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United States Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Ok) announced his resignation on Friday after nearly 30 years in the Senate.
Inhofe has served as one of Oklahoma’s senators since 1994 and has been a fixture in Oklahoma politics for 50 years. He won his reelection bid in 2020, garnering almost 63% of the vote and winning by about 30 points.
Inhofe said following the November 2020 election that his fifth term in office would be his last.
However, he announced Friday morning that he wouldn’t finish that term.
“I will be leaving the united states senate on the third of January,” Inhofe said via speakerphone at the announcement press conference.
The 87-year-old Inhofe did not attend the press conference due to a COVID diagnosis.
He instead spoke via speakerphone, where he offered a brief explanation for his resignation.
“My wife and I have been doing this for a long period of time and we have some other things we need to be doing at this point in our life,” Inhofe said. “So we’re going to do that, and to do that we have to get out of this position.”
Inhofe’s announcement comes just days before the March first deadline, which means a special election will be held this year to fill his vacant seat.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt has already said he will not run for the open seat and Inhofe wasted no time endorsing his long-time chief of staff, Luke Holland.
“What I want to do is represent Oklahoma in the senate so we can get things back on track, so we can go back to the basics so we can go back to the foundations of what made this country great in the first place,” Holland said.
Inhofe’s plans were first reported by a New York Times reporter on Twitter on Thursday. The senator confirmed his decision in an interview with The Oklahoman newspaper.
The filing period for candidates begins on April 13th, with the election set to take place in November.
