Oklahoma pastor Jackson Lameier, founder of the Pastors for Trump movement, withdrew his candidacy from the second round of elections for the US House of Representatives after publications his romantic correspondence with Caitlin Key, winner of the Miss Oklahoma 2007 contest, reports USA Today.
According to The Hill, Lameyer leads a church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was attended by the sons of the US President, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. He also maintained close ties to supporters of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement.
Lameyer ran as a Republican candidate in Oklahoma's 1st Congressional District. Following the results of the primaries on June 16, he advanced to the second round, but on June 17 he announced the end of his campaign.
“After prayerful consideration with my wife Kendra and my team over the past 24 hours, I have made the difficult decision to suspend my campaign. I don’t want to become a distraction to my family, my church and the wonderful people of Oklahoma’s 1st District who deserve a strong conservative representative in Washington,” Lameier wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) profile, which is now inaccessible.
US President Donald Trump expressed his support for Lameier back in May, noting his services in creating the Pastors for Trump movement. This nationwide coalition of religious leaders was among the organizations that helped Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign, the Associated Press writes.
On the eve of the primaries, Trump again named Lameier as his preferred candidate, but on Wednesday, hours before the pastor announced his withdrawal from the race, he announced his support for another candidate, Mark Tedford, who received the most votes in Tuesday's Republican primaries.
“I really appreciate Jackson Lameier's hard work under difficult circumstances. He has always been there for me and I will always be there for him. But for the current congressional campaign for Oklahoma's 1st District, I will support America First patriot Mark Tedford,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The reason was the publication of the Daily Mail, which contained text messages between Lameier and an employee of his election headquarters, Caitlin Key, who was involved in raising funds for his campaign. Key herself provided the correspondence to the tabloid.
According to her, she met the pastor in 2022. In published messages, Lameier invited her to his hotel room and onto his boat, called her “very slim and very cute,” and also admitted that he was her admirer. According to Key, the correspondence reached his wife, after which the owner of the title “Miss Oklahoma 2007” decided to publicly talk about the nature of their communication.
Lameier himself said that the situation was “settled privately” and admitted that he had “crossed a certain line in online communication.” At the same time, he emphasized that the British tabloid tried to distort reality.
