Kansas Jewish college student, 19, defeats longtime State House incumbent
Aaron Coleman Image by youtube
(JTA) — A 19-year-old Jewish community college student has defeated a 13-year incumbent in the Democratic primary for a state House seat in Kansas.
But the party has disavowed Aaron Coleman, who has admitted to harassing girls online when he was in middle school.
Coleman, of Kansas City, defeated Stan Frownfelter, 823 to 809, in the 37th District. Frownfelter can call for a recount, and said he is mulling a write-in candidacy. There is no Republican candidate for the seat.
Coleman, the great-grandson of a Holocaust survivor, admitted to The Kansas City Star that he called one girl fat and told her to kill herself. She told the newspaper that she did, indeed, attempt suicide.
He blackmailed a second girl, threatening to send a nude photo of her to her family and friends unless she sent her more. When the girl did not comply, Coleman sent the photo he had. She told the newspaper that she doesn’t know how Coleman obtained the photo in the first place.
A third woman told the newspaper that he harassed her “for months.”
“I made serious mistakes in middle school and I deeply regret and apologize for them. I’ve grown up a great deal since then,” Coleman told The Star editorial board last week.
Coleman told The Jerusalem Post that he was “heavily inspired” by Bernie Sanders and his 2016 presidential campaign. He was also one of several teens who ran for Kansas governor in 2018 at the age of 17. Kansas has since passed a law setting 25 as the minimum age to run for governor.
“My Grandpa Charles’s mother was the only survivor of our family from Auschwitz. I have spent a great deal of time since my election victory this week reflecting on my family’s challenging journey from the Holocaust to the Kansas Legislature,” Coleman told The Jerusalem Post. “There is a certain pride to know that, if elected in November, I may be both the only Jewish representative and the youngest member of the Kansas House.”
The post Kansas Jewish college student, 19, defeats longtime incumbent in state House primary appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
