James Lockhart (Oklahoma politician)

James Lockhart (born May 15, 1974) is an American politician, award winning poet and author who served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from the 3rd district from 2010 to 2016. He is one of the only state legislators ever elected to office with a severe disability (hearing).

At age four, Lockhart was diagnosed with chronic otitis media resulting in chronic ear infections and a tympanic membrane perforation. He had five surgeries, including a complete left middle-ear reconstruction by age six. School sometimes was a struggle.

Sports such as football when he tried, often made him dizzy. When he was in ninth grade the junior high football team was undefeated. James said oftentimes he was so dizzy he didn’t know if he was on offense or defense, he just hit the guy in front of him as hard as he could when the ball was snapped.

James also competed in rodeo as a youth. His main event was tie down calf roping, even though he was left handed. James qualified for the Oklahoma High School Rodeo Association Finals all four years in high school. He won the 13-15 age division junior World Championship Breakaway roping in 1989.

James accepted a rodeo scholarship to Murray State College in 1992. He was vice president of Oklahoma State Rodeo team in 1995-1996. In March of 1996 James switched to roping right handed. He sat calf roping arena records in 1997 and qualified for the Cowboys Regional Rodeo Association finals that year. James went on to fill his PRCA permit roping right handed. He’s the only person to ever tie calves under eight seconds roping both right and left handed.

James worked for the United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services as a government trapper after college. He was a team leader at the World Trade Center Recovery effort in 2001 and 2002. His primary mission was to keep sea gulls and rats from feeding on the remains of the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. James was employee of the year two times while employed with USDA.

James witnessed relatives of politicians being appointed to jobs while working for USDA. In 2010 he ran for State Representative in district 3, which encompasses most of LeFlore county where James was raised. Despite being one of the poorest funded candidates in the race James won the election.

While serving in the legislature James authored legislation to make overtime wages tax exempt, prevent college tuition from increasing every year and prevent wasteful government spending. James authored campaign finance reform and legislation to prevent political hires in state, county and city government.

James worked with the Republican Speaker of the House to coauthor water conservation legislation that has been recognized nationwide. He fought for better textbooks for Oklahoma students and worked to protect veterans from abuse in Oklahoma’s Veterans Centers.

James said he never asked someone which party they belonged to when they called his office needing help. “I never told anyone no, I tried to help anyone that called.”

After leaving the legislature James has written articles for several publications. Over one thousand of his articles have been published. He has written poetry, songs and an autobiography is scheduled for release in late 2025 or early 2026. His autobiography is titled, “An Interesting Life.”