Tedford, Lahmeyer advance to Oklahoma runoff in GOP proxy battle

Mark Tedford and Jackson Lahmeyer moved into an Aug. 25 Republican runoff in Oklahoma’s 1st Congressional District after neither candidate cleared 50 percent in a crowded June 16 primary that drew 10 GOP hopefuls. The matchup now serves as a clear test of whether the district’s Republican voters want a conventionally backed conservative or a candidate built around the Trump movement.

Tedford, a state representative from Tulsa, has cast himself as the establishment choice. He won backing from the Oklahoma House speaker and the three Tulsa County commissioners, and he also outpaced Lahmeyer in fundraising, bringing in $347,885 to Lahmeyer’s $289,786. Lahmeyer, by contrast, entered the race with the backing of Donald Trump and a profile built around loyalist politics, faith-based messaging and a far more combative style.

The race has been shaped as a proxy battle between the MAGA wing and the conservative establishment in Oklahoma. Lahmeyer, founder of Pastors for Trump, has tied his political identity to Trump’s America First agenda, and Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have both visited his church. He first built name recognition in his 2022 Senate bid against James Lankford, a race he lost by more than 40 percentage points.

Lahmeyer launched his congressional campaign in March at the Tulsa County Republican Party headquarters and said he wanted to carry Oklahoma values to Washington. He said his priorities included border security, deporting undocumented immigrants, affordability, opposing Chinese ownership of American farmland and making sure Sharia law never takes root in the United States.

The winner of the runoff will face Democrat John Croisant in the Nov. 3 general election. The seat is open because Kevin Hern is running for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Markwayne Mullin, who joined President Trump’s Cabinet as homeland security secretary. Oklahoma’s 1st District remains solidly Republican, but the race has become part of a wider fight in 2026 over the party’s future, with the governor’s office also open and GOP factions competing for control of the state’s direction.