Inhofe discusses amendments to S.14, the Energy Policy Act of 2003 Recorded June 5, 2003
James Mountain Inhofe (/ˈɪnhɒf/; INN-hoff; November 17, 1934 – July 9, 2024) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from Oklahoma from 1994 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he was the longest serving U.S. senator from Oklahoma. He served in various elected offices in the state of Oklahoma for nearly 60 years, between 1966 and 2023.
Born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1934, Inhofe moved with his parents to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1942. His father, Perry Inhofe, was an owner of insurance companies and his mother, Blanche Inhofe (née Mountain), was a Tulsa socialite. Jim was a high school track star and graduated from Central High School. He went on to briefly attend the University of Colorado before finishing his college degree at the University of Tulsa. He was drafted to the United States Army in 1956 and served between 1957 and 1958. He became vice-president of his father's insurance company in 1961 and president after his father's death in 1970.
Inhofe chaired the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) from 2003 to 2007 and again from 2015 to 2017. Inhofe served as acting chairman of the Armed Services Committee between December 2017 and September 6, 2018, while John McCain fought cancer. After McCain's death, he became chairman and served until February 3, 2021. From February 3, 2021, to January 3, 2023, he served as Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. During his Senate career he was known for his rejection of climate science, his support of constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage, and the Inhofe Amendment to make English the national language of the United States.
Family, early life, and education
James Mountain Inhofe was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on November 17, 1934, the son of Blanche (née Mountain) and Perry Dyson Inhofe.[2] He moved with his family to Tulsa, Oklahoma, after his father became president of the National Mutual Casualty company in August 1942.[3] His father, Perry Inhofe, was educated at Duke University and worked as a lawyer, president of multiple insurance companies, and banker.[4] In 1949 his company, Tri-State, was ordered by the National Labor Relations Board to cease discouraging union membership.[5] His father was also active in the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce and YMCA;[4] and he was the official sponsor of Miss Tulsa and Miss Oklahoma winner Louise O'Brien in 1950.[6] His mother was a Tulsa socialite and hosted guests such as Johnston Murray.[7]
Inhofe started kindergarten in Des Moines, Iowa, but moved halfway through the year to Hazel Dell in Springfield, Illinois. He skipped first grade after the schoolhouse burned down and started second grade after his family moved to Tulsa at Barnard Elementary School. As a teenager, he would "hire Indians to pick wild blackberries" and then sell them in his neighborhood. He went on to attend Woodrow Wilson Junior High and Tulsa Central High School, where he was a member of his high school's track team.[11] In 1952, his mile relay quartet team broke a school record with a 3:32.6 time.[12] In January 1953, he was elected treasurer of the Brones social club;[13] he graduated from Central High School later that year.[14] He attended the University of Colorado for three months and worked as a bartender.[11]
In 1956, he received a draft letter from the United States Army and he served from 1957 to 1958.[11][15] He attained the rank of Specialist 4 and spent most of his service performing quartermaster duties at Fort Lee, Virginia.[11] In 1961, his father formed a new life insurance company, Quaker Insurance, and Inhofe was appointed vice president.[16] On June 17, 1970, Perry Inhofe died of a heart attack;[17] Inhofe became president of Quaker Life Insurance and vice president of Mid-Continental Casualty Co. and Oklahoma Surety Co., while his brother Perry Jr. became president of Mid-Continental and Surety and vice president of Quaker Life.[18] Inhofe and his brother eventually ended up in litigation over the companies that ended in 1990 with Perry paying $3 million to his brother.[19]
College graduation scandal
Inhofe received a B.A. in economics from the University of Tulsa in 1973.[20] Until his 1994 campaign for the U.S. Senate, his official biographies and news articles about him indicated that he had graduated in 1959.[20] Inhofe initially denied the stories that uncovered the discrepancy,[20] but later acknowledged them.[21] After admitting that the stories were true, Inhofe explained that he had been allowed to take part in graduation ceremonies in 1959 though he was a few credits short of completing his degree, and did not finish his coursework until 1973.[21]
State legislative career
Oklahoma House of Representatives
In February 1966, Inhofe launched his first campaign for office as a Republican; he ran for the Oklahoma House of Representatives's 71st district against incumbent representative Warren Green.[22] He lost the May primary election and then worked on J. Robert Wooten's 1966 lieutenant gubernatorial campaign as the Tulsa County campaign chair.[23][24] In November 1966, Joseph McGraw resigned from the Oklahoma House of Representatives 70th district to run for newly elected governor Dewey Bartlett's former state senate seat, triggering a special election. Inhofe was the first to announced his campaign for McGraw's former house seat.[25] He won the Republican primary and the general election.[26][27] He was sworn in December 29, 1966.[28] During his time in the State House, Inhofe formed a close friendship with Democratic Representative David Boren.[11]
After Inhofe had already announced his campaign for the Oklahoma Senate, Beauchamp Selman announced he would not seek re-election, creating an open seat for the 1968 election.[34] He faced Madison J. Bowers, who was endorsed by the Political Action Committee of Educators, in the Republican primary election.[35] He won the primary and faced Democratic nominee Jerry L. Goodman in the general election.[36] Governor Dewey Bartlett knocked doors with Inhofe during his campaign and he later won the general election.[37][38] After winning the special election, Republican party officials began considering Inhofe as a potential future U.S. Senate candidate.[39]
In 1969, Inhofe sponsored a successful bill to bring a retired U.S. Navysubmarine to Oklahoma. Inhofe initially wanted the USS Piranha for Tulsa, but it was determined that the Arkansas River was too shallow for the ship to travel that far upriver. The Muskogee City-County Trust Port Authority donated five acres of waterfront property to locate the ship in Muskogee. In September 1970, the USS Batfish was considered as an alternative and on December 9, 1971, the Batfish was given to the State of Oklahoma. The ship was unofficially opened to the public July 4, 1972, with its official opening on Memorial Day 1973.[48]
Inhofe had been floated as a potential gubernatorial candidate since 1972.[63][64] Inhofe was considered a strong Republican candidate with his only weaknesses being his feuding with Leo Winters and the backlash to the USS Batfish project.[65] By May 1973, he was openly campaigning, but had yet to officially announce his campaign.[66] In October of that year, he was polling behind Denzil Garrison in the Republican primary 35% to 65%.[67] Inhofe officially launched his campaign in May 1974.[68] The main issue in both the Republican and Democratic primary campaigns was corruption during the term of incumbent Democratic governor David Hall.[69] Inhofe defeated Garrison in the August primary.[70] During the campaign, he lost 57 pounds and was down to 148 pounds.[71]
In a 2011 interview, Inhofe claimed that he and David Boren were both upset with Hall, so the pair decided to both campaign against him; Boren would primary him as a Democrat to weaken his campaign and Inhofe would run as the Republican challenger and defeat him. However, the plan was thrown off when Boren won the Democratic nomination.[11] In October, then-President Gerald Ford visited Oklahoma to campaign for Inhofe.[72][73] A poll later that month by The Daily Oklahoman showed Boren leading Inhofe 74%–25%.[74] Inhofe ended up losing to Boren by 64%–36%.[75]
In 1976, State Senator Frank Keating announced his campaign for Oklahoma's 1st congressional district and announced that Inhofe would be the master of ceremonies at his campaign launch announcement;[76] however, Inhofe did not appear at Keating's announcement and instead announced he was considering his own campaign.[77] Inhofe officially announced his candidacy on February 19, 1976.[78] In the Republican primary, he defeated Keating and Tulsa Public Schools board member Mary Warner, 67%–25%–8%.[79][80] In a 2011 interview, he credited his primary win to the use of the "Kasten Plan", a system of precinct organization.[11] He also criticized Democratic presidential candidate, and U.S. senator from Oklahoma, Fred Harris during his presidential primary campaign.[81]
During the primary, Inhofe had called for Democratic incumbent James R. Jones to be expelled from Congress for his conviction while in office for failing to report campaign contributions.[82][83]
Inhofe also criticized a donation Jones had received from Ross Perot, but he retracted his accusation that the donation affected Jones's voting record after threats from Perot and his lawyers.[84] Inhofe was endorsed by the American Conservative Union and National Conservative Political Action Committee during the general election.[85][86] Former California governor, and future president, Ronald Reagan endorsed and campaigned with Inhofe.[87] He was also endorsed by President Gerald Ford, U.S. representative John Rousselot of California, and the Tulsa Tribune.[88][89][90] Polling before the election showed Jones leading Inhofe, 44% to 36%.[91] In the general election, Jones won by 54%–45%.[79]
In January 1978, the Tulsa Daily World reported Republican party officials were courting Inhofe to run for Mayor of Tulsa.[92] He initially denied he would run for any city office and instead insisted he was considering a rematch against Congressman Jones;[93] but, Inhofe announced his mayor campaign in February.[94] He won the Republican primary with over 92% of the vote, defeating Keith Robinson and Paul Cull.[95] During the first three weeks of the primary, he was injured with a broken leg from a tennis injury and could not campaign.[96] In the general election against Rodger Randle, he was endorsed by then-Mayor Robert LaFortune and U.S. senator Dewey Bartlett.[97][98] Randle had won the Democratic primary with a coalition of labor union and black voters; and Inhofe was supported in the general by his Republican base, anti-union and anti-black Democrats, and 22% of black voters.[99][100] In April, he was elected mayor of Tulsa, defeating Democrat Rodger Randle, 51%–46%.[101] The Tulsa Daily World heralded the race as Inhofe's "first general election victory in six years, and Randle's first election loss since he entered politics in 1970."[102] The race broke then-fundraising records for a Tulsa mayoral election with Randle raising $78,062 and Inhofe raising $48,987. Inhofe's biggest donors were the Metropolitan Builder's Association, oilman Robert L. Parker, and Paul D. Hinch.[103]
On May 2, he was sworn in as Mayor of Tulsa.[104] Inhofe's first proclamation as mayor was to celebrate Sun Day and support alternative energy; in the proclamation he said, "I think we're all interested in looking for alternative sources of energy. And of course, we want clean sources."[105] In his first month in office, he decried the city's reliance on federal funding,[106] promised to "seek minorities to fill positions in city government,[107] and nominated Jewish, senior citizen, anti-abortion, and Christian fundamentalist members to the Tulsa Human Rights Commission.[108] In January 1979, Inhofe attended the first swearing in of a governor of Oklahoma to occur in Tulsa when George Nigh was sworn in to serve the last five days of David Boren's term after Boren was elected to the U.S. Senate.[109] In February, he appointed Ronald L. Young, the first African-American to ever serve on the City Commission.[110] In December 1979, Inhofe officially announced his re-election campaign for a second term as mayor.[111] He ran unopposed in the Republican primary and later won the general election, fending off Democratic nominee Richard Johnson and Independent candidate Robert Murphy.[112][113] He broke Rodger Randle's record fundraising for a Tulsa mayoral race set in the last election by raising $87,667.[114]
In 1982 he was reelected with 59% of the vote.[115] He lost his 1984 re-election campaign to Terry Young.[116]
In 1986, when Representative James R. Jones decided to retire to run for the U.S. Senate, Inhofe ran for the 1st District and won the Republican primary with 54%.[117] In the general election, he defeated Democrat Gary Allison 55%–43%.[118] In 1988 he won reelection against Democrat Kurt Glassco 53%–47%.[119] In 1990 he defeated Glassco again, 56%–44%.[120] After redistricting, the 1st District contained only two counties, all of Tulsa and some parts of Wagoner.[citation needed] In 1992, Inhofe was reelected with 53% of the vote.[121]
Tenure
In 1987 Inhofe voted against President Ronald Reagan's budget, which included tax increases and no increase in defense spending.[122]
He first came to national attention in 1993, when he led the effort to reform the House's discharge petition rule, which the House leadership had long used to bottle up bills in committee.[11]
U.S. Senate
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(February 2023)
Inhofe was the longest-serving U.S. senator from Oklahoma, having served between 1994 and 2023.[123]
Elections
In 1994, incumbent senator David Boren, who had been serving in the Senate since 1979, agreed to become president of the University of Oklahoma and announced he would resign as soon as a successor was elected.[124] A special election was scheduled, in which Inhofe defeated Congressman Dave McCurdy in the general election.[116] 1994 also saw the Republican Party take both houses of the U.S. Congress and the Oklahoma governorship.
Inhofe took office on November 17, giving him more seniority than the incoming class of senators.[11] After serving the last two years of Boren's term, he won his first full term in 1996.[125] He was reelected in 2002,[126]2008,[127]2014,[128] and 2020.[129]
Tenure
Fundraising
In the 2008 election cycle, Inhofe's largest campaign donors represented the oil and gas ($446,900 in donations), leadership PACs ($316,720), and electric utilities ($221,654) industries/categories.[130][131] In 2010, his largest donors represented the oil and gas ($429,950) and electric ($206,654) utilities.[132]
Inhofe meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, February 11, 2021
As a member of the Armed Services Committee, Inhofe was among the panelists questioning witnesses about the 2004 Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse, saying he was "outraged by the outrage" over the revelations of abuse.[134] Although he believed that the individuals responsible for mistreating prisoners should be punished, he said that the prisoners "are not there for traffic violations ... they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents".[135] In 2006, Inhofe was one of only nine senators to vote against the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, which prohibits "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment of individuals in U.S. Government custody.[136][better source needed]
When chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee John McCain was absent seeking medical treatment for brain cancer, Inhofe became acting chairman of the committee. During this time, Inhofe helped secure the passage of the record $716 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019.[137] McCain died in August 2018, and Inhofe lauded him as his "hero".
Inhofe also said that McCain was "partially to blame for" the White House's controversial decision to raise flags back to full mast after less than two days, as McCain previously "disagreed with the President in certain areas and wasn't too courteous about it".[138]
On March 6, 2019, Inhofe said he intended to put language in the next defense authorization act to reinforce President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement and reintroduce severe sanctions on Tehran.[139]
On July 15, 2021, Inhofe told Tulsa World he planned to retire at the end of his current term, in 2027.[140] In February 2022, The New York Times reported that Inhofe was planning to resign at the end of the 117th Congress.[141] A special election for Inhofe's replacement was held in 2022 while he remained in office.[142] He endorsed his former chief of staff, Luke Holland, in the special election.[143]Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district Congressman Markwayne Mullin won the Republican primary and the special election.[144] Inhofe resigned on January 3, 2023.[15] It was reported in February 2023 that the primary reason for Inhofe's retirement was related to him suffering symptoms of long COVID, which had severely limited his capacity to do day-to-day activities, after an initial infection he had described as "very mild".[145]
Political positions
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(February 2023)
Inhofe was ranked the most conservative member of Congress on the 2017 GovTrack report card.[146] He received the same ranking for 2018.[147] For 2019, he was ranked as the fifth-most conservative member of the U.S. Senate with a score of 0.91 out of 1, behind Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Mike Braun (R-IN), and Ted Cruz (R-TX).[148]
Environmental issues
Inhofe was best known for his denial of climate change, which he called a "hoax", and his defense of the oil industry, a major industry in Oklahoma.[116][19] In December 1997, Inhofe called the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, a "political, economic, and national security fiasco."[149]
Beginning in 2003, when he was first elected Chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Inhofe was the foremost Republican promoting climate change denial. He famously claimed in the Senate that global warming is a hoax, invited contrarians to testify in Committee hearings, and spread his views via the Committee website run by Marc Morano as well as through his access to conservative media.[153][154] In 2012, Inhofe's The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future was published by WorldNetDaily Books, presenting his global warming conspiracy theory.[155] He said that, because "God's still up there", the "arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous",[156][157][158] but also that he appreciated that this argument was unpersuasive, and that he "never pointed to Scriptures in a debate, because I know this would discredit me."
As Environment and Public Works chairman, Inhofe gave a two-hour Senate floor speech on July 28, 2003, in the context of discussions on the McCain-Lieberman Bill.[159] He said he was "going to expose the most powerful, most highly financed lobby in Washington, the far left environmental extremists", and laid out in detail his opposition to attribution of recent climate change to humans, using the word "hoax" four times, including the statement that he had "offered compelling evidence that catastrophic global warming is a hoax" and his conclusion that "manmade global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people".[160][161] He supported what he called "sound science", citing contrarian scientists such as Patrick Michaels, Fred Singer, Richard Lindzen, and Sallie Baliunas as well as some mainstream scientists. Two of these, Tom Wigley and Stephen Schneider, later issued statements that Inhofe had misrepresented their work.[161][162]
On July 29, the day after his Senate speech, Inhofe chaired an Environment and Public Works hearing with contrarian views represented by Baliunas and David Legates, and praised their "1,000-year climate study", then involved in the Soon and Baliunas controversy, as "a powerful new work of science". Against them, Michael E. Mann defended mainstream science and specifically his work on reconstructions (the hockey stick graph) that they and the Bush administration disputed.[159][163] During the hearing Senator Jim Jeffords read out an email from Hans von Storch saying he had resigned as editor-in-chief of the journal that published the Soon and Baliunas paper, as the peer review had "failed to detect significant methodological flaws in the paper" and the critique by Mann and colleagues was valid.[163][164]
In a continuation of these themes, Inhofe had a 20-page brochure published under the Seal of the United States Senate reiterating his "hoax" statement and comparing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to a "Soviet style trial". In a section headed "The IPCC Plays Hockey" he attacked what he called "Mann's flawed, limited research."[165][166] The brochure restated themes from Inhofe's Senate speech, and in December 2003 he distributed copies of it in Milan at a meeting about the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, where he met "green activists" with posters quoting him as saying that global warming "is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people". He signed a poster for them,[151] and thanked them for quoting him correctly. In an October 2004 Senate speech he said, "Global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people. It was true when I said it before, and it remains true today. Perhaps what has made this hoax so effective is that we hear over and over that the science is settled and there is a consensus that, unless we fundamentally change our way of life by limiting greenhouse gas emissions, we will cause catastrophic global warming. This is simply a false statement."[165][167] In January 2005 Inhofe told Bloomberg News that global warming was "the second-largest hoax ever played on the American people, after the separation of church and state", and that carbon dioxide would not be restricted by the Clear Skies Act of 2003.[168][169][170] In a Senate Floor "update", he extended his argument against Mann's work by extensively citing Michael Crichton's fictional thriller State of Fear, mistakenly describing Crichton as a "scientist".[171][172] On August 28, 2005, at Inhofe's invitation, Crichton appeared as an expert witness at a hearing on climate change, disputing Mann's work.[165]
During the 2006 North American heat wave, Inhofe said that the environmentalist movement reminded him of "the Third Reich, the Big Lie": "You say something over and over and over and over again, and people will believe it, and that's their strategy."[170][174]
In a September 2006 Senate speech Inhofe argued that the threat of global warming was exaggerated by "the media, Hollywoodelites and our pop culture". He said that in the 1960s the media had switched from warning of global warming to warning of global cooling and a coming ice age, then in the 1970s had returned to warming to promote "climate change fears".[175] In February 2007 he told Fox News that mainstream science increasingly attributed climate change to natural causes, and only "those individuals on the far left, such as Hollywood liberals and the United Nations", disagreed.[176]
In 2006, Inhofe introduced Senate Amendment 4682 with Kit Bond (R-MO), which would have modified oversight responsibility of the Army Corps of Engineers. The League of Conservation Voters, an environmentalist group, said analyses for corps projects "have been manipulated to favor large-scale projects that harm the environment."[177] During the 109th Congress, Inhofe voted to increase offshore oil drilling, to include provisions for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the House Budget Amendment, and to deny funding for both low-income energy assistance and environmental stewardship, citing heavy costs and unproven programs.[177]
In May 2009, Inhofe gave support to the idea that black carbon is a significant contributor to global warming.[178]
Inhofe received money from the fossil fuel industry. For example: "Exxon's beneficiaries in Congress include the Oklahoma senator Jim Inhofe, who called global warming a hoax, and who has received $20,500 since 2007, according to the Dirty Energy Money database maintained by Oil Change International."[179][180]
Climatic Research Unit email controversy
On November 23, 2009, as the Climatic Research Unit email controversy emerged, Inhofe said the emails confirmed his view that scientists were "cooking the science".[176][181] On December 7 on the CNN program The Situation Room, Inhofe said that the emails showed that the science behind climate change "has been pretty well debunked"; the fact checking organization PolitiFact concluded that Inhofe's statement was false.[182] On the same day, Inhofe said he would lead a three-man "truth squad" consisting of himself and fellow senators Roger Wicker and John Barrasso to the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Inhofe was unable to secure meetings with any negotiators or delegations to the conference and only met with a small group of reporters.[183][184][185][186] The minority group of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works prepared a report on "the CRU Controversy", published in February 2010, which listed as "Key Players" 17 scientists including Mann and Phil Jones. Inhofe said it showed that the controversy was "about unethical and potentially illegal behavior by some of the world's leading climate scientists."[187][188] On May 26 Inhofe formally requested that the Inspector General of the United States Department of Commerce investigate how the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had dealt with the emails, and whether the emails showed any wrongdoing; it found no major issues or inappropriate actions.[189][190]
Global warming temperatures
In July 2010 Inhofe said, "I don't think that anyone disagrees with the fact that we actually are in a cold period that started about nine years ago. Now, that's not me talking, those are the scientists that say that." The Union of Concerned Scientists said that Inhofe was wrong, pointing to a NOAA report indicating that the summer of 2010 had so far been the hottest on record since 1880. Inhofe added, "People on the other side of this argument back in January, they said, 'Inhofe, it has nothing to do with today's or this month or next month. We're looking at a long period of time. We go into twenty year periods.'"[191][192][193]
During a House committee hearing in 2011, Inhofe testified, "I have to admit—and, you know, confession is good for the soul ... I, too, once thought that catastrophic global warming was caused by anthropogenic gases—because everyone said it was."[194] Under questioning from committee member Jay Inslee, Inhofe dismissed the notion that he was less knowledgeable than climate scientists, saying that he'd already given "five speeches on the science."[194]
2015: Chair of Environment and Public Works committee
On the floor of the U.S. Senate, Inhofe displayed a snowball—in winter—as evidence the globe was not warming[195]—in a year that was found to be Earth's record warmest to date.[196] The director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies distinguished local weather in a single location in a single week from global climate change.[197]
On January 21, 2015, Inhofe returned to chairing the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works as part of a new Republican majority in the Senate. In response to NOAA and NASA reports that 2014 had been the warmest year globally in the temperature record, he said, "we had the coldest in the western hemisphere in the same time frame", and attributed changes to a 30-year cycle, not human activities.[198] In a debate on the same day about a bill for the Keystone XL pipeline, Inhofe endorsed an amendment proposed by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, "Climate change is real and not a hoax", which passed 98–1. Inhofe clarified his view that "Climate is changing and climate has always changed and always will. There is archaeological evidence of that, there is biblical evidence of that, there is historical evidence of that", but added, "there are some people who are so arrogant to think they are so powerful they can change climate."[199]
On February 26, 2015, Inhofe brought a snowball to the Senate floor and tossed it before delivering remarks in which he said that environmentalists keep talking about global warming even though it keeps getting cold.[200]
Hydraulic fracturing
On March 19, 2015, Inhofe introduced S.828, "The Fracturing Regulations are Effective in State Hands (FRESH) Act." The bill would transfer regulatory power over hydraulic fracturing from the federal government to state governments. In his announcement of the bill, Inhofe said that hydraulic fracturing had never contaminated ground water in Oklahoma.[201] The U.S. senators from seven states (Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Dakota and Texas) cosponsored the bill.[202]
Paris Agreement
Inhofe co-authored and was one of 22 senators to sign a letter[203] to President Donald Trump urging him to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement. According to OpenSecrets, Inhofe had received over $529,000 from the oil and gas industry since 2012.[204]
Foreign policy
Israel Anti-Boycott Act
In October 2017, Inhofe co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act (S. 720), which would have made it a federal crime for Americans to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories if protesting actions by the Israeli government.[205][206]
After the December 2020 Israel–Morocco normalization agreement, Inhofe sharply criticized the Trump administration for recognizing Morocco's claim over Western Sahara, calling the decision "shocking and deeply disappointing" and adding that he was "saddened that the rights of the Western Sahara people have been traded away".[210]
War in Afghanistan
Inhofe opposed the 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan under President Biden, saying that Biden should maintain "a relatively small troop presence until the conditions outlined in the 2020 U.S.-Taliban Agreement are fully implemented."[211]
Inhofe pointing at a large photograph of his family, proclaiming none have been divorced or are LGBT
Inhofe was generally seen as overtly hostile by LGBT advocacy groups, earning a 0% in every one of his terms on the Human Rights Campaign's position scorecard.[214] Inhofe was in favor of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, against adding sexual orientation to the definition of hate crimes, and voted against prohibiting job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.[215] In 2008, Inhofe said his office "does not hire openly gay staffers due to the possibility of a conflict of agenda."[216]
Inhofe campaigned for his Senate seat in 1994 using the phrase "God, guns, and gays."[217][218] In 2008, his campaign was noted by the Associated Press for running an ad with "anti-gay overtones" featuring a wedding cake with two male figures on top, fading into his opponent's face.[219]
In 1999, along with Republican colleagues Tim Hutchinson and Bob Smith, and Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, Inhofe stalled the nomination of James Hormel, a gay man, as US Ambassador to Luxembourg for over 20 months specifically because of Hormel's sexual orientation.[220] President Bill Clinton eventually appointed him in a recess appointment, making him the United States' first openly gay ambassador in June 1999, and angering Inhofe, who held up seven more Clinton appointees in retaliation.[221][222]
In 2015, Inhofe condemned the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which held that same-sex marriage bans violated the Constitution.[223]
Racial and gender civil rights
In 1995, Inhofe voted to ban affirmative action hiring with federal funds.[224] In 1997, he voted to end special funding for minority- and women-owned businesses. The bill he voted for would have abolished a program that helps businesses owned by women and minorities to compete for federally funded transportation; it did not pass.[225] The next year, Inhofe voted to repeal the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program,[226] which is designed to "remedy ongoing discrimination and the continuing effects of past discrimination in federally-assisted highway, transit, airport, and highway safety financial assistance transportation contracting markets nationwide" by allocating 10% of highway funds to benefit the business enterprises of racial minorities and women.[227]
In 2001, Inhofe voted to loosen restrictions on cell phone wiretapping.[230] The bill, which passed, removed the requirement that a person or party implementing an order to wiretap a private citizen's cellphone must ascertain that the target of the surveillance is present in the house or using the phone that has been tapped.[231]
Free speech and expression
In 1995, Inhofe co-sponsored a constitutional amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would give Congress and individual U.S. states the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the American flag. The bill's primary sponsor was Orrin Hatch (R-UT).[232]
GI Bill reform
Inhofe, an initial sponsor of Senator Jim Webb's Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, subsequently withdrew support for this bill to support S. 2938, a competing bill that would have provided benefits beyond those offered in Webb's bill.[233] But he voted to enact Webb's legislation in June 2008.[234]
Inhofe agreed to support legislation allowing military mental health specialists to talk with veterans about private firearms in an effort to reduce suicides.[235]
Economic issues
Aviation
Trained by the U.S. Navy, Inhofe was one of the few members of Congress holding a Commercial Airman certificate. In 1994, when he first ran for the U.S. Senate, he used his plane as a daily campaign vehicle to travel throughout Oklahoma and visit almost every town in the state.[236] He was influential in Senate and Congressional debates involving aircraft regulation.[237] In 2012, he authored the Pilot's Bill of Rights bill.[238]
Taxpayer-funded travel
Inhofe said that he made over 140 trips to Africa over about 20 years and helped to get United States Africa Command established.[239] He made multiple foreign trips, especially to Africa, on missions that he described as "a Jesus thing" and that were paid for by the U.S. government. He used these trips for activities on behalf of The Fellowship, a Christian organization.[240] Inhofe said that his trips included some governmental work but also involved "the political philosophy of Jesus, something that had been put together by Doug Coe, the leader of The Fellowship ... It's all scripturally based." Inhofe used his access as a senator to pursue religious goals.[241]
Federal disaster relief
Inhofe consistently voted against federal disaster relief, most notably in the case of relief for the 24 states affected by Hurricane Sandy,[242] but argued for federal aid when natural disasters hit Oklahoma.[243] In defense of his decision to vote against a relief fund for Sandy but not in Oklahoma after tornadoes ravaged it in May 2013, he claimed the situations were "totally different", in that the Sandy funding involved "Everybody getting in and exploiting the tragedy that took place. That won't happen in Oklahoma."[244] Inhofe pointedly did not thank President Obama for his attention to the tragedy in his state, so as to not be compared to Chris Christie.[245]
Sought federal environmental cleanup funds
Inhofe was instrumental in securing millions of dollars of federal funds to clean up contamination at a former mining hub in northeast Oklahoma after the affected site had spent decades on the Environmental Protection Agency Superfund list. He supported participation in the massive federal government buyout program for the Tar Creek Superfund site that purchased homes and businesses within a 40-square-mile (104-square-kilometer) region where for decades, children consistently tested positive for dangerous levels of lead in their blood.[246]
Earmarks
In April 2021, Inhofe expressed support for bringing back earmarks to the United States Senate.[247] The Tulsa World credited Inhofe for how he "relentlessly pursued" federal investment for highways, aviation, and military bases in the state.[116]
In December 2018, Inhofe bought $50,000 to $100,000 worth of stock in Raytheon, a major defense contractor that has billions of dollars' worth of contracts with the Pentagon. The week before, he had successfully lobbied the Trump administration to increase military spending. Ethics watchdogs said the purchase raised conflict of interest concerns, and noted that members of Congress are not allowed to purchase stocks on the basis of information that is not publicly available. Inhofe sold the stock shortly after reporters asked him about the purchase. He said the purchase was made by a third-party adviser who manages Inhofe's investments on his behalf.[254]
In March 2016, around seven months before the next presidential election, Inhofe argued that the Senate should not consider Obama's Supreme Court nominee because "we must let the people decide the Supreme Court's future" via the presidential election.[255] In September 2020, less than two months before the next presidential election, Inhofe supported an immediate vote on Trump's nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy caused by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death.
Inhofe also voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh (Trump's other two Supreme Court nominations) while voting against Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan (Obama's two Supreme Court nominations). All four were successful.
On December 19, 1959, Inhofe married Kay Kirkpatrick, with whom he had four children.[257] His mother, Blanche M. Inhofe, died in 1975.[258] On November 10, 2013, one of Inhofe's sons, Perry Inhofe, died in a plane crash in Owasso, Oklahoma, flying alone for the first time since training in a newly acquired Mitsubishi MU-2.[259]Molly Rapert, an academic, is Inhofe's daughter.[260]
Inhofe had his pilot's license since he was 28;[11] he flew a Van's Aircraft RV-8. He attended the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh for 20 years; in 2021, he said, "I've slept in the same tent for 20 years. If you're not sleeping in a tent, it's not like being at Oshkosh."[261] Inhofe had to emergency-land his plane multiple times throughout his career.[262]
He was the first recipient of the U.S. Air Force Academy's Character and Leadership Award for his character and leadership in public service.[263]
Towards the end of his life Inhofe had symptoms of long COVID, which severely limited his capacity to do day-to-day activities.[145]
Inhofe died from complications of a stroke at a hospital in Tulsa, on July 9, 2024, at the age of 89.[116][19]
Electoral history
Oklahoma House
1966 Oklahoma House of Representatives 71st district election[23]
^Groffman, Linda (January 18, 1953). "Teen Tattlers". Tulsa Daily World. p. 91. Archived from the original on April 25, 2024. Retrieved February 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Selman to Face Inhofe Challenge". Tulsa Daily World. May 5, 1968. p. 25. Archived from the original on July 13, 2024. Retrieved February 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^Young, Jim (July 4, 1968). "GOP Is After 'Veto Insurance'". The Oklahoma City Times. Archived from the original on February 26, 2023. Retrieved February 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^ abLeslie, Frank (August 28, 1968). "Incumbent Solons Take 3 Primaries". Tulsa Daily World. Archived from the original on February 26, 2023. Retrieved February 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^Flanagan, Mike (October 10, 1968). "Governor Ends Booster Jaunt". Tulsa Daily World. Archived from the original on February 26, 2023. Retrieved February 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Inhofe Named To GOP Office". Tulsa Daily World. March 14, 1969. Archived from the original on March 3, 2023. Retrieved March 3, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^Broadd, Greg (November 16, 1969). "Abortion Laws' End Favored". Tulsa Daily World. Archived from the original on March 3, 2023. Retrieved March 3, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Drug Abuse Council Set". Tulsa Daily World. March 20, 1970. Archived from the original on July 10, 2024. Retrieved March 3, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^Blackstock, Ben (March 29, 1973). "Capitol plan is shot down". The Weatherford News. Archived from the original on July 10, 2024. Retrieved March 3, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"People in the News". Lewiston Evening Journal. September 25, 1974. Archived from the original on February 6, 2021. Retrieved September 26, 2020 – via Google News Archive Search.
^"Extremism dangerous says Ford". The Daily Sentinel. September 25, 1974. Archived from the original on February 6, 2021. Retrieved September 26, 2020 – via Google News Archive Search.
^ ab"1968-1974 Results"(PDF). oklahoma.gov. State of Oklahoma. Archived(PDF) from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
^"Jim Inhofe for Mayor"(Advertisement). Tulsa Daily World. March 29, 1978. Archived from the original on February 27, 2023. Retrieved February 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. Please join me on April 4th and vote for Jim Inhofe. Thank you, Dewey Bartlett
^Johnston, Kelly (March 24, 1978). "Point Blank". Henryetta Daily Free-Lance. Archived from the original on February 27, 2023. Retrieved February 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^ abKrehbiel, Randy (October 26, 2008). "Stances mark differences in Senate race: Energy, national defense, the economy – the contrasts are stark in this race for the U.S. Senate". McClatchy – Tribune Business News. Washington.
^Babington, Charles; Murray, Shailagh (October 6, 2005). "Senate Supports Interrogation Limits". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 30, 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
^John S. Dryzek; Richard B. Norgaard; David Schlosberg (August 18, 2011). The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society. Oxford University Press. p. 153. ISBN978-0-19-956660-0. Archived from the original on July 10, 2024. Retrieved September 11, 2015. The single most prominent Republican when it comes to climate change denial is Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, famous for claiming in a Senate speech that global warming is 'the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.'
^Inhofe, James (2012). The greatest hoax : how the global warming conspiracy threatens your future (1st ed.). Washington, D.C.: WND Books. ISBN978-1936488490.
^Reprinted in Seattle TimesArchived September 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, "Senate takes up fight on banning gay marriages." Chicago Tribune. Jill Zuckman and Anastasia Ustinova, Washington Bureau. July 11, 2004
^Freshmen: What Happened to the Republican Revolution?[permanent dead link], Linda Killian, 1999. Basic Books. "From there it was on to Hominy, where Inhofe walked up and down Main Street and stopped by the local coffee shop to shake some hands. He told the morning customers the Senate race could be summed up by the "three Gs – God, gays, and guns." Inhofe asserted Dave McCurdy was a liberal Washington insider out of touch with what Oklahomans care about, who was against prayer in schools, for gays in the military and gun control, and who voted with Bill Clinton more than 80 percent of the time."
^Jacob Weisberg. "Why It's Even Worse For Clinton Than You ThinkArchived April 8, 2023, at the Wayback Machine", New York Magazine, November 21, 1994, page 41. Inhofe describes how the phrase came to be in The Associated Press via USA TodayArchived June 18, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Ron Jenkins, September 18, 2008. "Inhofe, in a telephone interview from Washington, recalled that 14 years ago he was told by a small group in Hugo that he would carry McCurtain County, a Democratic stronghold in southeastern Oklahoma. He said he asked the Hugo residents why he would win, "and they said because of the three G's. They're the ones who came up with that and it became almost a chant out there."
^"S.1510 – USA Act of 2001". Congress.gov. Library of Congress. October 30, 2001. Archived from the original on May 20, 2020. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
^The Freshmen: What Happened to the Republican Revolution?[permanent dead link], Linda Killian, 1999. Basic Books. "Inhofe, one of Congress's few certified commercial pilots, has been crisscrossing the state in his 1969 Piper Aztec and managed to visit almost every town in Oklahoma before the end of the campaign."
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