As results for congressional races continue to roll in, we find ourselves with a few terrifying new members of American government: so far we have a QAnon-supporting candidate and a representative who said seeing Adolf Hiter’s vacation home in Germany was on his bucket list already elected. Now, Kansas added another problematic lawmaker to the mix by electing Aaron Coleman, also known as the guy who admitted to “bullying, revenge porn, and blackmail[ing] of multiple girls while in middle school.”
Coleman ran unopposed after winning the Democratic primary for a seat in the Kansas Legislature against seven-term incumbent Stan Frownfelter. According to The Cut, though he had no direct opponent, there were two write-in candidates that received 2,013 votes to Coleman’s 3,496. Still, Coleman was elected and is now a state representative.
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But any astonishment at a person running for office at the age of 19 quickly dissipated in August when allegations of harassment and violence surfaced from former classmates. One such accusation involved Coleman reportedly obtaining a nude photo of one of his classmates and threatening to send it to her friends and family unless she sent him more photos. When she didn’t, he made good on his threats and sent the photo to everyone she knew.
Shortly after the news of his revenge porn scandal broke, Coleman said he would drop out of the race, but then quickly changed his mind claiming that his actions several years ago do not define who he is now. Some saw his behavior as indicative of someone unable or unwilling to sympathize with others, and of someone who chooses to deliberately inflict distress. Others believed Coleman’s promise that the actions of six years ago could not be further from his actions now. When reversing his decision to drop out, Coleman claimed that “we NEED to focus on the fact that there is hopelessness among our young citizens, especially us men.”
Despite claiming that these brutal actions toward women were in his past, more recent accusations did not support that. A woman who started dating Coleman in November 2019 told the Intercept that he became enraged when she joked about breaking up with him. According to her, Coleman responded by slapping her and trying to choke her.
She provided texts to the outlet showing that Coleman subsequently tried to gaslight her into thinking the assault never happened and encouraged her to kill herself. This is where you would assume a statement denying her claims would be written, but no. Coleman admitted to being “abusive” toward his ex. In spite of proof that he had a continued history of violence toward women, people were willing to chalk up objections to his candidacy to “cancel culture.”
Coleman has yet to make a statement since winning the election, but the injustice of him being put into a position of representing the women he admitted to harassing will likely not be mentioned when he does.
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