Representative Kendra S. Horn

Kendra Suzanne Horn (born June 9, 1976) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the U.S. representative for Oklahoma’s 5th congressional district from January 3, 2019, to January 3, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, she represented a district that included the vast majority of Oklahoma City and became the first Democrat to hold the seat in 44 years, the first Oklahoma Democrat elected to Congress in eight years, and the first Democratic woman elected to the U.S. House from Oklahoma. As of 2025, she is the last Democrat to represent Oklahoma in Congress. Her single term in the House coincided with a significant period in American political history, including the 116th Congress and the first impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

Horn was born and raised in Chickasha, Oklahoma. As a youth she was active in the Girl Scouts and earned the organization’s highest honor, the Gold Award. She attended the University of Tulsa, where she studied political science and was recognized with Omicron Delta Kappa honors, receiving her bachelor’s degree in 1998. During her undergraduate years she participated in the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature, gaining early exposure to legislative procedure and public policy. Horn went on to earn a Juris Doctor degree from the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, in 2001. She also broadened her education with studies at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France, reflecting a developing interest in space and technology policy.

Following law school, Horn began her legal career in private practice at a small firm in Dallas, Texas, before opening a solo law practice in 2002. She soon moved into public service and political communications, serving from 2004 to 2005 as press secretary to U.S. Representative Brad Carson of Oklahoma’s 2nd congressional district. After her work on Capitol Hill, she joined the Space Foundation, initially as Manager of Government Affairs in its Washington, D.C., office and later as Manager of Communication and Media Relations, positions she held until 2008. Beginning in 2009 she worked as a strategic consultant with Amatra, a communication technology firm, further developing expertise at the intersection of technology, policy, and public outreach.

In Oklahoma politics and civic life, Horn became increasingly involved in candidate recruitment and campaign management. During the 2014 Oklahoma gubernatorial election, she managed the campaign of Democratic nominee Joe Dorman. She also co‑founded and served as executive director of Sally’s List, an Oklahoma-based organization dedicated to recruiting and supporting women candidates for public office, and helped establish Women Lead Oklahoma, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that trains and supports women to encourage community engagement and civic action. These roles positioned her as a prominent advocate for women’s political participation in the state prior to her own congressional bid.

On July 3, 2017, Horn announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Oklahoma’s 5th congressional district. In the June 26, 2018, Democratic primary she received 44 percent of the vote, advancing to a runoff with Tom Guild. In the August 28 runoff, she defeated Guild decisively with 76 percent of the vote to become the Democratic nominee. In the November 6, 2018, general election, Horn faced Republican incumbent Steve Russell. Nearly every major race-rating organization projected Russell to win, and the statistical analysis site FiveThirtyEight gave Horn only a 14 percent chance of victory. Nonetheless, she prevailed with 50.7 percent of the vote to Russell’s 49.3 percent, winning by approximately 3,300 votes. Her margin in Oklahoma County, home to roughly three-fourths of the district’s population, was about 9,900 votes—more than three times her overall margin of victory. The race was widely regarded as one of the most surprising upsets of the 2018 midterm elections, with analysts noting her strength among female Republican voters and the contest’s character as a referendum on President Donald Trump. When she took office on January 3, 2019, she became the first Democrat to represent the 5th district since John Jarman, who had switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party during his final term in the 1970s.

During her tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives, Horn was regarded as a moderate Democrat. On January 3, 2019, the first day of the 116th Congress, she joined 219 other Democrats in voting for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House, explaining that Pelosi’s positions on improving health care, strengthening Medicare and Social Security, and supporting public education aligned with the platform on which Horn had campaigned. She joined the New Democrat Coalition on January 23, 2019, and announced on January 29 that she was also joining the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate and conservative Democrats. In addition, she was a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus. Horn served on the House Committee on Armed Services, including the Subcommittee on Readiness and the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, and on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, where she sat on the Subcommittee on Energy and chaired the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. On December 18, 2019, she voted in favor of both articles of impeachment against President Trump, participating in one of the defining legislative and constitutional actions of the 116th Congress.

Horn sought a second term in 2020 and won the Democratic nomination for her seat. In the general election she faced Republican State Senator Stephanie Bice. In a closely watched race that drew national attention, Bice defeated Horn in November 2020, returning Oklahoma’s 5th congressional district to Republican control after Horn’s single term in office. Following her departure from Congress in January 2021, Horn joined former Representatives Xochitl Torres Small of New Mexico and Joe Cunningham of South Carolina to launch Shield PAC, a political action committee established to raise funds to defend moderate Democrats in competitive swing districts, reflecting her continued engagement in centrist Democratic politics and electoral strategy.

In March 2022, after Senator Jim Inhofe announced his retirement and the resulting special election for his seat, Horn declared her candidacy for the U.S. Senate from Oklahoma. She ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination and became her party’s standard-bearer in the 2022 United States Senate special election. In the November general election she was defeated by Republican Representative Markwayne Mullin. That same year, another Democrat, Madison Horn, was the party’s nominee in Oklahoma’s regularly scheduled Senate election; Kendra Horn and Madison Horn are not biologically related. Throughout her public life, Horn has identified as an Episcopalian and has remained associated with efforts to expand women’s participation in public service and to promote moderate, pragmatic approaches within the Democratic Party.