Keith Ellison’s Campaign Overshadowed by Ex-Girlfriend’s Allegations

When Keith Ellison launched his bid to become Minnesota’s next attorney general, he had formidable advantages.

An outspoken progressive who had served in Congress for more than a decade, Ellison was one of the most recognizable politicians in the state. As deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, he had a national profile that has helped him raise nearly twice as much money as his Republican challenger, Doug Wardlow, a lawyer. On top of that, there was history: Minnesota has not elected a Republican attorney general since 1966.

But in recent weeks, Ellison’s upper hand appears to be evaporating, amid claims by his ex-girlfriend, Karen Monahan, that he mistreated her during their long-term relationship. Monahan has accused him of causing emotional pain through infidelity and dishonesty when they were a couple, and said he once tried to drag her off a bed after an argument while screaming obscenities at her.

Recent polls show that Wardlow, a little-known conservative, is now in a tight race with Ellison. One poll has them deadlocked, while another has the congressman with a slim lead, with 41 percent of voters supporting Ellison and 36 percent supporting Wardlow.

A loss by Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, would be a stunning blow to a leader of the ascendant progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Wardlow has pounced on the allegations, releasing an ad that portrayed Ellison as a perpetrator of domestic violence. Ellison, a champion of feminist causes, now finds himself struggling to respond amid a contentious national debate over the #MeToo movement, roiled even further after the accusations against Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.

Ellison denies the allegations, including of infidelity, and said in an extensive interview that he has been conflicted about how to react. He said he wanted to clear his name, but did not want to demonize Monahan, 44, an environmental activist with whom he had a long-term relationship.

“The #MeToo movement is a justice movement and I don’t ever want to be counted among those who in some way tried to dissuade victims from coming forward,” he said. “But I think the #MeToo movement has room for due process. Every social justice movement must.”

As allegations against politicians emerge, voters are grappling with what behavior constitutes abuse and when it should be disqualifying. In Ellison’s case, the claims are not about unwanted sexual advances, but emotional pain and a fight that Monahan said became physical when he grabbed her leg. In Minnesota, a majority of voters — 57 percent — said they were unsure what to think about the accusations against Ellison, according to the Star Tribune/MPR News poll.

Monahan claims to have taken a cellphone video of Ellison pulling her across the bed, her sole allegation of physical abuse, but has refused to show it to anyone. An investigation commissioned by Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which has endorsed Ellison, recently concluded that Monahan’s allegations of physical abuse were unsubstantiated.

“An allegation standing alone is not necessarily sufficient to conclude that the conduct occurred, particularly where the accusing party declines to produce supporting evidence that she herself asserts exists,” wrote the investigator, Susan Ellingstad, who heads the employment law department of the firm Lockridge Grindal Nauen.

Wardlow has called the investigation against Ellison “a sham,” noting that the law firm where Ellingstad works has donated to Ellison’s campaigns.

In recent days, Wardlow has championed Monahan’s cause on conservative media outlets, highlighting what he called a double standard for Democrats who have rallied around Kavanaugh’s accusers while ignoring Monahan. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House spokeswoman, and conservative talk show hosts Tucker Carlson and Glenn Beck made similar remarks.

Monahan, a well-known progressive organizer in Minneapolis, recently retained Andrew Parker, an attorney who is Wardlow’s former boss, to represent her. Monahan declined to comment and referred all questions to Parker.

“The fact that she has a video, and people are bullying and requiring her to show it” amounted to re-victimizing her, said Parker, who said he also has not seen the video. “She will not do that.”

Parker added that there was “more than enough evidence” to corroborate Monahan’s claims, including her accounts of the abuse to friends and doctors.

The race presents voters with a stark choice. Ellison, a supporter of transgender and reproductive rights, has vowed to challenge the Trump administration as attorney general by protecting the Affordable Care Act and being an advocate for immigrants. Wardlow once served as legal counsel for the conservative Christian group Alliance Defending Freedom, and has promised to crack down on sanctuary cities and voter fraud.

But Ellison’s campaign has been consumed with Monahan’s allegations.

Ellison said the final stages of the relationship were marked by frequent arguments, but said he was stunned by Monahan’s abuse allegations and her recent emergence as a cause célèbre of the Republican Party. “I think the question to be asked is, ‘What is her ultimate goal?'” he said. “If her goal is to frustrate my political future, maybe she’ll ally with anyone who can help her achieve that.”

Monahan has said on Twitter, “I didn’t #WalkAwayFromDemocrats, they #WalkedAway from me.”

Ellison’s inner circle has been divided over how to respond to allegations, which Monahan has been alluding to on Twitter and Facebook — without naming him — since the couple’s tumultuous break up. Some advocated a vigorous defense, while others saw nothing to be gained by talking about her claims.

Friends of the couple have described the relationship as rocky, with Monahan often accusing Ellison of infidelity. Even after they separated and she moved out of his house, Monahan continued trying to prove that he had been unfaithful to her, he said.

Monahan visited him in January 2017 and searched his phone without his permission, obtaining screenshots of text messages that he had sent to two other women. She also left a handwritten journal at his house that insulted one of the women he had started dating, calling her “old.” Monahan later wrote the woman a letter accusing her of stealing his affections.

Ellison said he tried to strike a conciliatory tone with Monahan. She sent him videos, articles and texts about “narcissist abuse,” a nonmedical term that has gained popularity online to describe the pain experienced by partners of pathologically self-centered people. And she asked him to discuss the articles with her, saying that she wanted to help him and that she also wanted “restorative justice.”

“She wanted to meet and talk about the relationship and try to process the issues,” he said.

He watched one of the videos, but told her he did not agree with her assessment.

“I think I’m fairly well adjusted,” he said in an interview. “I’m not saying I don’t go through the normal ups and downs of life. But I didn’t see this thing about my needing help.” The last time he saw her, at a coffee shop in June, Ellison said he asked her why she kept writing on Twitter about him. “She said she had a right to tell her story,” he said.

He said he assumed that she was going to continue her “cryptic-sounding tweets” but was shocked when she and her son accused him of physical abuse by name on social media days before the Democratic primary.

“I never thought she was going to do this,” he said. “I knew she could not possibly produce a tape of what she described.”

Monahan told Ellingstad, the investigator, that Ellison’s decision to run for attorney general “screamed entitlement,” and convinced her to go public.

Ever since, Ellison has been trying to dispel the cloud that has hovered over his campaign.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune and Alpha News, a right-leaning news site, have sued to unseal Ellison’s divorce records. His ex-wife, Kim Ellison, has said he was never abusive during their 25-year marriage.

Ellingstad’s report has been forwarded to local law enforcement, which has declined to take up the matter. Ellison has asked the House Ethics Committee to look into the allegations, as well.

A group of progressive women, including a former Minneapolis mayor, Betsy Hodges, recently released a letter explaining why they continue to support Ellison.

Abena Abraham, 22, who signed and helped craft the letter, said that disposing of Ellison and electing his Republican rival would not end violence against women or promote the cause of women’s rights.

“We should elect him and then hold him accountable,” she said. Many liberals in the state continue to express bitterness that another progressive icon, Sen. Al Franken, was forced to resign without an investigation after he was accused of groping a sleeping woman for a photograph, and of trying to kiss a Senate aide.

But Billy Grant, Wardlow’s campaign manager, predicted that the allegations against Ellison would cause many progressives to either vote for the third-party candidate, from the Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party, or leave that part of the ballot blank.

“The court of public opinion is all we’re going to have before the election,” he said.

That may the only thing that Ellison and Wardlow agree on. Asked how the allegations are impact his race, Ellison said: “We won’t really know until the evening of November 6th.”