Kansas teen Democrat admits bullying, revenge porn — and thinks he should be in office?

He’s likely on his way to becoming the newest state representative from Kansas City, Kansas. But 19-year-old Aaron Coleman recently admitted to “bullying, revenge porn, and blackmail” of multiple girls while in middle school.

One young woman who says she was among his victims says she later attempted suicide.

Now, Coleman’s shocking, though tenuous, five-vote win in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary has left the young women who say they were victimized by him feeling abused all over again, one advocate says.

With no Republican on the ballot in November, Coleman seems assured to be sworn in as a legislator in January, pending the certification of the primary results on Aug. 17. Coleman’s apparent victory over an incumbent state representative has brought national and international attention and the condemnation of fellow Democrats.

“I was just in disbelief that another man that doesn’t respect women is in power,” said the young woman, now 18, who says she attempted suicide after Coleman’s persistent verbal abuse in sixth grade. Having come to Coleman’s attention by dating a friend of his, the young woman recalls Coleman “calling me fat, telling me to kill myself, like I’m never going to find anyone, like I’m worthless, just downgrading me every day.

“I tried to end my life,” she said.

“F—- you you f——- ratchet fat s—-,” she says he told her in a message back then. “F—- off whale. Go on a diet and get some braces.”

Another young woman has posted on social media, and has repeated to The Star, that Coleman extorted her in middle school five years ago over an explicit photo of her.

“He got one of my nudes and blackmailed me with it and told me if I didn’t send him more he would (send) it to all of my friends and family,” she wrote. “And when I didn’t send him more, he sent it to everyone I knew. I don’t know how he got the picture. All I know is he’s an awful person and he should not be allowed to run for anything.”

A third young woman posted that Coleman “harassed me for months, it got so bad that he found out my family’s home phone and wouldn’t stop calling it until we picked up.”

Coleman now says he is sorry.

“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 Tuesday in a statement.

The Aaron Coleman for Kansas Facebook page more specifically addressed his past misdeeds in a June 17 post, saying, “The charges include: bullying, revenge porn, and blackmail — I just want to make clear all these allegations are both true and occurred only digitally. I denounce these actions and they are the actions of a sick and troubled 14-yo boy.”

The Facebook post continues, describing trauma that he says he experienced during his childhood and saying that he is now disgusted by his past actions.

But five years later, has the presumptive lawmaker fully left that abusive boy behind? It certainly appears not. Coleman told one Republican during the campaign that he’d “laugh and giggle when you get COVID and die.” And when his primary opponent, state Rep. Stan Frownfelter, took note on social media of Coleman’s past abuse of girls — supporting the women while disavowing any involvement in telling their stories — Frownfelter says Coleman threatened to retaliate with unspecified allegations against him. None ever came.

Coleman addressed that incident in a statement to The Star Editorial Board saying, “I had, to that point, run an issue-focused campaign and was simply making clear that if Mr. Frownfelter’s campaign was going to run personal attacks then his conduct as a legislator would also be fair game.”

Frownfelter campaign manager Brandie Armstrong says she felt harassed by Coleman during the campaign, including during a visit to her home, and that a friend of hers recommended getting a restraining order, which she did not do.

“I was afraid of what he might do in regards to the campaign. I was really concerned,” she said.

Local Democratic political activist Faith Rivera was furious when she learned of Coleman’s abuse of girls and took it upon herself to advocate for those alleged victims who have come forward.

“If that had happened to my daughter, Wyandotte County would’ve shook. The city would have been in shambles,” she says. “These victims are not supported enough.”

Further indicating a failure to grasp the gravity of his past actions, Coleman recently and callously wrote a relative of the young woman who attempted suicide, saying, “I’ve moved on. They call the past the past for a reason, because that’s where you are supposed to leave things. At this point you shouldn’t move on for me, you should move on for yourself.”

“How can you mansplain to your victim ‘Get over it’? That’s ridiculous,” Rivera says. “It’s not something that’s ever going to go away for them. You can’t just apologize that away. It’s always going to be there for these girls.” Coleman’s apparent victory, she adds, “is another form of abuse to them.”

For the young woman who says she attempted suicide, Coleman’s election win has left her with fresh wounds.

“I feel good about speaking my truth, but I’m still very upset because he’s going to have some form of power. And I don’t think he has a right to have any kind of power.

”I don’t know why he’s not being held accountable,” she says.

Coleman may now be the only one who can hold himself to account. He should do the right thing and withdraw his name from the nomination — and apologize anew for the added insult of his undeserved brush with power.

This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 10:24 AM.