Ideology and Voting

Photo Credit: Senator Lankford

 

Senator Lankford has been known for his traditional conservative values since starting to represent the state of Oklahoma in 2011.  After understanding that Oklahoma has consistently voted more conservatively since the presidential election of 2008, it comes as no surprise that they chose House Representative James Lankford to fill the shoes of Senator Coburn upon leaving the Senate.  While in the 112th Congress, House Representative Lankford had a DW-Nominate score of 0.580 being conservative in a moderate sense.  Senator Coburn in the 113th Congress, had a DW-Nominate score of 0.809, holding the title of 5th most conservative in the Senate.  It makes since that Oklahoma voted for James Lankford to fill the empty Senate seat as he was similar in conservative beliefs.  For the 114th Congress and his following years in Senate,  I have no doubt that his DW-Nominate score will drift toward 1.  It's not hard to believe that Senator Lankford is a rising star in the Republican-held Senate, his party unity score for the 113th Congress was 97.656.

According to VoteSmart.Org, Pro-choice IGs gave Lankford 0% ratings like Pro-life IGs gave him 100%.  The American Farm Bureau Federation, as of last congress, rated Lankford at 50%.  Americans for the Arts Action Fund rated him 0%.  All/most of the Small Business IG rating from 2013-2014 were above 50% in the 80% or above.

His rating essentially correlated with his conservative ideology, representing his state.

Senate Committee Assignments

Senator Lankford giving legislative updates to Altus Chamber of Commerce.  Photo Credit: SenatorLankford.

According to Oklahoma's largest newspaper, The Oklahoman, Senator Lankford ended up on some "plum assignments" as far as committees go.  He serves on the committees of:

• Appropriations - jurisdiction over all discretionary spending legislation in the Senate
• Member, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
• Member, Subcommittee on Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies
• Member, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
• Member, Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
• Member, Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
• Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs - oversight on the Dept. of Homeland Security
• Chairman, Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management
• Member, Subcommittee on Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management
• Member, Subcommittee on Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
• Intelligence - oversight of federal intelligence activities
• Indian Affairs - deals with problems and opportunities of Native Americans

Committee Membership: GovTrack.Us

For being a freshman Senator-elect, Lankford must be pretty special (often referred to as a "rising star") to have landed higher ranked committees such as these for his first year.  Lankford is known for consistently towing party lines which makes him ideal member on any prominent committee the GOP wants a tight hold on.
Appropriations, although not as prestigious as it once was, is still a powerful committee to be a member of.  Senator Lankford is on many subcommittees of this committee as well.  He served on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee which is equivalent to the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, thus he was an appropriate choice as a member.  It also comes as no surprise that an Oklahoman Senator would be on the Indian Affairs Committee as 9% of the population is Native American.  As part of this committee, Lankford already introduced Bill S.321 to revoke the incorporation of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma at the tribe's request.  The chance of this bill being successful is 43% according to the bill's page on GovTrack.Us.

I think Senator Lankford is devoting a lot of time, rightfully so, to his subcommittee Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management.  As chairman, he and the Ranking Member, Heidi Heitkamp, have started a bipartisan #CutRedTape Initiative to improve communications between American families/businesses and the Senate regarding how they are affected by federal regulations.  The goal here is to cut unnecessary bureaucracy.

Senator Lankford and North Dakota's Senator Heitkamp Launch Bipartisan #CutRedTape Initiative.
Photo Credit: SenatorLankford

I think overall his committee assignments are perfectly correlated with the topics he's been working with during all his time in Congress.  His constituent's needs are consistently the reason of all his actions along with his support of ethical practices and beliefs.

A Victorious Special Election

A special election was held in Oklahoma last year (2014) to fill the seat of Senator Tom Coburn who decided to retire early due to health conditions.  With his early retirement, a special election had to be held to fill his empty Senate seat for the remaining 2 years of Coburn's 6 year term.  House representative, at the time, James Lankford ran for the open seat against democratic nominee, Connie Johnson.  Johnson served as an acting Oklahoma State Senator. According to The Washington Post's Election Lab, Oklahoma was predicted to vote for the republican candidate with some websites predicting a +32.5 lead.  The results of the election actually showed a victory margin of +38.9, confirming a solid GOP hold on Oklahoma.  

Senator Lankford's year-long campaigning raised $4,277,787 according to OpenSecrets.com, an informative political website advocating for a transparent and responsive government.  Lankford ended up spending $4,384,320 during his campaign.

The top contributors to Lankford's campaign: Devon Energy, Koch Industries, OGE Energy, Cox Enterprises, and Murray Enterprises.

The top industries contributing to Lankford's campaign: Oil & Gas, Retired, Health Professionals, Leadership PACs, and Commercial Banks.

Having just entered the Senate office this past January, it's difficult to place the impact of Lankford's actions and the election outcome of Oklahoma's Senate race for 2016.  Based off of Oklahoma's voting history (pictured above), it has been referenced as the "reddest of red states". Oklahoma was the only state in America in which all its counties voted against President Obama.  My prediction for the upcoming 2016 election would be to keep Lankford in the Senate seat.  He has a clean record as far as I can tell and is generally well-liked by his constituents.  I'm going to guess that his seat in the Senate is safe as long as he keeps up his productive and conservative representation.

Fun Fact: Senator Lankford and I shared the similarity of liking Arizona Green Tea.  It's the best of all their iced teas... just sayin'.

Getting the Job Done

Legislation
Whilst being a representative in the House (2011-2015), Senator Lankford sponsored 33 pieces of legislation.  His most recent bills:

              S.321 - A bill to revoke the charter of incorporation of the Miami Tribe

                         of Oklahoma at the request of that tribe, and for other purposes

              H.R.4849 - Phantom Fuels Elimination Act of 2014

              H.R.5786 - Small Financial Institutions Regulatory Relief Act of 2014

One bill sponsored by Congressman Lankford, H.R.1423, had in the last session of Congress been passed in the House.  It died in the Senate, but had it been passed, the "Taxpayers Right-To-Know Act" would require the Office of Management and Budget to annually post online the details,monetary expenses, and performance metrics of every federal program using taxpayer dollars.  As of a press release on January 28th, Lankford reintroduced this bill in the Senate, seeing it as an extremely important issue.  Here are the Senator's own thoughts on the matter, "The Taxpayers Right-To-Know Act would expose government waste and improve federal accountability.  For too long, information about federal programs have hidden in $3.5 trillion budget line-items that most people never see.  The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office annually identifies tens of billions of dollars in duplication, but still lacks the tools to estimate the overlap.  The American taxpayer deserves to know where their hard-earned tax dollars are being spent - this bill ensures that."

Lankford cosponsored 458 pieces of legislation, many in the policy areas of Health, Government Operations and Politics, as well as, International Affairs. Two bills specifically tried to benefit Native Americans, but none of the legislation sponsored by Senator Lankford was directed toward Oklahoma specifically.

 

Keeping His Constituents Up-to-Date 

Senator Lankford keeps the public up-to-date on issues being debated in Washington, DC through community forums he calls "Tuesday Talks".  Throughout the year, he visits various towns in Oklahoma (on Tuesdays) to allow his constituents the chance to stay updated on issues and ask questions.

While Congress has been on recess, Senator Lankford has been busy holding talks, meeting constituents, and enjoying the perks of Oklahoma.  Last week, he visited Oklahoma State to hold a Q&A with the Student Government Association.  After he spoke, the O'Colly interviewed him to discuss his quick ascension to U.S. Senate.  Having risen to the fifth-ranking position in the House Republican Congress with little-to-no previous political experience, Lankford has accomplished a rare feat.  He doesn't see it that way, "I just try to do my job, and those things come.  You work hard, you do your, stuff, and you just engage.  I don't come from a political background; I don't have political strategy.  I felt called to do this."

Following Senator Lankford's Twitter feed, the issue of the Keystone Pipeline has quickly become a hot topic; he tweeted, "This #Keystone issue is bigger than oil; it is a demonstration of an Executive that refuses to answer a simple pipeline permit request."  Yesterday he addressed the issue at large with a press release.  Also according to Lankford's Twitter feed, he recently met with the Chairman of the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma, John Berrey, to discuss how to better work together.

"Committed to God, Family, and the Constitution"

Senator James Lankford

Faithful, Conservative Leader

Biography

Born:  March 4th, 1968 in Dallas, TX (46 years old).

        Residence:  Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

        Education:

             University of Texas Austin,

                Bachelor's Degree in Secondary Education (1990);

             Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary,

                Master's Degree in Divinity (1994).

Family:  Married to Cindy Lankford for 20 years.  They have two daughters: Hannah (17) and Jordan (14).

Religious Affiliation:  Baptist

Party Affiliation:  Republican

Before Congress:  From 1995 to 2009, James served as the Director of the Falls Creek Youth Camp and
                              Director of Student Ministry at the Baptist Convention of Oklahoma.  With more than
                              51,000 students and adults, Falls Creek is the largest youth camp in the nation.

Political Career and Tenure

          In 2010, James was voted into the U.S. House of Representatives from the state of Oklahoma by the voters of the 5th Congressional District.  After serving two consecutive terms, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in the 2014 special elections.  His term in Senate will end on January 3rd of 2017.

          As a member of the House, James served on three congressional committees with additional subcommittees: 1) Committee on Budget, 2) Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and 3) the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

http://ballotpedia.org/James_Lankford

Oklahoma as a State

Population:  3,878,051 (as of 2014); ranking 28th out of 50.

Major Cities:  Oklahoma City (Capital), Tulsa, Norman, Broken Arrow, and Lawton.

Racial Diversity:  Caucasian  - 75.4%, African American - 7.7%, American Indian - 9%,

                             Latino/Hispanic - 9.6%, Asian - 2%.

Religious Diversity:  Evangelical Protestant - 53%, Catholic - 24%, Unaffiliated - 16%.

Major Industries:  Transportation equipment, machinery, electric products, rubber and plastic products, as

                             well as, food processing.

Agriculture: Cattle, wheat, milk, poultry, and cotton.

Fun Facts:  It is one of three states that produces helium.

                  No other state has as many man-made lakes: 200.

                  Oklahoma is the only state that produces iodine.

                  More water is used for irrigation than anything else in the state.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/40000.html

http://www.50states.com/oklahoma.htm#.VN2Y8GTF90I

http://newsok.com/100-amazing-facts-about-oklahoma/article/3172542