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An Oklahoma Republican who led the Environment Committee, he took hard-right stands on many issues but was especially vocal in challenging evidence of global warming.
James M. Inhofe, a five-term Republican senator from Oklahoma and, until President Donald J. Trump’s arrival in 2017, arguably Washington’s most prominent denier of the established science of human-generated climate change, died on Tuesday in Tulsa, Okla. He was 89.
His death, in a hospital, was announced in a statement by his family, which said the cause was a stroke.
A son of an insurance executive, Mr. Inhofe (pronounced IN-hoff) was, in his 20s and early 30s, a tenacious, litigious Tulsa businessman who, like Mr. Trump, made and lost fortunes as he ventured into ambitious real estate, land development and insurance deals that overlapped with the start of his political career a half-century ago.
After a decade in Oklahoma’s Legislature (1967-77), during which he lost races for governor and a seat in Congress, Mr. Inhofe became a three-term mayor of Tulsa (1978-84), before serving seven years in the House of Representatives (1987-94) and winning his Senate seat in a special election. After two years as a replacement, he was re-elected four times, in 1996, 2002, 2008, 2014 and 2020. He decided to step down two years into his fifth full term and retired in early January 2023.
Sometimes called Capitol Hill’s most conservative politician, Mr. Inhofe opposed abortion, L.G.B.T.Q. rights, health care legislation and campaign-finance reforms while supporting the death penalty, gun rights, counterterrorism powers, offshore oil drilling and constitutional amendments to require balanced budgets and ban flag desecration.
His voting record got overwhelmingly positive ratings from right-wing groups like Freedom Works, and overwhelmingly negative ratings from the American Civil Liberties Union and the N.A.A.C.P.
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