U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe skated to another easy re-election win, defeating Democratic challenger Abby Broyles by a nearly two-to-one margin.
It means the Republican Senator will return to his longtime seat on the Senate Public Works and Environment Committee, a committee he previously chaired. Broyles, a former TV reporter and attorney campaigned against Inhofe by attacking his age. He is 85 and has said this will be his last term in the U.S. Senate.
Inhofe received a total of 977,813 votes while Broyles picked up 509,186 votes. Broyles won the absentee voting with 160,355 compared to Inhofe’s 111,625. Inhofe not only won the early voting with 105,786 compared to Broyles’ 55,905, but on election day, his supporters turned out in large numbers, giving him 760,402 votes while Broyles received 292,926.
Inhofe was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1994 and chaired the Environment and Public Works Committee from 2003 to 2007 and again from 2015 to 2017. He now is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee following the death of Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Inhofe previously was the 1st District U.S. representative from 1987 to 1994.
He is known in congress for his staunch stand against human-caused climate change and even wrote a book about it, “The Greatest Hoax.” He once brought a snowball to the floor of the Senate to show his opposition to the climate change movement.