West Virginia Delegate John Mandt Jr. (R) resigned earlier this year and ended his campaign for reelection to the state legislature after anti-LGBTQ messages he sent to a Facebook chat group were leaked. But within hours, Mandt changed his mind and resumed his campaign.
State House Speaker Roger Hanshaw (R) said bigotry had no place in the state when Mandt resigned, but voters in his district decided otherwise. They reelected him by a slim margin of 71 votes.
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“Silly Faggot, Dicks are for chicks!!” Mandt allegedly wrote in the chat group “The Right Stuff,” which included conservative lawmakers in the state as well as candidates for office.
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But Mandt had only praise for the speaker who condemned him, saying Hanshaw is “a great man and a phenomenal leader.”
As screenshots of the messages were circulated on social media, Mandt denied making them in a Facebook post, saying he was “really hurt and very disappointed seeing fabricated posts circulating on social media.” That message was later deleted and he said he meant the comments as a joke.
“I’m looking forward to continuing my hard work in the legislature and along with my colleagues,” Mandt said in an email to the Associated Press.
“It hurts,” said Del. Cody Thompson (D), one of the two out members of the state legislature. “I work with these people.”
“In general I’m very proud of a lot of things we can work together on for the betterment of the people of West Virginia, but when it comes down to seeing these comments, it’s really hard to work with those who, they may smile to my face and talk to me, but behind closed doors or in conversations with others they use homophobic slurs.”
