TLDR
Trump-backed pastor and congressional hopeful Jackson Lahmeyer is under fire after intimate texts with a former Miss Oklahoma USA fundraiser surfaced, colliding with his family-values image just as voters head to the polls.
On the eve of a pivotal Republican primary, Jackson Lahmeyer is no longer just the Tulsa megachurch pastor Donald Trump once praised as a “MAGA warrior.” He is now the man at the center of an intensely personal scandal, one that reaches from the Mar-a-Lago ballroom to the front pews of his own Sheridan Church.
The texts, obtained by Daily Mail US, trace a flirtation between Lahmeyer, 34, and Caitlin Simmons Key, a 40-year-old single mother, former Miss Oklahoma USA, and fundraiser for his campaign. Key says the relationship stayed physical only over the phone, but emotionally crossed lines that a married pastor and father of five should not cross.
According to the messages, Lahmeyer showered Key with compliments, invited her to his hotel room, and continued texting as he moved through the Trump orbit. From a black-tie event at Mar-a-Lago, he reportedly sent selfies and described being offered cocaine at a strip club at 1 a.m., which he said he refused. At one point, Key replied with a warning that now feels eerily self-fulfilling: “Jackson if u become congressman & if ever got caught u would be headlines. Pastor.”
The illusion of control shattered around Mother’s Day. Key says Lahmeyer’s wife, Kendra, discovered the messages and sent her a blistering text accusing her of wrecking the family and reminding her that Lahmeyer has five children. Lahmeyer then cut off personal contact, Key says, yet she alleges that cash payments continued into early June. Those payments, she claims, do not appear in the campaign’s FEC filings and felt to her like an attempt to keep her quiet.
Key first met Lahmeyer in 2022 when he launched a long-shot primary challenge to US Senator James Lankford. She was already active on the Oklahoma conservative circuit. He was the pastor who refused to close his church during COVID and was building a reputation as an uncompromising Christian conservative. She signed on to help raise money and stayed in his orbit even after that race ended in a landslide loss.
As Lahmeyer founded “Pastors for Trump” and gained a national profile, Key became a media contact for his organization. She recalls him urging her to join him on frequent trips to Washington. “You gotta come to DC,” he told her, according to her account. She says she always declined. What did change, she claims, was the tone of their private conversations. “Eventually the conversations crossed the line of probably what most people would consider appropriate for a married man and a single woman,” she told Daily Mail US.
For Key, the true breaking point was not heartbreak, but image. “There’s a real problem with the fact that he’s married and a pastor,” she said. “There is a responsibility when you are leading people in the name of Christ to hold yourself to a higher standard.” She describes feeling “righteous anger” after hearing that campaign insiders were already celebrating the primary as a done deal.
Key insists she is not seeking revenge. Instead, she says she can no longer stay silent while Lahmeyer campaigns as a model husband and spiritual leader. “I’ve never claimed to be perfect. Quite the opposite, actually,” she said. “But the difference is, I’m not standing on a platform as a Christian leader and family man, asking people to vote for a version of me that doesn’t exist.”
Daily Mail US reports that it reached out to Lahmeyer and his campaign for comment and received no on-the-record response. At Sheridan Church, congregants were told his Sunday sermon was canceled because “something came up,” a quiet line that now sits in sharp contrast with the very public text trail.
In Oklahoma’s 1st District, voters now face a choice broader than a single primary. They are weighing the smiling family photos, the fiery sermons, and the Trump-world endorsements against the unfiltered language of late-night texts. Whether this becomes a private failing forgiven or a career-defining breach of trust will be decided in the voting booth.
Do text messages and private conduct matter as much as public preaching and political promises? Share where you draw the line when it comes to character, faith, and the candidates asking for your vote.
