More Pena Accusations Come to Light
Several other young women have spoken to Current Revolt
Yesterday we published an article regarding allegations of sexual harassment against Aron Pena, seemingly former district director of Congresswoman Mayra Flores.
After our story, we were bombarded with phone calls from people, almost exclusively young women, with stories to tell of their experiences with Pena, both recent and past.
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One young woman who reached out to us claimed she experienced multiple incidents of harassment and abuse from Aron Pena. These included forcing himself on her when she was 18, intentionally putting her in situations where she was alone with him, and verbally abusing her in front of others when she rejected his advances.
This young woman claimed she shared her concerns with the GOP, RNC, and others, but nobody investigated her claims. She also provided us substantial evidence showing that Young Republicans of Hidalgo County were aware of the abuse but chose not to investigate or act.
She also told us she became so disenchanted with the abuse she faced from the Pena family that she quit politics altogether and no longer associates herself with the Republican party. This seems like a common theme with some of the women we spoke to.
We were also provided this screenshot from 2019 of the Hidalgo County Young Republicans page reflecting an alleged affair between a married Young Republican and Pena:
We are told the screenshot above was taken before the post was removed and deleted.
Another woman came forward alleging a relationship of very serious abuse with Pena. She claims Pena abused her physically and mentally, and threatened to blackmail her. She stated the relationship began when she was 18 and Pena was in his late 20s.
The woman also alleged that the Pena family, including Hidalgo County GOP Chair Adrienne Pena-Garza, are aware of Aron Pena’s behavior with young women and either enable or ignore his behavior.
She alleges that, early on in their relationship, Aron Pena’s family asked her if Aron was assaulting or hurting her. She told us he wasn't abusive at the beginning of their relationship, but that this changed over time.
She told us that her relationship with Pena began before he was married and continued during his marriage to another woman. She alleges that Pena would regularly assault her, leaving bruises and marks. When Pena found out she took pictures of the bruises and marks with her phone, he destroyed the evidence by breaking her phone.
We were unable to verify the authenticity of these claims, but she did have evidence that Pena continued to message her, harassed for attention and at one time he also threatened to blackmail her with revenge porn that he kept from the allegedly abusive relationship. Below is one of the many screenshots she shared with us:
A young man who reached out to us claimed Aron Pena once berated and harassed his College Republican group, which he was the president of, for refusing to endorse Pena’s father in a primary race. This young man explained to Pena that club bylaws did not allow endorsements in a primary race between Republicans but said Pena continued to harass him anyway. He claims that Pena then sent his 18-year-old girlfriend to run against him for President of the College Republicans, seemingly in retaliation for standing up against Pena. The young man claims that Pena’s girlfriend seemed incredibly uncomfortable and did not want to actually run for the position but was put up to it by Pena.
Our story yesterday has led to allegations of other troublesome issues within the Hidalgo County GOP. There seems to be a pattern of bullying and harassment into supporting the Penas. Another individual provided us a copy of a letter sent to GOP Chairman, Matt Rinaldi, informing him of the seemingly large conflicts of interest involving key leadership throughout the Hidalgo County GOP.
Grassroots activists who contacted us said they wrote a letter to Adrienne Pena Garza officially complaining about the lack of impartiality and neutrality during primary elections, but they were largely ignored:
It seems this story has been swept under the rug for years by GOP leadership in Hidalgo County and media, but we will continue to cover it. We have had a total of 5 individuals alleging abuse or harassment reach out to us so far. We will provide more updates as new information and individuals continue reaching out.
We have still yet to hear from Congresswoman Mayra Flores’ office, although Aron Pena did update his Twitter profile and removed his connection to Flores.
If you or someone you know has information related to this story or any other, feel free to reach out to us at tips@currentrevolt.com.
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Thanks for reporting on this and bringing it to the light
If we tolerate that stuff there's not a doge-coin's worth of difference between the 'libs' and the 'conservatives.'
Integrity: Less Than Zero
Yeah, it hurts when we remove the rot but that's the way it goes. Thanks for taking on the often thankless job of internal, investigative journalism.
This cycle's theme song? "Hazy Shade Of Winter" | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TQFaDaykpc