Two-term Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., on Tuesday won the Senate seat vacated by retiring conservative icon Tom Coburn, trouncing Democratic opponent Connie Johnson in the deep-red Sooner State.
As soon as polls closed at 8 p.m., the Associated Press said Lankford defeated Johnson, a longtime liberal member of the Oklahoma Senate.
Veteran Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., also easily won his race on Tuesday, besting Democrat Matt Silverstein to secure a fourth term in the upper chamber.
Lankford’s ascendancy from the House to the Senate wasn’t always assumed, though, as the former director of a large Christian youth camp first had to make it through a tough GOP primary. Conservatives such as Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah lined up behind state Rep. T.W. Shannon during the fight for the Republican nomination, but Lankford easily prevailed despite predictions of a runoff.
Lankford was accused by some Republican voters of being too close with the Establishment wing of the party. Those charges clearly did little to affect his standing in the Oklahoma Senate race, as the outside groups that previously supported Shannon rallied to his side for the general election.
Still, Tea Party groups lament what could have been in Oklahoma.
Lankford, a social conservative, also benefited from an early endorsement by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Coburn, the most vocal fiscal conservative in the Senate, announced his retirement plans at the start of 2014. Fighting a lengthy battle with prostate cancer, Coburn is leaving two years before the end of his term.
In 2010, Lankford won the Oklahoma City-area House seat previously filled by then-Rep. Mary Fallin, who went on to win the state’s gubernatorial race.
