U.S. Rep Joe Barton Will Not Seek Reelection

U.S. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Ennis) will not seek reelection after a nude photo and suggestive messages were made public. Barton was up for his 18th consecutive term as representative and is the longest-serving congressman in Texas.

He announced his retirement Thursday in a statement to The Dallas Morning News, saying, "I’ve always listened to people in Texas and worked for them in Washington, and I’ve been listening to a lot of people the last week in Texas... There are enough people who lost faith in me that it’s time to step aside and let there be a new voice for the 6th district in Washington, so I am not going to run for re-election."

Barton, 68, first came under fire in the week before Thanksgiving when a nude photo that appeared to be of him emerged on an anonymous Twitter account. After the photo leaked, Barton admitted to being the subject of the photo but said he had no plans to retire at the time. He also announced he still intended to run for his next term in office.

He issued an apology for the photo and claimed that it was taken during a consensual relationship, but another woman has since come forth with her own tale of Barton's misconduct.

Kelly Canon shared private messages, some of which had sexual overtones, between her and Barton a week after Barton apologized for the nude photo, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Canon is a board member of the Arlington Republican Club and a member of the Republican Women of Arlington. She told the Telegram she had been exchanging messages with Barton for years, but they mostly talked about politics. She said Barton "...took it a step too far on rare occasions.”

Barton confirmed to The Star-Telegram he sent the suggestive messages, writing, “I will affirm I did have that exchange, but nothing more."

His consultant said Barton apologized to Canon for the messages, but Canon said he did not. She said, however, she never asked for an apology. The exchange reportedly took place in 2012 and 2013 while Barton was still married to his second wife.

Canon told the Star-Telegram she is glad Barton decided against running for reelection.

“I’m glad he came to his senses,” Canon said. “I’m a little disheartened that it took me coming forward to make him realize it’s more than just a (nude) picture — it’s a pattern... But I’m very relieved.”

The day after Barton apologized for the nude photo, he accused his former lover of threatening to make the images public when he ended the relationship. The woman was not identified, but reportedly told The Washington Post that she did not put the image online. She said the congressman sought to intimidate her by threatening to go to the authorities if she exposed his conduct.

The Post published details of a secretly recorded conversation between Barton and his former lover from 2015 in which he threatened to "take all this crap to the Capitol Hill Police and have them launch an investigation" if she did not agree to keep "inappropriate photographs and video" that he had exchanged with her from becoming public. He said she had already shared material with other women with whom he had been involved, the Associated Press reported.

He said the woman's comments on the tape could be evidence of a "potential crime against [him]."
That crime is one of revenge porn, which is illegal in more than 30 states and the District of Columbia. Texas law makes it illegal to share intimate photos "depicting another person with the person's intimate parts exposed or engaged in sexual conduct" without the subject's permission. Revenge porn crimes are a class A misdemeanor in Texas, and are punishable by a fine of up to $4,000 and a jail sentence of up to one year.

Barton has not been accused of sexual harassment or abuse of power. He will continue to serve out his term, which ends Jan. 3, 2019.

File photo via Associated Press — Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Barton, Texas’ most-senior member of Congress, announced Thursday that he won’t seek re-election following a nude photo of him that circulated online, as well as revelations that he exchanged separate messages of a sexual nature with a Republican activist. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)