After the Oklahoma Republican Party said it had approved a resolution over the weekend to condemn and censure Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) for his role in bipartisan congressional border talks, the state party’s chair came forward on Monday to say that the vote had been held illegitimately.
In a terse statement, the OKGOP said that a Saturday meeting “held by certain Republicans” hadn’t been done according to procedure, with proper notice not being provided “to all members of the State Committee meeting.” The statement asserted that the censure resolution was therefore invalid.
For one, OKGOP Chair Nathan Dahm had not been present at the meeting, which was called by Vice Chair Wayne Hill, a party spokesperson told The Hill on Tuesday. The resolution to condemn Lankford until he ceased “jeopardizing the security and liberty of the people of Oklahoma and of these United States” was announced by a press release from Wayne Hill himself.
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But Hill and the other members present at the meeting were not authorized to act on their own, Dahm told local station KOKI-TV.
“Yes, there are people within the Republican Party that are disgruntled with Sen. Lankford, with some of the border negotiations, some of those things,” Dahm said. “But it was in no way an official action of the OKGOP.”
The chair added that internal discussions and a review of party voting procedure were ongoing.
The Daily Beast has reached out to both Dahm and Hill for further information. A spokesperson for Lankford’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
A copy of the resolution shared on X by state Rep. Dusty Deevers (R) accused Lankford of putting “the safety and security of Americans in great danger” by reaching across the aisle and “playing fast and loose” on border policy.
Former OKGOP Chair Anthony Ferate came out against the resolution within hours, saying “an extreme faction” of the state party had held the vote without putting out an “official call” to all members. “Any vote taken by the OKGOP today was not legitimate and definitely does not represent the voice of all Oklahoma Republicans,” he added in a tweet.
The next morning, Lankford appeared on Fox News Sunday to defend his work as the lead Republican negotiator on the border security package. “This bill focuses on getting us to zero illegal crossings a day,” he said.
“There’s no amnesty. It increases a number of Border Patrol agents and it increases asylum officers. It increases detention beds so we can quickly detain and then deport individuals.”
“It focuses on additional deportation flights out,” Lankford continued. “It changes our asylum process so that people can get a fast asylum screening at a higher standard and then get returned back to their home country.”
The senator went on to explain that the resolution’s furious condemnation of his “working with Democrat Chuck Schumer on an open border deal to allow 5,000 illegal immigrants a day to enter and work in the United States” displayed a fundamental misunderstanding of the potential legislation.
“This is not about letting 5,000 people in a day. This is the most misunderstood section of this proposal…” he said. “This is not someone standing at the border with a little clicker saying, ‘I’m going to let one more in. We’re at 4,999,’ and then it has to stop.”
Former President Donald Trump has come out strongly against the bill, crowing at a Las Vegas rally on Saturday that he was responsible for stymying its progress.
“As the leader of our party, there is zero chance I will support this horrible open borders betrayal of America,” he boasted, according to The Washington Post. “I’ll fight it all the way. A lot of the senators are trying to say, respectfully, they’re blaming it on me. I say, that’s okay. Please blame it on me. Please.”
Trump does not currently hold political office and does not have the official authority to jettison, sideline, or hinder the bill.
Lankford, Oklahoma’s senior senator, has represented the state in Congress since 2015. He won re-election in 2022 and will not be up for re-election again until 2028.
