Keith Ellison wins Minnesota primary for AG in a landslide despite abuse allegations against him

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) won his party's primary for attorney general of Minnesota on Tuesday, just days after allegations of domestic abuse by the congressman surfaced.

What are the details?

Ellison, who is also the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, received 54 percent of the vote, beating out the closest of his four opponents by 30 points. Ellison was considered the front-runner when he first announced his candidacy for attorney general, but the race became clouded when allegations were made against him over the weekend.

The son of Karen Monahan, Ellison's ex-girlfriend, leveled the accusations, claiming in a Facebook post on Saturday that the congressman had abused his mother when they dated.

Austin Monahan's post stated, in part, "In the middle of 2017, I was using my mom's computer trying to download something and I clicked on a file, I found over 100 text and twitter messages and video almost 2 min long that showed Keith Ellison dragging my mama off the bed by her feet, screaming and calling her a 'f***ing bitch' and telling her to get the f*** out of his house."

Ellison said in a statement Sunday morning, "This video does not exist because I never behaved in this way, and any characterization otherwise is false."

However, his ex-girlfriend went public on the issue the same day, saying on Twitter that Ellison had, indeed, abused her.

WCCO-TV reported that Ellison kept quiet the day before the primary, but addressed the claims against him to supporters at his victory rally Tuesday night.

He told the crowd, "We had a very unexpected event at the end of this campaign that happened. I want to assure you that is not true. We are going to keep on fighting all the way through. We are going to be respectful to all, and we are going to stand like steeples, and insist upon the truth."



Anything else?

The Associated Press asked Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez on Wednesday if he had spoken with his deputy since the allegations were made against him.

"I mean, he won his election yesterday, so I certainly talked to him to congratulate him," he replied.

When pressed further about whether the two had discussed the accusations against Ellison, Perez replied, "Yes. As I said, we take it very seriously. We're conducting an investigation, and when you're conducting a review, you talk to people."