Days earlier, he had minimized the relationship, saying he had only "crossed a boundary line" in text message exchanges with Key, a claim that unraveled as the Daily Mail published thousands of romantic texts from spring 2026 in back-to-back stories over the weekend.
The timeline tells the story of a campaign that collapsed in less than a week. On Tuesday, June 16, Lahmeyer earned enough Republican primary votes to advance to a runoff against Mark Tedford. By Wednesday evening, he had called a private meeting at Sheridan Church, withdrawn from the race, and apologized to his wife Kendra, his congregation, Trump, and his supporters. By Thursday morning, the fuller admission was public.
The Daily Mail's first story, published Sunday, featured text message exchanges between Lahmeyer and Key from spring 2026. A second story the following day included additional messages indicating the two had exchanged kisses. Lahmeyer initially responded with a since-deleted social media post acknowledging he had crossed "a boundary line through text messaging", language that stopped well short of what he would later admit.
By Wednesday, the situation had become untenable. AP News reported that Lahmeyer's withdrawal came just minutes after Trump pulled his endorsement and shifted it to Tedford. The president issued a statement praising Lahmeyer's "hard work under difficult circumstances" while making the switch.
That sequence matters. Lahmeyer did not leave the race and then lose Trump's backing. Trump moved first, or, at minimum, the two events occurred nearly simultaneously, with the endorsement switch landing moments before the withdrawal.
Trump's endorsement strategy has been a defining feature of the 2026 midterm cycle, and his willingness to reshape primary fields through targeted endorsements has reshaped races across the country. In this case, the president acted swiftly to cut ties with a candidate whose personal conduct had become a liability.
In his withdrawal statement, Lahmeyer framed his exit as an act of selflessness. The Washington Times reported his statement in full:
"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."
That framing, "I do not want to be a distraction", is a familiar one in political scandals. It places the problem outside the person rather than inside the conduct. Lahmeyer was not a distraction. He was the source of the distraction. The affair happened in 2022. The texts continued into 2026. The campaign fundraiser he was messaging was embedded in his political operation.
Lahmeyer told the Daily Mail he was "done with politics" and planned to take a sabbatical from preaching. He has not responded to any request for comment from The Oklahoman.
On Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m., Lahmeyer called a private meeting at Sheridan Church. Security guards monitored entry, and members of the press were not allowed inside. The church parking lot was three-quarters full, a sign that the congregation turned out in significant numbers to hear from their pastor.
What was said behind those doors remains unknown. But the downstream consequences were already visible. Eric Trump, the president's son, had been scheduled to appear at a Sheridan Church event on Friday, June 19, and Saturday, June 20. By the time the affair admission went public, Eric Trump had been removed from the promotional posters for the event.
The speed of that separation tells you how seriously the Trump orbit took the situation. When a campaign implodes around personal misconduct, the political infrastructure moves fast to limit the damage.
What stands out in Lahmeyer's handling of the crisis is the gap between his initial response and the truth. When the first Daily Mail story broke Sunday, he acknowledged only a "boundary line" crossed through texting. When the second story dropped Monday, with evidence of physical contact, he held the same line. It took until Thursday, after he had already withdrawn and after the political consequences were locked in, for Lahmeyer to admit the full scope of the relationship.
That pattern, deny, minimize, withdraw, then confess, is not accountability. It is damage management. Lahmeyer did not come forward voluntarily. He was dragged forward by published text messages and reporting he could not refute.
Conservative voters in Oklahoma's 1st District deserved better. They cast ballots for a candidate on Tuesday who, by his own later admission, had been carrying an undisclosed affair for four years. The voters who advanced him to a runoff did so without the information they needed to make an honest choice.
Key, who won the Miss Oklahoma USA title in 2007, served as a fundraiser for Lahmeyer's congressional campaign. The exact nature and scope of her fundraising role have not been detailed publicly. She has not made any public statement in connection with the Daily Mail's reporting or Lahmeyer's admission.
The entanglement of a romantic relationship with a campaign fundraising operation raises questions that go beyond personal morality. Campaign finance structures depend on clear lines between personal and professional relationships. When those lines blur, or vanish, the integrity of the entire operation comes into question.
With Lahmeyer out, Trump's endorsement now sits with Mark Tedford. The president's statement praised Lahmeyer while making the practical move, a diplomatic exit that kept the focus on winning the seat rather than litigating the scandal.
Tedford inherits a cleaner path to the nomination, though the district now carries the residue of a primary season defined by personal scandal rather than policy debate. Internal Republican dynamics in primary races are always complicated, but voters in this district now face the task of rebuilding trust in a process that one candidate undermined through his own choices.
Lahmeyer's political career may be over. His pastoral future is uncertain. He and his wife Kendra have led Sheridan Church, a congregation originally founded in 1951, since 2017. They share five children. Whether the church community can or will separate the pastor's public failures from his spiritual role is a question only that congregation can answer.
Political scandals involving personal misconduct are hardly unique to one party. Scandal-driven departures have hit both sides of the aisle, and voters have long memories for leaders who betray their stated values. But the particular sting here is sharper because Lahmeyer built his entire brand on moral authority, as a pastor, as a leader of Pastors for Trump, as a man who asked voters to trust him with public office on the strength of his character.
When you build your house on that foundation and then set fire to it yourself, the rubble is yours to own.
