Two days before Oklahoma's first district Republican primary, the campaign of Trump-endorsed congressional candidate Jackson Lahmeyer is reeling, and the story just got worse. Caitlin Simmons Key, a former Miss Oklahoma USA who worked as a fundraiser on Lahmeyer's campaign, now says the married megachurch pastor's conduct went well beyond the flirtatious text messages first reported over the weekend. The two shared physical kisses during the spring campaign season, she says, and she has the receipts to prove it.

"I enjoyed those lips," Lahmeyer texted Key, according to a message she shared with the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview.

That single line collapses the defense Lahmeyer tried to build after the initial story broke Sunday night. In a Facebook statement, the 34-year-old pastor admitted only to "crossing a boundary line through text messaging" and described the matter as already "dealt with privately between me and my wife, Kendra, through counsel and prayer with God and spiritual advisors." He called the original report "a distorted story from a British Tabloid."

Key says the careful wording was designed to hide, not clarify.

A carefully managed denial, and what it left out

"His statement spends a lot of time attacking the publication, questioning motives, and suggesting political agendas," Key told the Daily Mail. "What it doesn't do is address the actual content of the messages, the relationship that existed, or the conduct that led us here."

The 40-year-old single mother says she deliberately held back the more damaging material when the story first surfaced. She is no longer inclined toward mercy.

"The truth is there is more to the story. 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."

She added a pointed warning: "I am not the only person who knows things. And you should stop now before there's nothing else to hide."

Lahmeyer declined to comment on Key's latest revelations Monday.

The texts paint a picture Lahmeyer can't pray away

The messages shared with the Daily Mail trace an intimacy that deepened through the spring of this year. From a black-tie event at Mar-a-Lago, Lahmeyer sent Key selfies and called her "super thin and very cute." When she asked why he was texting her from the gala, he replied: "I like texting you lol."

He sent a selfie from a Hyatt Place hotel room and floated what he called a "late invite." Key says she declined. When she mentioned struggling with rent, Lahmeyer answered: "I got you."

When Key pushed the married father of five to be realistic about his situation, the exchange turned revealing. "And at some point, if u need to get divorced. Then ok," she texted him. His reply: "Not right now tho lol."

That is not the language of a man who crossed a "boundary line" once and repented. It reads like a man managing two lives and hoping neither one noticed.

A wife's fury, a pastor's damage control

Lahmeyer's wife, Kendra, discovered the relationship around Mother's Day. Her reaction was volcanic. "You are a home wrecking whore. Did you enjoy ruining our family?" Kendra wrote to Key on May 9. "He has 5 kids."

Key denied romantic involvement in a reply to Kendra: "If he feels differently towards me, that is nothing I have control of. I am dating someone!"

Behind the scenes, Lahmeyer scrambled. He canceled his Sunday sermon at Sheridan Church, called Key multiple times, and texted her demanding answers. In one message, Lahmeyer wrote: "Kendra wanted to recover all of our messages. I deleted them. I told her I got way too close to you and became emotionally attached. She lost it on me."

Key says she went through her own phone and began deleting thousands of messages before abandoning the effort. She ultimately sent Lahmeyer nothing and kept everything. "I'm not doing this bulls***," she texted him. "She's not ruining my future bc of her fears. Nothing is going on!"

Lahmeyer cast the fallout as his alone to absorb, apologizing on May 10. But his public posture told a different story, one of denial, deflection, and attack.

The 'Deep State' defense

After the original Daily Mail investigation broke Sunday night, Lahmeyer's campaign fired off a text blast to supporters casting the candidate as the victim of a "Deep State" smear orchestrated by "career politicians." The framing was designed to rally the base around a familiar villain. Key found it galling.

"My eyes continue to open more and more by the hour. Now a troubling text blast has gone out, referring to my story as 'Deep State.' While he may still have the endorsement of powerful figures, it's the voters here at home who are deciding whether he's fit for the job."

"I can assure you, I'm not Deep State," Key said. "So just stop. Stop before there's nothing left to hide from."

The "Deep State" label is a useful shield in Republican primaries. It works against faceless bureaucrats and entrenched Washington operatives. It is harder to make it stick to a former Miss Oklahoma who raised money for your campaign and whose texts you were still answering from a hotel room.

A race thrown wide open

The political damage is already measurable. Lahmeyer's odds on the betting market Polymarket dropped from 87 percent on Friday to 56 percent by Monday as the story spread. The Oklahoma first district Republican primary, set for Tuesday, features ten candidates. The winner will be the heavy favorite in November in the deep-red Tulsa-area district, which has been in GOP hands without interruption since 1987.

Rivals moved fast. State Senator Kim David, one of the ten Republicans in the field, said Lahmeyer "lacks the character and judgment to serve us in Congress" and urged voters to back her instead.

President Trump, for his part, doubled down Monday, posting a second endorsement of his "MAGA Warrior" on Truth Social. That endorsement is the cornerstone of Lahmeyer's candidacy. Whether it can hold up against the weight of the texts, and whatever Key says she has not yet released, is the question Oklahoma voters will answer Tuesday.

Key's own reckoning

Key does not pretend to be blameless. "I've never claimed to be perfect. I think the whole world knows at this point that I've messed up a lot," she told the Daily Mail. "And I knew going public would likely turn a lot of that attention onto me rather than onto the important point of electing someone who is dishonest."

She said the decision was not impulsive. She anticipated being dragged through the mud. She accepted the tabloid headlines. Her calculation was simple: if people actually read the story, they would see what was going on.

Key first met Lahmeyer in 2022, when he was a political newcomer mounting a long-shot Republican primary challenge to Senator James Lankford. She was active in Oklahoma conservative circles; he was the pastor who had refused to close his church during COVID. She signed on to raise money. Lahmeyer lost in a landslide, but the two stayed in touch. Key says they grew closer as she went through a difficult divorce.

"Eventually, the conversations crossed the line of probably what most people would consider appropriate for a married man and a single woman," she said.

As Lahmeyer's national profile climbed, he founded Pastors for Trump and was brought into the president's new White House Faith Office, the private relationship continued to deepen. The gap between his public persona and his private conduct widened with it.

The real test for Oklahoma voters

Key urges voters not to support Lahmeyer, stating that the only reason he wants to go to Washington is to "make all this money." That is her opinion. But the texts are not opinion. They are a record of a married pastor and congressional candidate pursuing a relationship with a campaign staffer, deleting evidence when his wife found out, and then framing the woman who came forward as a political operative.

Key offered one final challenge, seizing on Lahmeyer's own admission that the published narrative did not tell the whole story: "There's something else that Jackson is right about. The narrative is distorted, and there is more to this story. And if Jackson believes the public deserves more context, I welcome that conversation. There are facts and circumstances that have still not been discussed publicly and he knows exactly what I'm referring to."

Lahmeyer built his brand on faith, family, and fighting the establishment. Oklahoma voters now have to decide whether the man matches the brand, or whether the brand was always the point.

Character is not a partisan issue. It is the minimum entry fee for public trust, and no endorsement can substitute for it.