Aaron Coleman, 19, who on Sunday announced he was withdrawing from the contest for the 37th District, today said he’s back in the race.
Coleman won the Democratic nomination for the 37th District, House of Representatives, over veteran lawmaker Rep. Stan Frownfelter.
There is no candidate opposing Coleman on the general election ballot; however, Rep. Frownfelter, a Democrat, and a Republican opponent, Kristina Smith, have said they would run as write-in candidates in November.
Coleman, a college student who is a dishwasher, was ahead by one vote on election night, and then won the primary election by 14 votes at the canvass. He said on Sunday he was planning to submit a letter withdrawing from the race because of family medical hardship.
If he dropped out, Democratic precinct committee members would have selected a replacement on the November ballot.
During the primary campaign, last-minute negative information came out about Coleman that alleged he had engaged in revenge porn more than five years ago as a middle school student, which he admitted, plus other allegations involving bullying. Although Coleman said he has changed, some of the Democratic establishment distanced themselves from him, and there were some calls for him to resign.
Today, Coleman sent out an email that he was changing his mind and staying in the race. He stated he had heard from many people who voted for him, who urged him not to drop out. “They said that they did not vote for me expecting that I was a perfect person,” he wrote.
He said today that he had dropped out Sunday to try to focus on his family. What he realized is he would be putting the interest of himself and family above the interest of the community, he said.
Within a couple hours after he announced his withdrawal on Sunday, his phone and text messages started to blow up with people who had helped in his campaign, who said he can’t do this, he said.
“They told me about their struggle to pay rent and put food on the table,” Coleman said.
“I did some soul-searching,” he said. “Had I taken my name off the ballot, Stan Frownfelter would have been renominated.”
He said he reached that conclusion after some conversations with precinct committee members.
Coleman wrote in his email, “I won because voters decided that the policies I believe in – providing universal health care coverage through Medicare for All, stopping evictions and investing in public housing, taking action against polluters and funding a Green New Deal to create jobs, and fixing the broken school system that failed me – would improve their lives.”
As for the November election, Coleman said, “I’m going to run like I’m scared, like I’m 10 points down.”
He said he is planning to go door-to-door in the district again.
“If you don’t talk with everybody, when you go to Topeka, you can’t represent everybody because you haven’t spoken with everybody,” he said.