US lawmaker quits re-election campaign after daughter accuses him of child abuse
A US lawmaker from Minnesota has abruptly quit his re-election campaign after his adult daughter alleged that he engaged in abusing and inappropriately touching her since she was nine years old.
US media outlets reported Saturday that Minnesota Republican State Representative Jim Knoblach ended his re-election bid on Friday hours after his attorney, Susan Gaertner, denied the allegations by the legislator’s 23-year-old daughter, Laura, in an interview with the local Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), saying the veteran lawmaker "does not want to drag his family through six weeks of hell."
MPR also cited Laura as saying that her father inappropriately touched her for most of her life, with her first memories starting when she was 9 years old and continuing until she was 21.
She further pointed out that the abusive activity included kissing, licking and biting her ears. Laura also said she confided in close friends, family and authority figures at her school and church about her father’s actions for more than a decade.
The Republican lawmaker, meanwhile, rejected her daughter’s allegations in a written statement as "indescribably hurtful," claiming that he felt he had no other choice but to quit the electoral race so he could work toward healing his family.
"I love my children more than anything, and would never do anything to hurt them. Her allegations are false," Jim Knoblach wrote. "I and other family members have made repeated attempts to reconcile with her in recent years, but she has refused."
The 60-year-old legislator is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over budget matters. The timing of his exit could make his seat -- already a top target for Democrats -- difficult for Republicans to hold absent some kind of court intervention or a write-in campaign by a substitute candidate.
Shortly after Laura’s story was published, the University of Colorado Boulder alumna posted the link on her personal Facebook account with the caption, "My heart has never felt this heavy, but my shoulders have never been so light."
Midterm US elections are due to be held in November amid broad expectations that many Republican lawmakers will be defeated by Democratic Party or independent challengers and will likely lose the control of both houses of the US Congress. American voters are blaming the Republican legislators for supporting US President Donald Trump’s radical policies.
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