BREAKING: Aron Peña Accused of Sexual Harassment by Staffers
Pena is the District Director of Congresswoman Mayra Flores
Sources in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) reached out to us stating that several teenage campaign staffers have accused Aron Pena of sexual harassment.
Aron Pena is the District Director for Congresswoman Mayra Flores and at one time worked for the Texas General Land Office. He is also the brother of Adrienne Pena Garza, Chairwoman of the Hidalgo County GOP, and son of Aaron (2 a’s) Pena, who is running for 13th Court of Appeals.
We are told that Aron Pena is accused of multiple instances of harassment of teenage staffers. These include unwanted touching, inappropriate sexual comments, and forcing himself on staffers. One staffer told us that Pena once kissed her on the lips and she had to push him away.
Several staffers also allege multiple cases of what they refer to as “abuse of power” where he justified his actions by claiming it happened “after 5pm outside of work hours.”
Staffers have told us that Pena often uses his position within the party to offer “interviews” and discuss “job opportunities” in order to set up after hours meetings with the young staffers.
Others are claiming Pena would sometimes ask them to text photos of themselves before he went to bed for the night.
We are told that the situation involving Pena escalated when he repeatedly demanded he be included in the newly reformed Rio Grande Valley College Republican group. Students are telling us that even after being told his involvement with the college Republican group was not wanted or needed, Pena continued to harass students involved in the group to allow him to attend meetings and events.
We’re told that the 42-year-old Pena has been in a committed relationship for several years. Citizens we spoke to in RGV said that while Pena claims his girlfriend is in her twenties, she’s actually 19, and that he gets her into bars with a fake ID. We were unable to verify these claims but we did confirm that there is only one person in the RGV with the same name as Pena’s girlfriend and she is currently 19 years old.
Staffers we spoke to said there have been an excessive amount of incidents involving Pena; so much so that female staffers often warn new females brought on the campaign of Pena’s behavior towards women. Friends of Pena who spoke to us have described Pena as “a bit of a manwhore.”
We reached out to Aron Pena for comment. He confirmed he was just released from the hospital for a blood clot in his leg, but assured us he was not vaccinated (others we spoke to claim Pena is actually vaccinated). When asked about the harassment allegations, Pena said he was not allowed to talk to media but said he denied all allegations. He then hung up on us.
We also reached out to Adrienne Pena Garza, Pena’s sister, who is the recently elected Hidalgo County GOP Chair for comment. She said the time for the call was too late (it was 9pm), that she didn’t realize that we were “that type of organization,” and said the allegations didn’t seem like something her brother would do. We asked if she preferred to discuss the allegations with us the following day, she ignored this and then hung up on us.
When we spoke to the teenage staffers to ask why they hadn’t reported these issues with Pena sooner, they claimed that they were concerned for their jobs within the GOP and feared retaliation as the Pena family was very powerful and connected within the RGV GOP.
We called the office of congresswoman Mayra Flores for comment and they stated they would get back to us.
This is a developing story.
I can tell you first hand, I for one do believe these allegations. I was active with the Hidalgo county GOP from 2016 to 2018 and Aaron did not leave a good impression with me. In fact, the entire Pena clan seems to me to be in the GOP for reasons other than the conservative cause. They jumped on the bandwagon of George P bush just as soon as they could. One of their close allies got the chair of the young Republicans, and did some delegate deal to endorse George P. A precinct chair allied to them, Marshall Rankin, openly voted for Joe Biden.
There is so much wrong in the Hidalgo county GOP and so much that needs to be cleaned up. I thank current revolt for shining the light on the situation down here
The state party and chair rinaldi knew he was doing this when he worked for them before going to the congresswoman’s staff. They wouldn’t even listen or do anything and kept letting him have access to this girls. We told our srec people and nobody would put a stop to it at the rpt. We sent many emails to chair rinaldi and the SREC and they did nothing about him and his sister