United States Sen. Jim Inhofe is expected to announce his retirement Monday after serving for almost three decades, three sources tell The Frontier.
The news was first reported by The New York Times reporter Jonathan Martin who says Inhofe plans to stay in his seat through the end of this session of Congress.
Inhofe was re-elected for a fifth term in 2020 and had already publicly stated in the Tulsa World he likely would not see re-election in 2026. Inhofe is the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee and was chairman from 2018 to 2021.
A spokesperson for Inhofe did not respond Thursday to requests for comment.
Inhofe is the fourth oldest member in the U.S Senate at 87 years old.
Inhofe was born in Iowa in 1934 and moved to Oklahoma with his family as a child. He was first elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1967 and was elected to the Oklahoma Senate in 1969, where he served until 1977.
Inhofe ran for Governor of Oklahoma in 1974, losing to David Boren. In 1976, he lost an election for Oklahoma’s 1st Congressional District.
In 1978, he was elected as mayor of Tulsa and was re-elected twice. He was elected in 1986 to the U.S House of Representatives, where he served until 1994 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
