Johnson County GOP chair resigns after colleague alleges he grabbed her
Just days after we reported on allegations Johnson County GOP Chair Fabian Shepard grabbed and kissed the Wyandotte County Republican vice chair outside an event, Shepard is resigning his post.
Shepard told the Sunflower State Journal that he is stepping down because “the allegations had become too much of a distraction.” Shepard also resigned from the Johnson County Library Board and Mental Health Center Advisory Board.
Stephanie Cashion, Wyandotte County GOP vice chair, said late Thursday morning that she had yet to hear anything from either the Johnson County or the Kansas Republican Party about the resignation. That does make us wonder if they’re more interested in optics than in Cashion’s safety and well-being.
Cashion shared her story with The Star Editorial Board last week, and told us what she’d said in a report to Bonner Springs police on Sept. 3. She said Shepard led her outside of a pro-life event there on Aug. 20 and grabbed her and kissed her twice before she could pull away.
Shepard adamantly denied the allegation, and his supporters questioned Cashion’s veracity and motives in coming forward, though she did so only reluctantly, after being disparaged on social media.
Duane Beth, Wyandotte County GOP chair and the first to see Cashion at the event after the alleged incident, told us Cashion “looked scared and quiet and upset when I saw her, when she walked in the door.” He says that later that night she tearfully described to him what had happened.
“I am glad Fabian made the right choice and stepped down,” Beth said Thursday. “It was the right thing to do.”
GOP officials clearly saw anger building among Cashion’s supporters toward Kansas GOP Chairman Mike Kuckelman for what they felt was a cursory and reflexively dismissive inquiry into the incident. As recently as last week, Kuckelman shrugged it off as a “he said/she said” situation between two adults.
Worse, he blamed Cashion for speaking out. “You don’t go to media,” he said. “You don’t do news articles about it.”
She didn’t “go to the media.” We came to her. Yes, you absolutely do news articles about such behavior, at least in 2021.
And yes, the Kansas Republican Party should still investigate the investigation.