Jim Inhofe facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jim Inhofe
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Official portrait, 2018
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| United States Senator from Oklahoma |
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| In office November 17, 1994 – January 3, 2023 |
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| Preceded by | David Boren |
| Succeeded by | Markwayne Mullin |
| Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee | |
| In office September 6, 2018 – February 3, 2021 |
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| Preceded by | John McCain |
| Succeeded by | Jack Reed |
| Chair of the Senate Environment Committee | |
| In office January 3, 2015 – January 3, 2017 |
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| Preceded by | Barbara Boxer |
| Succeeded by | John Barrasso |
| In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2007 |
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| Preceded by | Jim Jeffords |
| Succeeded by | Barbara Boxer |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oklahoma's 1st district |
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| In office January 3, 1987 – November 15, 1994 |
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| Preceded by | James R. Jones |
| Succeeded by | Steve Largent |
| 32nd Mayor of Tulsa | |
| In office May 2, 1978 – May 8, 1984 |
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| Preceded by | Robert LaFortune |
| Succeeded by | Terry Young |
| Minority Leader of the Oklahoma Senate | |
| In office January 1975 – February 1976 |
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| Preceded by | Donald Ferrell |
| Succeeded by | Stephen Wolfe |
| Member of the Oklahoma Senate from the 35th district |
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| In office January 7, 1969 – January 4, 1977 |
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| Preceded by | Beauchamp Selman |
| Succeeded by | Warren Green |
| Member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from the 70th district |
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| In office December 29, 1966 – January 7, 1969 |
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| Preceded by | Joseph McGraw |
| Succeeded by | Richard Hancock |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
James Mountain Inhofe
November 17, 1934 Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | July 9, 2024 (aged 89) Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse |
Kay Kirkpatrick
(m. 1959) |
| Children | 4, including Molly |
| Education | University of Tulsa (BA) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1957–1958 |
| Rank | Specialist 4 |
James Mountain Inhofe ( INN-hoff; November 17, 1934 – July 9, 2024) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from Oklahoma from 1994 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he was the longest serving U.S. senator from Oklahoma. He served in various elected offices in the state of Oklahoma for nearly sixty years, between 1966 and 2023.
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Family, early life, and education
James Mountain Inhofe was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on November 17, 1934, the son of Blanche (née Mountain) and Perry Dyson Inhofe. He moved with his family to Tulsa, Oklahoma, after his father became president of the National Mutual Casualty compan in August 1942. His father, Perry Inhofe, was educated at Duke University and worked as a lawyer, president of multiple insurance companies, and banker. His father was also active in the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce and YMCA; and he was the official sponsor of Miss Tulsa and Miss Oklahoma winner Louise O'Brien in 1950. His mother was a Tulsa socialite and hosted guests such as Johnston Murray.
Inhofe's family had been involved in Oklahoma politics since the 1950's. His father, Perry Inhofe, had served on the executive committee for Democratic Governor Raymond D. Gary's successful 1954 campaign. In 1958, his brother, Perry Jr., ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Oklahoma House of Representatives as a Democrat.
Education, military and business careers
Inhofe started kindergarten in Des Moines, Iowa, but moved halfway through the year to Hazel Dell in Springfield, Illinois. He skipped first grade after the schoolhouse burned down and started second grade after his family moved to Tulsa at Barnard Elementary School. He went on to attend Woodrow Wilson Junior High and Tulsa Central High School, where he was a member of his high school's track team. In 1952, his mile relay quartet team broke a school record with a 3:32.6 time. In January 1953, he was elected treasurer of the Brones social club; he graduated from Central High School later that year. He attended the University of Colorado for three months and worked as a bartender.
In 1956, he received a draft letter from the United States Army and he served from 1957 to 1958. He attained the rank of Specialist 4th Class and spent most of his service performing quartermaster duties at Fort Lee, Virginia. In 1961, his father formed a new life insurance company, Quaker Insurance, and Inhofe was appointed vice president. On June 17, 1970, Perry Inhofe died of a heart attack; Inhofe became president of Quaker Life Insurance and vice president of Mid-Continental Casualty Co. and Oklahoma Surety Co., while his brother Perry Jr. became president of Mid-Continental and Surety and vice president of Quaker Life.
Career
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Inhofe was an elected official representing the Tulsa area for nearly three decades. He represented parts of Tulsa in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1966 to 1969 and the Oklahoma Senate from 1969 to 1977. During his time in the state legislature he was known for feuding with the Democratic Party's state leadership, particularly Governor David Hall and state treasurer Leo Winters, and spearheading the movement to bring the USS Batfish to Oklahoma. While a state senator, he unsuccessfully ran for Governor of Oklahoma in the 1974 election and the U.S. House in 1976. He was elected to three terms as the Mayor of Tulsa, serving between 1978 and 1984. He served in the United States House of Representatives representing Oklahoma's 1st congressional district from 1987 to 1994; he resigned after his election to the United States Senate.
Inhofe chaired the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) from 2003 to 2007 and again from 2015 to 2017. He served as acting chairman of the Armed Services Committee between December 2017 and September 6, 2018, while John McCain fought cancer. After McCain's death, he became chairman and served until February 3, 2021. From February 3, 2021, to January 3, 2023, he served as Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. During his Senate career he was known for his rejection of climate science, his support of constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage, and the Inhofe Amendment to make English the national language of the United States.
Committee assignments and caucus membership
During the 115th, 116th, and 117th Congresses, Inhofe was a member of the following committees:
- Committee on Armed Services
- Subcommittee on Airland
- Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support
- Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
- Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
- Committee on Environment and Public Works
- Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Caucus memberships
- International Conservation Caucus
- Senate Army Caucus
- Senate Diabetes Caucus
- Senate General Aviation Caucus
- Senate Rural Health Caucus
- Senate Tourism Caucus
- Sportsmen's Caucus
Retirement
On July 15, 2021, Inhofe told Tulsa World he planned to retire at the end of his current term, in 2027. He endorsed his former chief of staff, Luke Holland, in the special election. Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district Congressman Markwayne Mullin won the Republican primary and the special election. Inhofe resigned on January 3, 2023. It was reported in February 2023 that the primary reason for Inhofe's retirement was related to him suffering symptoms of long COVID, which had severely limited his capacity to do day-to-day activities, after an initial infection he had described as "very mild".
Personal life
On December 19, 1959, Inhofe married Kay Kirkpatrick, with whom he had four children. His mother, Blanche M. Inhofe, died in 1975. On November 10, 2013, one of Inhofe's sons, Perry Inhofe, died in a plane crash in Owasso, Oklahoma, flying alone for the first time since training in a newly acquired Mitsubishi MU-2. Molly Rapert, an academic, is Inhofe's daughter.
Inhofe had his pilot's license since he was 28; he flew a Van's Aircraft RV-8. He attended the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh for 20 years; in 2021, he said, "I've slept in the same tent for 20 years. If you're not sleeping in a tent, it's not like being at Oshkosh." Inhofe had to emergency-land his plane multiple times throughout his career.
He was the first recipient of the U.S. Air Force Academy's Character and Leadership Award for his character and leadership in public service.
Death
Towards the end of his life Inhofe had symptoms of long COVID, which severely limited his capacity to do day-to-day activities.
Inhofe died from complications of a stroke at a hospital in Tulsa on July 9, 2024, at the age of 89.
Political positions
Environmental issues
In December 1997, Inhofe called the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, a "political, economic, and national security fiasco."
Beginning in 2003, when he was first elected Chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Inhofe was the foremost Republican promoting climate change denial. He famously claimed in the Senate that global warming is a hoax. During the 2006 North American heat wave, Inhofe said that the environmentalist movement reminded him of "the Third Reich, the Big Lie": "You say something over and over and over and over again, and people will believe it, and that's their strategy."
In a September 2006 Senate speech Inhofe argued that the threat of global warming was exaggerated by "the media, Hollywood elites and our pop culture". He said that in the 1960s the media had switched from warning of global warming to warning of global cooling and a coming ice age, then in the 1970s had returned to warming to promote "climate change fears". In February 2007 he told Fox News that mainstream science increasingly attributed climate change to natural causes, and only "those individuals on the far left, such as Hollywood liberals and the United Nations", disagreed.
Inhofe co-authored and was one of 22 senators to sign a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement.
Social issues
Inhofe was generally seen as overtly hostile by LGBT advocacy groups. In 2015, Inhofe condemned the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which held that same-sex marriage bans violated the Constitution.
In 1995, Inhofe voted to ban affirmative action hiring with federal funds. In 1997, he voted to end special funding for minority- and women-owned businesses. The bill he voted for would have abolished a program that helps businesses owned by women and minorities to compete for federally funded transportation; it did not pass. The next year, Inhofe voted to repeal the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program.
In 1995, Inhofe co-sponsored a constitutional amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would give Congress and individual U.S. states the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the American flag.
Economic issues
Aviation
Trained by the U.S. Navy, Inhofe was one of the few members of Congress holding a Commercial Airman certificate. In 1994, when he first ran for the U.S. Senate, he used his plane as a daily campaign vehicle to travel throughout Oklahoma and visit almost every town in the state. He was influential in Senate and Congressional debates involving aircraft regulation. In 2012, he authored the Pilot's Bill of Rights bill.
Federal disaster relief
Inhofe consistently voted against federal disaster relief, most notably in the case of relief for the 24 states affected by Hurricane Sandy, but argued for federal aid when natural disasters hit Oklahoma. In defense of his decision to vote against a relief fund for Sandy but not in Oklahoma after tornadoes ravaged it in May 2013, he claimed the situations were "totally different", in that the Sandy funding involved "Everybody getting in and exploiting the tragedy that took place. That won't happen in Oklahoma."
Earmarks
In April 2021, Inhofe expressed support for bringing back earmarks to the United States Senate.
2021 storming of the United States Capitol
On May 28, 2021, Inhofe abstained from voting on the creation of an independent commission to investigate the January 6 United States Capitol attack.
See also
In Spanish: Jim Inhofe para niños
- Politics of Oklahoma
- List of United States senators from Oklahoma
