Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, Texas’ most-senior member of Congress, announced Thursday that he won’t seek re-election.
The news comes after a nude photo of Barton was circulated online and a Republican activist revealed that he had sent her sexts while the lawmaker was still married.
Barton, 68, initially apologized for the explicit photo that surfaced on Twitter just before Thanksgiving but refused to heed calls that he not seek re-election in 2018.
Rep. Joe Barton announced Thursday that he would not be seeking re-election next year after a lewd photo and sexts he sent a conservative organizer while married were exposed
Republican Rep. Joe Barton became politically exposed after this image was circulated that he sent a woman ‘while separated from my second wife’
During on exchange, Barton was telling Canon that he was tired and getting ready to go to sleep
But before ending the message, he asked her to tell him what he was wearing
Canon replied that she was still in her ‘regular clothes’ and that she had not ‘called it a night yet’. In another conversation, he said that Canon was ‘a sexy woman’
Canon said that he was a ‘good’ man since he was married to his second wife at the time
He then also asked her what she was wearing, ‘if anything’
Barton then kept asking her what she was wearing before she tried to shut him down
In another exchange she gave him ‘a parting hug’, to which he said she was ‘soft n (sic) curvy’
Barton suggested he could be the victim of online exploitation.
About a week later, tea party organizer Kelly Canon came forward with Facebook Messenger exchanges from 2012 and 2013 when Barton asked if she was wearing panties and made other sexual references.
Barton would ask Canon how she was dressed, at one point probing whether she was ‘wearing a tank top only … and no panties.’
Ending one conversation he gave her an imaginary hug and commented that she was ‘soft n curvy.’
Canon said Barton hadn’t apologized and that she hadn’t asked him to, but also called on him to resign to avoid an electoral ‘feeding frenzy among Democrats.
That prompted Barton to reverse course and announce that he was forgoing what would have been his 18th congressional campaign.
Though his seat remains safely Republican, Barton had drawn a little-known challenger for Texas’ March primary and could have drawn more.
He was first elected to Congress in 1984. His retirement means seven of the state’s 36 members of Congress aren’t seeking re-election.
Pressure had intensified for Barton to quit. Republican Party chairman in Barton’s home county of Tarrant joined many conservatives in calling for Barton to step down after the nude photo.
And following Canon’s revelation, Republican members of the Texas’ state Senate joined the call.
Barton, who is from Ennis, Texas, was the manager of the Republican team that was practicing for a charity congressional baseball game in June when a gunmen opened fire, gravely injuring House Majority Whip Steve Scalise.