Sen. Lankford Gets Leadership Position In Senate GOP

It’s now official that Republicans will control both the U.S. House and Senate when the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, 2025.

Oklahoma’s congressional delegation will be well-represented in both House and Senate leadership. On the House side, the state’s delegation has punched above its weight for years and that will continue in the 119th Congress. In the Senate, the state’s two Republican members are now moving into the majority and Senator James Lankford is moving into leadership.

South Dakota Senator John Thune will lead the new majority, followed, in pecking order, by Wyoming's John Barrasso as Majority Whip, Tom Cotton (R-AR) as Republican Conference Chairman, Shelley Moor Capito (R-WV) as Republican Policy Committee Chair, and, in the number 5 spot, Senator Lankford (R-OK), as the new Republican Conference Vice Chairman.

Lankford says that means working very closely with Conference Chair Cotton.

"We will work together on communication," explained Lankford in an interview Thursday, "helping form the direction and working alongside our now Majority Leader John Thune, and actually setting the next steps for for what we’re going to take up legislatively."

Lankford says the work begins immediately--with barely two months before President-elect Trump is sworn in, they want to be ready to hit the ground running.

"Whether it's energy policy, tax policy, what we’re going to do with the economy, how we’re going to deal with mortgage interest rates," Lankford said, "there are so many questions that are out there right now that people have, saying, 'What direction are we going to go as a country?'"

Lankford has had leadership roles in specific areas like border security and religious freedom, but now, entering his second decade in the Senate, he wants to help enact the GOP agenda more broadly.

"That’s my desire," Lankford said, "to be able to speak 'Oklahoman' into the middle of the nation that I think could use some Oklahoma values."

District 1 Congressman Kevin Hern will also be bringing Oklahoma values to the coming policy debate. Hern was elected House GOP Policy Chair on Wednesday.