A Notorious Trump Pastor Is Running for Congress

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.

Jackson Lahmeyer, an evangelical pastor in Owasso, Oklahoma, is one of those religious figures who seems to enjoy being offensive.

On social media, he declared that Martin Luther King Jr. “would be MAGA” if he were alive today. He called the LGBTQ community “sick” and accused it of promoting pedophilia. He called Black Lives Matter a terrorist organization and Anthony Fauci a mass murderer. He called Kamala Harris a “lying whore.” And he declared, as Alex Jones was battling lawsuits over his claims that the child victims of the Sandy Hook shooting were actors in a false flag operation, that Jones “did nothing wrong.”

It’s that pugnacious energy that has allowed Lahmeyer, from his pulpit in Oklahoma, to be able to name-check some of the most famous members of the MAGA universe as friendly acquaintances. And it’s what has allowed him to declare himself the leader of a religious group of political significance and to muscle his way into the White House, where he has been photographed laying hands on President Donald Trump in prayer, and relishing his position on Trump’s National Faith Advisory Board.

It’s also the energy that he hopes to use to win the seat in Congress that is now open thanks to a reshuffling in Oklahoma politics caused by Markwayne Mullin’s appointment as secretary of Homeland Security.

On Tuesday night, Lahmeyer, a 34-year-old........

© Slate