(Updated to include comments from House minority leader, excerpts of a piece published by Planned Parenthood lobbyist and comment from Republican strategist)
Democratic candidate Aaron Coleman changed his mind for a second time, announcing Tuesday morning that he plans to stay on the ballot for the race for House District 37.
The drama played out in real time on social media when Coleman sent out a news release on Twitter at about 11:20 a.m. announcing that he had reconsidered his plans to try to withdraw his name from the ballot.
The sudden about-face came less than 48 hours after he said he would try to remove his name from the ballot after he came under fierce pressure for mistreating girls when he was in middle school.
He’s generally been rebuked by his own party, including the governor who said through a spokeswoman he was unfit for the job.
His account with the online site ActBlue that helps Democrats raise money from small donors also has apparently been cut off.
Coleman defeated seven-term incumbent Stan Frownfelter by 14 votes in the Democratic primary.
Frownfelter is now mounting a write-in campaign.
If Frownfelter wins, it would be only the second time in Kansas history that an incumbent lost a primary and then won the general election as a write-in candidate.
Frownfelter couldn’t be reached for comment.
Coleman said that since he announced his plans to withdraw on Sunday afternoon, he had heard from many supporters urging him not to drop out.
“They said that they did not vote for me expecting that I was a perfect person. They told me that all of us have sinned, and we all make mistakes.
“They said they voted for me because they believe I am committed to doing what politics is about: advocating policies that improve the lives of ordinary people, of working people, of those like me and those like them.
Coleman has been in the national spotlight in recent days following his upset of Frownfelter in the Democratic primary.
Coleman has acknowledged allegations that he engaged in online bullying of girls when he was in middle school.
At 1 a.m. Sunday, Coleman foreshadowed his announcement to withdraw on social media where he lamented about getting into the race with a couple of tweets that indicated he was having a change of heart.
“The progressive circular firing squad has done more to uphold the status quo than conservatives could have ever dreamed of. I will be releasing a press release in the morning.”
In a second tweet, Coleman expressed regret for his past actions, saying he hoped to “continually learn from them as I grow into the person I hope to be.
“My dad is in the hospital and I never expected this kind of attention. It’s too much. I need to focus on taking care of my family & surviving the COVID great depresssion.”
House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer said Coleman’s decision-making is another sign that he shouldn’t be in the Legislature.
“I really wasn’t surprised,” Sawyer said of Coleman’s change of mind. “I was kind of half expecting this to happen.”
Sawyer said it seemed as if Coleman was starved for attention, adding that the candidate still has until Sept. 1 to try to withdraw his name from the ballot.
“Who knows what the next turn will be,” he said.
Coleman, however, seemed to gain new confidence late Monday night when a reporter from the left-leaning publication The Intercept started raising questions about Frownfelter’s voting record as a state legislator.
Reporter Lee Fang posted a series of tweets pointing out that Frownfelter voted for legislation limiting second trimester abortions and for resolutions supporting the Keystone Pipeline and removing the federal government’s power to address climate change.
Fang also noted on Twitter that Frownfelter received the highest score of any Democrat in the Kansas Legislature from the American Conservative Union.
Fang relied on a 2015 scorecard from the organization showing that Frownfelter voted with the organization 33% of the time.
“Yikes,” Coleman responded to the thread. “People are starting to do opposition research on my opponent for the first time ever — it’s not looking good.”
Coleman called the thread “very informative” and thanked the reporter.
“I’ve learned some things myself.”
Coleman took a couple shots at Frownfelter in his announcement Tuesday.
“My withdrawal would immediately return to power the same corporatist out of touch, 7 term incumbent that voters just rejected,” he posted on Twitter.
“They did not only vote for me but they voted for my platform and change for our community,” he said.
By late Tuesday afternoon, ActBlue, the online webite that helps Democrats raise money from small donors, had apparently terminated Coleman’s account.
Coleman posted an email from ActBlue on Twitter that said his account had been disabled.
“We are unable to work with your campaign moving forward as you are out of alignment with ActBlue’s mission,” said the email Coleman posted on Twitter.
ActBlue could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
“I got 5K chilling in the bank,” Coleman responded on Twitter.
“Guess who has experience winning elections when outspent 1-to-11…oh wait #AaronFor KansasHouse37 does.”
To get off the ballot, Coleman would have had to demonstrate a medical hardship for either him or his immediate family to get off the ballot.
A physician would have had to certify the medical hardship.
Even as Democrats have been fleeing from a Coleman candidacy, Republicans have been quick to wrap him with the Democratic Party.
Planned Parenthood lobbyist Rachel Sweet wrote a piece this week condemning Coleman even if Frownfelter had a lukewarm record on abortion rights.
“While Rep. Stan Frownfelter has a mixed voting record on reproductive rights, he has been a better ally to Kansas women than Coleman has ever shown himself to be,” Sweet wrote in a post on the Planned Parenthood Great Plains site.
Sweet noted that Frownfelter didn’t support the constitutional amendment that would have stripped abortion as embedded right from the state constitution.
She also pointed out that Frownfelter had been a supporter of Medicaid expansion.
“Being a pro-woman candidate means more than just being pro-choice,” Sweet wrote.
“You cannot honestly say that you support a woman’s right to bodily autonomy when you use revenge porn to humiliate, belittle, coerce, and control women.”
At the time, Sweet said Coleman made the right decision to end his campaign. She said Democrats were right to disavow him as a candidate.
“We hope the next time an abusive man is running for elected office — for there will always be a next time — that this type of accountability will continue, regardless of a candidate’s perceived power or party affiliation.
Kansans for Life, meanwhile, has tied Coleman’s social media posts on abortion — “I don’t respect fetuses, or their ‘life’” — to other Democratic legislative candidates who voted against a constitutional amendment that would have ensured abortion is not a protected right in the state constitution.
Republicans have latched onto Coleman’s progressive campaign platform, which calls for universal health care coverage, a Green New Deal, full reproductive rights for women, and the legalization of marijuana.
“Aaron Coleman is the face of today’s modern Democratic Party,” said Republican strategist Jared Suhn.
“He and his allies have radical, unstable socialist ideas that will wreck the Kansas economy and push our politics further to the extreme edge.”
