JANESVILLE, Wis. — The 19-year-old Republican candidate for the Wisconsin state Assembly, who apologized last week for calling gays “fags” in a Twiiter post last year, has suspended his campaign and dropped out of the race after additional racist and homophobic comments he made on social media surfaced Tuesday.
Jacob Dorsey told The Janesville Gazette on Tuesday he was ending his campaign for the Assembly, just five days after apologizing for a Christmas Day 2013 tweet in which he said “fags need 2 leave my favorite state alone.”
Dorsey was commenting on Twitter after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit refused to issue a stay in a federal court ruling last year striking down Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage.
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“I have decided to withdraw from the race due to insensitive remarks that have surfaced from years past,” Dorsey said in a statement to The Gazette. “This race has been extremely hard on my family and myself.”
The tweets were first reported by the website NOManiacs, a group that exposes hate speech by the National Organization for Marriage and others. NOManiacs initially contacted Dorsey last year when the tweets were posted, five months before he launched his bid for the Assembly.
On Tuesday, NOManics reported additional comments — both homophobic and racist — Dorsey allegedly posted on YouTube.
The comments were posted to Dorsey’s “jdorsey1995” YouTube channel, the same account name he used for his Twitter and Instagram profiles.
The YouTube comments (above) were posted between one and two years ago, and Dorsey said Tuesday he regrets the comments made by a child he longer considers himself to be. The most recent slur on Twitter, however, was posted only five months before launching his political campaign.
He has since deactivated his Twitter and YouTube accounts.
Dorsey said he now plans to return to college to pursue a degree. He had taken this semester off from his studies at Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho, to run his campaign.
