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Biography

Kevin Ray Hern (born December 4, 1961) is an American politician and businessman from Oklahoma. A Republican, he has been a member of the United States House of Representatives for Oklahoma's 1st congressional district since 2018. Born in Missouri and raised in Pope County, Arkansas, Hern graduated from Arkansas Tech University in 1986 and briefly attended the Georgia Institute of Technology. In 1997 he bought his first McDonald's franchise and in 1999 he earned his MBA degree from the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. After moving to Oklahoma in 1999, Hern expanded his McDonald's franchises, eventually owning 18 franchises in the Tulsa metropolitan area. Hern was first elected to Congress in 2018, and was re-elected in 2020, 2022, and 2024. He became the chair of the Republican Study Committee, a conservative group of Republicans, in 2023. In the January 2023 election for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Hern was nominated as a protest candidate against Kevin McCarthy. After McCarthy was removed as speaker, Hern was briefly one of the candidates in the October 2023 elections to replace him. Following the resignation of Senator Markwayne Mullin to become U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Hern announced his candidacy for the 2026 United States Senate election in Oklahoma.

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