WASHINGTON — Sen. James Lankford apologized to black voters in his home state of Oklahoma on Friday for his opposing the outcome of the presidential election in states with large African American populations.

In a letter addressed to “My friends in North Tulsa,” obtained by the Tulsa World, the 52-year-old Republican lawmaker acknowledged that his actions “caused a firestorm of suspicion among many of my friends, particularly in Black communities around the state.”

Lankford was one of several senators who dropped their challenge to to President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory after President Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol.

Prominent black political leaders in the Sooner State have called on Lankford to be removed from the state’s 1921 Race Massacre Centennial Committee and accused him of suppressing the black vote.

“What I did not realize was all of the national conversation about states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, was seen as casting doubt on the validity of votes coming out of predominantly Black communities like Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit,” Lankford wrote.

“After decades of fighting for voting rights, many Black friends in Oklahoma saw this as a direct attack on their right to vote, for their vote to matter, and even a belief that their votes made an election in our country illegitimate,” he went on.

Dozens of Republican allies of Trump planned to file objections to Biden’s victory but after the deadly Capitol siege, only GOP Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri followed through with their threat as Senate co-sponsors.

On Friday, Lankford apologized for the perceived slight to black voters.

“I can assure you, my intent to give a voice to Oklahomans who had questions was never also an intent to diminish the voice of any Black American,” he wrote.

“I should have recognized how what I said and what I did could be interpreted by many of you. I deeply regret my blindness to that perception, and for that I am sorry.”