US Senator Jim Inhofe will announce his resignation as early as Friday, according to reports.
The 87-year-old Republican Oklahoma Senator is expected to announce his resignation in the coming days which will trigger a special election in November.
CNN reported:
Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, a leading conservative Republican and veteran of the Senate, is expected to announce in the coming days that he will cut short his six-year term and retire near the end of 2022, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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Inhofe, 87, is a defense hawk who serves as the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He is also a former chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where he drew the ire of environmentalists over his denunciations of climate change as a “hoax.”
Inhofe, whose Senate career started after his 1994 victory, won reelection as recently as 2020, and had already planned to make his current term his last. But his resignation would likely spark a furious GOP battle for a seat to represent one of the nation’s most conservative states.
If Inhofe makes his announcement by March 1, he’ll trigger an election this November for his successor to serve for the rest of his term through 2026.