Kevin Ray Hern (born December 4, 1961) is an American businessman and politician from Oklahoma. A Republican, he is a member of the United States House of Representatives for Oklahoma's 1st congressional district. 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 before returning to Arkansas to work for McDonald's the following year. 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. In 2018, he ran his first campaign for office and was elected to the United States House of Representatives. Hern was a leading figure in attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 United States presidential election. In December 2020, Hern signed an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution.Hern became the chair of the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative Republicans in the House, in 2023. In the January 2023 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election, Hern was nominated for Speaker of the House as a protest candidate against Kevin McCarthy. During the October 2023 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election Hern initially announced he would seek the nomination, before withdrawing from the race against Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan. On October 20, 2023, he again announced his candidacy for Speaker of the House after the withdrawal of Scalise and Jordan.