Oklahoma MAGA Senate Candidate Pastor Caught Up In QAnon Red Shoe Diaries Scandal
You might say he was hoist by his own gross petard.
Republican Jackson Lahmeyer is challenging incumbent Oklahoma Senator James Lankford almost entirely on a pro-Trump platform. A few years that would've just been embarrassing, but now “pro-Trump" overtly means “pro-MAGA coup." Lankford originally planned to object to counting Arizona's electoral votes, but after Trump's mob stormed the Capitol, he changed his mind about performative sedition. He even apologized a week later to Black Oklahomans, who didn't appreciate Trump's repeated attacks on votes from predominately Black communities.
This all makes Lankford a RINO in GOP parts. Last week, state GOP chairman John Bennett declared his support for Lahmeyer's primary challenge of Lankford, who is objectively one of the most conservative members of the Senate. Lahmeyer is a Tulsa pastor with no major political experience, but his sole allegiance is to Trump, which as Rep. Elise Stefanik can confirm is all that matters these days.
"We have to have men and women of courage, men and women of integrity," Lahmeyer said in an interview with NBC News. "Unfortunately, right now in the state of Oklahoma, we're lacking that."
It requires neither courage nor integrity to bow before an anti-democratic cult of personality.
Right-wing pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, who is campaigning to unseat Sen. James Lankford in Oklahoma's GOP primary, tol… https: //t.co/j4HeMcZEA5
— Right Wing Watch (@Right Wing Watch) 1619112909.0
State party chairs don't normally insert themselves into primary races, especially ones involving an established incumbent. Bennett himself is a character, by which we mean he has none: He's anti-Muslim and once called for Hillary Clinton's execution. It's not a stretch that Bennett would throw his support behind Lahmeyer, who promotes the Big Lie. The Senate candidate told a conference full of QAnon loons in April that the “most important issue our nation is facing today is not the crisis at the Southern border. It is not health care reform. It is not our economy. It is election integrity. I promise you I will beat that drum so loud, we will investigate what happened in 2020 and we will hold those accountable for crimes of high treason."
He's shockingly upfront about how little practical good he'll do for the people of Oklahoma. He'll just push Trump's personal vendettas. That's earned him support from conspiracy theorists Lin Wood and Michael Flynn. Lahmeyer hasn’t openly embraced QAnon conspiracies, but he’s eagerly appeared at the conspiracy conferences Tulsa businessman Clay Clark has held recently.
However, the QAnon worm has turned on this particular worm. QAnon crackpots have accused Lahmeyer of of pedophilia and child sex trafficking. Their evidence? This photo Lahmeyer posted on Instagram of his daughter.

Instagram
You see? The poor girl [who is darling — Editrix] is wearing red shoes like a common Dorothy Gale. As rightwing “journalist" Liz Crokin explained in 2017:
There is symbolism for red shoes in the occult and it's also tied to satanic ritualistic abuse and the trafficking of children. The Illuminati, the elites, they use The Wizard of Oz to mind control child slaves. They use certain films to program children and part of the programming is having them watch these films and they also sexually abuse them and they physically abuse them because the abuse splits their personality and creates different personalities, so then they are able to program them and control them and they virtually become MK-Ultra programming.
This is a known thing ... They use The Wizard of Oz to mind control these child sex abuse victims. Well, what does Dorthy wear in The Wizard of Oz ? Red shoes!
Or maybe someone just likes red shoes. This seems needlessly complicated.
Not that you asked, but in the original book, Dorothy's slippers are silver because the book is supposedly an allegory for gold and silver's battle to become the primary American currency of the period. She follows the yellow brick road (the gold standard), which seemingly leads to the Emerald City (wealth and power!) but is actually a dead end. Her slippers (the silver standard) are what allows her to return home. The 1939 movie went with red because they went to a lot of trouble to film the Oz scenes in dazzling color, and silver slippers would look about the same in broke-ass black and white.
Lahmeyer declared these absurd accusations the “ugly side of politics," which he should know all about.
I've been in ministry for years. Never any accusations whatsoever. Now all of a sudden I'm being accused of everything under the sun by one particular woman and some people don't have enough discernment to determine right from wrong.
Unfortunately, I have to say it because people are asking me. I'm in no way involved in Child Sex Trafficking, pedophilia or devil worship. If you believe that it actually says more about you than it does me.
The dogs will continue to bark but the #LahmeyerForSenate train 🚂 is going to move forward with full steam ahead.
It sucks when bad actors accuse people of involvement in some insidious conspiracy with absolutely zero proof. Pastor Lahmeyer handled the snake that eventually bit him.
[ Rightwing Watch ]
F ollow Stephen Robinson on Twitter.
Keep Wonkette going forever, please, if you are able!
Well, he is a preacher, so that means he's living tax free
I just love it when Republicans eat their own. Too bad there isn't much action in the Democratic primary.