A Trump-backed pastor whose campaign was rocked by a Daily Mail expose about his intimate relationship with a staffer has suffered a stunning blow in Oklahoma's Republican primary. Jackson Lahmeyer, the runaway frontrunner just a week ago, is headed for a runoff on August 25 after failing to clear the 50 percent threshold needed to win Oklahoma's 1st District GOP primary outright on Tuesday night. The megachurch pastor fell behind State Representative Mark Tedford who claimed 32 percent of the vote to Lahmeyer's 26 percent. The Associated Press called the race a runoff with nearly 90 percent of the vote counted. The blow comes after the bombshell Daily Mail investigation that exposed the married father-of-five's intimate relationship with campaign fundraiser Caitlin Simmons Key, a former Miss Oklahoma USA. Lahmeyer, 34, had been given odds of 89 percent to win before the Daily Mail's first exclusive on Sunday. His campaign had looked unstoppable, armed with Donald Trump's endorsement in a deep-red seat that has been in GOP hands since 1987. Key told the Daily Mail this week that she and Lahmeyer kissed on several occasions during the heat of the campaign.

He sent her thousands of text messages, in one telling her 'I enjoyed those lips,' and recounted leaving Mar-a-Lago for a [adult] club at 1am after being offered [class A drugs], which he declined. Speaking to the Daily Mail after Tuesday's results came in, Key said: 'The election is now in the hands of the voters. I chose to speak publicly because I believed the information I had was relevant to the character of someone seeking public office - and someone leading a church. 'I've paid a price for that decision. My reputation, my privacy, my relationships, and the people I love have all been impacted by it.

Even so, I stand by it. The facts are public. Voters now have information they did not have before. What they choose to do with that information is entirely up to them. 'I've never asked anyone to take my word for anything. I've simply asked people to look at the facts and draw their own conclusions. I've said what I felt needed to be said. The voters can decide what kind of character they want representing them. 'As for me, I can live with the consequences of speaking up.'

Key, a 40-year-old single mom, first met Lahmeyer in 2022 when he was a political newcomer mounting a long-shot primary challenge to Senator James Lankford. She signed on to raise money, and the two stayed in touch after he lost, growing closer as she went through a bruising divorce. 'Eventually, the conversations crossed the line of probably what most people would consider appropriate for a married man and a single woman,' she told the Daily Mail. As his national profile climbed, Lahmeyer founded Pastors for Trump and was brought into the president's White House Faith Office, while Key came aboard his congressional campaign this spring as a fundraiser.

It was Trump's endorsement that lit the fuse. The day after the president backed Lahmeyer on May 6, Key shared it on Facebook, vouching that she knew the candidate and his family well. Within hours his wife Kendra had found the texts in his phone. 'You are a home wrecking [expletive]. Did you enjoy ruining our family?' Kendra wrote to Key on the eve of Mother's Day. 'He has 5 kids.' After the Daily Mail's first story, Lahmeyer issued a statement on Facebook attacking 'a distorted story from a British Tabloid' and admitting only to 'crossing a boundary line through text messaging.'

He has otherwise declined to comment. Key also says cash payments that do not appear in the campaign's FEC filings kept landing as recently as the start of June, after she had been frozen out, money she believes was meant to keep her quiet. Key insists there is more he is not telling. 'The truth is there is more to the story,' she said. 'I showed mercy on him by not releasing it. If he wants to further discredit me, he's going to have a lot of explaining to do about why he continues to lie.' 'I am not the only person who knows things,' she added. 'And you should stop now before there's nothing else to hide.'