UPDATE: Republican state representative resigns, sparing him from censure by Democrats in Colorado House
Democrats in the Colorado House of Representatives this week will attempt to censure Republican state Rep. Ryan Armagost, the former House minority whip, for taking a picture of Democratic state Rep. Yara Zokaie last legislative session without her knowledge or permission.
This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
The photograph, captured during House floor proceedings, ended up at the center of a social media harassment campaign against Zokaie, of Fort Collins.
In the censure resolution, Democrats say Armagost behaved inappropriately and in a manner “incompatible with the high standards of order, dignity and respect of the House of Representatives.”
Armagost shared the picture internally among Republican House members immediately after taking it. Some lawmakers, in a group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal, compared Zokaie’s outfit — a short dress and blazer with knee-high boots — to a stripper and a prostitute.
The image was also shortly posted online by an anonymous, conservative social media account.
“That photograph was subsequently disseminated on social media by anonymous accounts, accompanied by vulgar commentary, and comments to the social media posts quickly escalated into racist and misogynistic attacks, rape threats, and violent threats directed against the colleague and her young children,” states the resolution.
Censures are rarely brought at the Colorado Capitol. But the measure’s sponsors, House Majority Leader Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge, and Assistant House Majority Leader Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, said it is important to set expectations about how members treat each other.
Bacon said Armagost’s behavior was unbecoming of a legislator.
“It’s unbecoming of a legislator to the extent that it harms somebody, it harms somebody in the workplace, and it is not the example that we want to set on behalf of the people who we are elected to represent,” she said.
When he took the photo, Armagost also chaired the House Workplace Harassment Committee, the panel tasked with investigating and recommending punishments when lawmakers and others in the capitol are accused of inappropriate behavior.
“If we don’t stand up and say, ‘Listen, this behavior is unacceptable, this behavior crossed the line,’ that means we are accepting of what happened and it will continue,” Duran said. “It wasn’t even about the bill or the issue. This was personally how she was dressed, the name-calling, the derogatory names that occurred, and also the impact it had on her family and her kids — that crossed the line.”
Armagost has so far declined to comment about why he took the photograph.
Earlier this summer, Armaost announced that he will resign from the legislature at the start of September to move to Arizona for a job and personal relationship.
Armagost was not present at the Capitol when lawmakers gaveled in Thursday for a special legislative session. He was listed as excused from the chamber.
Censure could raise tensions in an already divisive special session
Democratic leaders unveiled the censure resolution to their caucus during a meeting shortly after convening for the special session Thursday, and did not inform their Republican counterparts ahead of time.
With Democrats holding a wide majority in the chamber, the censure can pass without any support across the aisle. It needs just a simple majority to pass.
The Colorado legislature has not censured a member since 2008, when the house voted 62-1 to rebuke Republican Rep. Douglas Bruce for kicking a Rocky Mountain News photographer on the chamber floor during the morning prayer and refusing to apologize for his actions.
In this case, there will likely be far less agreement.
Some Republicans have pushed back against assertions that threats made against Zokaie were due to the social media posts featuring the photo Armagost took. They say her own statements and policy positions are what provoked outrage against her.
About a week before the photo was posted, Zokaie received intense blowback for a comment she made during a committee hearing on a controversial transgender rights bill when she was asked why conservative parents groups weren’t consulted on it.
“A well-stakeholded bill does not need to be discussed with hate groups,” Zokaie said at the time. “We don’t ask someone passing civil rights legislation to go ask the KKK their opinion.”
CPR News is reaching out to Republican House members and will update with any response they share to the resolution.
But Democratic leaders are determined to move forward with the censure, regardless of how its received on the other side of the aisle
“We do very important work in this building, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of having our families targeted or having to deal with the anxiety of wondering if we are safe just by virtue of who we are or at the very least of what we wear,” Bacon said.
Some House Democrats said they wanted House leadership to go even further and take action against other GOP lawmakers who commented on the Signal chat, as well as House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, R-Colorado Springs for not disciplining Armagost or informing Democrats when they asked for her help to uncover who took the photograph.
“I find that absolutely unforgivable and the fact that we are going to move forward without bringing any sort of consequence to someone who should be held at a much higher standard because she’s in a leadership position — I find this falling short,” said Democratic Rep. Lorena Garcia.
For Zokaie, she said the decision to move forward with a censure was not something she took lightly, in part because anytime she talks about the issue and the threats she faced, she said it does stir up harassment again.
“It does sometimes make me just want to bury myself in the work and not address what’s going on. But since this story broke, I have heard from women across the state about how they have felt at work and how they’ve been targeted and harassment that they have faced,” Zokaie said.
She said not responding would send a dangerous message that women can be intimidated and silenced.
“What I come back to is the fact that this story resonated with so many people because this is not an isolated thing,” she continued. “Women experienced this in the workplace. I think that this was far worse and widespread, but it’s indicative of something that women experience and the conduct is meant to have a chilling effect on women participating in politics. And so the step felt essential to me to send that clear message that harassment is not acceptable.”
Democrats are expected to take up the House resolution on Friday.
This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Funding for the Alliance is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.