Former senator · Oklahoma

James M. Inhofe

James M. Inhofe served in Congress from 1987 to 2023, last as a Republican senator from Oklahoma. In the 117th Congress, 949 roll calls were held while they served; they missed 101, and cast 657 of 687 party-unity votes with the majority of their caucus.

Party
Republican
Chamber
Senate
Former
In Congress since
Jan 6, 1987
Last term ended
Jan 3, 2023
Open in the Congress explorerOfficial record
Photo: Government Publishing Office (public domain)

Record by Congress

Counts with their denominators for each Congress and chamber served. Ranks are among members who served most of that Congress (100 or more roll calls): rank 1 did it most often. A description, not a grade.

CongressRoll callsMissedVotes with partySponsoredCosponsored across the aisle
117th CongressSenate94910.6%101 of 949 · rank 6 of 10096%657 of 687 · rank 70 of 100320 became law20%61 of 300

Ideology (DW-NOMINATE)

Voteview's DW-NOMINATE first dimension estimates where members sit from all their roll calls: liberal (−1) to conservative (+1). It describes voting patterns, not views. Shown for the 117th Congress (Senate), with each party's median and the chamber's range.

Liberal −1+0.55+1 Conservative

Source: Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/

Votes against their party

The latest party-unity votes on bills and amendments where the member voted yea or nay against most of their caucus.

  1. H.R. 2617: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023Nay
    Dec 22, 2022· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Rejected 34–63· Against party
  2. H.R. 2617: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023Nay
    Dec 22, 2022· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Rejected 34–63· Against party
  3. S.Con.Res. 14: A concurrent resolution setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2022 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2023 through 2031.Nay
    Aug 10, 2021· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Rejected 28–71· Against party
  4. S.Con.Res. 5: A concurrent resolution setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2021 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2022 through 2030.Nay
    Feb 4, 2021· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Rejected 29–71· Against party

Recent votes

The latest roll calls on bills and amendments, with the member's recorded position.

  1. H.R. 2617: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023Yea
    Dec 22, 2022· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Agreed to 93–4
  2. H.R. 2617: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023Yea
    Dec 22, 2022· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Agreed to 90–6
  3. H.R. 2617: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023Yea
    Dec 22, 2022· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Agreed to 88–8
  4. H.R. 2617: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023Yea
    Dec 22, 2022· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Agreed to 92–5
  5. H.R. 2617: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023Nay
    Dec 22, 2022· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Agreed to 73–24
  6. H.R. 2617: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023Yea
    Dec 22, 2022· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Rejected 40–57
  7. H.R. 2617: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023Yea
    Dec 22, 2022· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Rejected 44–53
  8. H.R. 2617: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023Yea
    Dec 22, 2022· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Rejected 47–50
  9. H.R. 2617: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023Nay
    Dec 22, 2022· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Rejected 10–87
  10. H.R. 2617: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023Yea
    Dec 22, 2022· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Rejected 47–50
  11. H.R. 2617: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023Nay
    Dec 22, 2022· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Rejected 34–63· Against party
  12. H.R. 2617: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023Nay
    Dec 22, 2022· Senate· Amendments· On the Amendment· Amendment Rejected 34–63· Against party

Sponsored bills

Bills and resolutions the member introduced as sponsor in the loaded Congresses. Volume is not quality: most measures never leave committee.

32 sponsored · 0 became law

How far they got

  1. Introduced2681%
  2. Reported by committee13.1%
  3. Passed one chamber516%

Policy areas

  1. Transportation and Public Works9
  2. Immigration4
  3. Health3
  4. Sports and Recreation3
  5. Energy2
  6. Government Operations and Politics2
  7. Crime and Law Enforcement1
  8. Education1

Latest activity

  1. S. 419 CONTRACT Act of 2021
    Reported by committee· Government Operations and Politics· Dec 15, 2022
  2. S. 5170 Route 66 National Historic Trail Designation Act
    Introduced· Public Lands and Natural Resources· Dec 1, 2022
  3. S.Res. 700 A resolution congratulating the University of Oklahoma Sooners softball team for winning the 2022 National Collegiate Athletic Association Women's College World Series.
    Passed one chamber· Sports and Recreation· Jun 23, 2022
  4. S. 4370 Keep Our Communities Safe Act of 2022
    Introduced· Immigration· Jun 9, 2022
  5. S. 3971 A bill to amend the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 to modify a provision relating to cost-sharing requirements applicable to certain Bureau of Reclamation dams and dikes, and for other purposes.
    Introduced· Water Resources Development· May 25, 2022
  6. S.Res. 641 A resolution designating the week of May 15 through May 21, 2022, as "National Public Works Week".
    Passed one chamber· Transportation and Public Works· May 17, 2022
  7. S. 3917 Protecting Medicaid Beneficiaries Act of 2022
    Introduced· Health· Mar 24, 2022
  8. S. 3497 Medical Student Education Authorization Act of 2022
    Introduced· Health· Jan 13, 2022

Committees

Seats as published by the congress-legislators project. Past seats are those no longer listed since Analisa began recording them.

No committee seats are listed.

Campaign money

What the member's campaigns reported receiving, per FEC two-year cycle, and the federal contracts of the organizations that sponsor the giving PACs (each sponsor matched to a contract recipient by AI, with its probability). Comparisons of public records: neither explains the other.

2022 cycle

Raised
$154.7K
through Dec 31, 2022
Cash on hand
$64.1K
From committees
$8,115
15 committees
From contractor PACs
$10K
7 PACs · 123% of committee money
IndividualsPACsPartySelf

Largest gifts from PACs of federal contractors, 2022

PAC sponsorGivenMatched contract recipientIts contracts, FY2026
cerner corporationcerner corporation pac$2,500CERNER CORPORATIONAI match · 100% · the same organization$2.3M
transdigm group inc.transdigm group inc. employee political action committee$2,500TRANSDIGM INCAI match · 100% · of one corporate family$5.1M
anduril industries, inc.anduril industries, inc. political action committee (anduril pac)$2,500ANDURIL INDUSTRIES, INC.AI match · 100% · the same organization$89.4M
at&t inc.at&t inc. employee federal political action committee (at&t employee federal pac)$2,000AT&T CORP.,AI match · 100% · of one corporate family-$3,412
ball corporationball corporation political action committee$1,000BALL AEROSPACE & TECHNOLOGIES CORP.AI match · 99% · of one corporate family-$182.3K
smith & nephew, inc.smith & nephew, inc. pac (s+n pac)$1,000SMITH & NEPHEW INCAI match · 100% · the same organization-$63.4K
elbit systems of america llcelbit systems of america llc political action committee$1,000ELBIT SYSTEMS OF AMERICA LLCAI match · 100% · the same organization—

Raised is the FEC's cumulative summary of the candidacy; committee money counts each contribution reported, so the two cover slightly different dates.

Terms

Every term in the House or Senate, as published by the congress-legislators project.

  1. Senate · OklahomaJan 3, 2021 – Jan 3, 2023
  2. Senate · OklahomaJan 6, 2015 – Jan 3, 2021
  3. Senate · OklahomaJan 6, 2009 – Jan 3, 2015
  4. Senate · OklahomaJan 7, 2003 – Jan 3, 2009
  5. Senate · OklahomaJan 7, 1997 – Jan 3, 2003
  6. Senate · OklahomaNov 17, 1994 – Jan 3, 1997
  7. House · Oklahoma's 1st districtJan 5, 1993 – Nov 15, 1994
  8. House · Oklahoma's 1st districtJan 3, 1991 – Jan 3, 1993
  9. House · Oklahoma's 1st districtJan 3, 1989 – Jan 3, 1991
  10. House · Oklahoma's 1st districtJan 6, 1987 – Jan 3, 1989

Identifiers

The same member in other public records.

Sources and method

Every figure on this page traces to these records.

  • Members of Congress, their terms, committees and identifiers (The @unitedstates project (from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House and the Senate))unitedstates/congress-legislators: legislators, committees and current committee membership · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)
  • House roll-call votes (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, roll-call vote records · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Senate roll-call votes and DW-NOMINATE scores (Voteview (UCLA Department of Political Science))Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/ · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Free to use with the required citation
  • Bill status: bills and resolutions, sponsors, actions, subjects and CRS summaries (U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), from Congress.gov (Library of Congress))GovInfo Bill Status bulk data (Congress.gov; summaries by the Congressional Research Service) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Congressional district boundaries and relationship files (U.S. Census Bureau)U.S. Census Bureau, Cartographic Boundary Files (congressional districts) and 2020 relationship files · release cd116+cd118+cd119 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Committees, candidates and committee contributions to candidates (Federal Election Commission)FEC bulk data: committee master, candidate master (candidates' names, no addresses), linkages, PAC summaries, all-candidates summaries and contributions from committees (no individual contributors) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov)USAspending.gov, prime award contract transactions (FPDS) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Positions are shown only where a roll call recorded them; voice votes and unanimous consent record none.
  • Activity counts describe volume and attendance; they are not a measure of quality.
  • Money and votes are shown side by side; neither explains the other.