On Thursday, Representative Joe Barton in his latest statement has announced that he will not be seeking reelections in the year 2018 after the sexual images that have surfaced during the last week with a woman he had an affair with.
Barton further went on to tell to the news sources that would not run for an 18th term, even after having announced just three weeks ago that he would do so. The lawmaker went on to say that the reason for his decision is based on the fact that the people of Texas have lost faith in him, and that he had called for the state’s sixth district to have a “new voice” in Washington.
“I’ve always listened to people in Texas and worked for them in Washington, and I’ve been listening to a lot of people the last week in Texas,” Barton said in his statement. “There are enough people who lost faith in me that it’s time to step aside and let there be a new voice for the sixth district in Washington, so I am not going to run for reelection.”
Barton was not accused of the sexual harassment, but the lewd images of himself did surface on Twitter and caused a lot of embarrassment as well as further scrutiny of his other extramarital relationships. He had defended his relationships as consensual in his statement, and he had apologized for his poor judgment at that time.
“While separated from my second wife, before the divorce, I had sexual relationships with other mature adult women,” Barton had said last week. “Each was consensual. Those relationships have ended. I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days. I am sorry that I let my constituents down.”
Barton had said that on Thursday that though he still has a lot of support in his own district, he would prefer not to campaign because the aspects of his personal life that are now made public. “It would be a nasty campaign, a difficult campaign for my family,” he had further said.
Sarah Dodd from the Dodd Communications was helping Barton to respond to these images and had said last week that their release was an invasion of privacy. Specifically, the malicious release of this graphic image could constitute “revenge porn,” when sexually explicit images are posted online without the consent, which is illegal in both Texas and Washington, D.C.
Barton had also confirmed last week that he had told a former girlfriend to not to release any of the images of him or else he would contact the police, adding that it would be strictly qualifying as a crime. On Thursday, he had reiterated that he is a victim of revenge porn and had said that the matter is being further investigated, although he does not believe that he knows the person who had put these images on Twitter.