GOP Congressional Candidate: ‘Story of My Life, Just Jacking It in Oregon’

Alek Skarlatos—who played himself in Clint Eastwood’s The 15:17 to Paris and is now a Republican congressional candidate—has joked about choking women to death during sex, complained about the dearth of “hotties” to have sex with in his town, and “liked” photos of scantily clad underage girls as young as 15 on social media, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported on Monday.

One Instagram post Skarlatos apparently liked was captioned “Sorry If I Ever Lied Ab My Age. I’m Legal Now.” In a screenshot reviewed by Jezebel, the candidate’s handle is front and center.

Skarlatos, like another notable Republican candidate running now who shall not be named, has a long history of gross, fratty comments about women and sex. While competing on Dancing With the Stars, Skarlatos said weird stuff about his colleague, dance pro Emma Slater. He wanted to “jump on that” whenever Slater became single—because his town, Roseburg, only has two hotties, according to his podcast appearance. “Focusing while we’re dancing is a little bit difficult. I mean, she’s super attractive. I can get distracted fairly distracted when I’m dancing with her,” Skarlatos said during a behind-the-scenes interview during rumba week. “She’s just too hot. I can’t keep my cool under these circumstances.”

During the 2018 podcast appearance, the hosts makes fun of Skarlatos’ inability to find women to have sex with because of the low number of area hotties and seemingly because Skarlatos can’t find his way out of his massive home. I think? Skarlatos replied, “Story of my life, just jacking it in Oregon.” FuN!

Jezebel reached out to Skarlatos campaign with a detailed list of questions through the campaign website’s contact form, a campaign email address, Facebook Messenger and Twitter DM. No reply yet. But in a statement to the Capital Chronicle, Skarlatos defended his Instagram activity generally. “To imply that a ‘follow’ or a ‘like’ of social media influencers on Instagram with over 100,000 followers is inappropriate is absurd,” the candidate said.

But Skarlatos seems to have no problem with his misogynistic behavior. In an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham last year, the candidate defended “toxic masculinity” while speaking as an expert “who did answer the call” to help others. If he didn’t have the childhood he had, Skarlatos contends he wouldn’t have stopped the 2015 shooting. “I mean, it’s kind of like Joe Rogan, said, we have a lot a lot in our country that’s owed to ‘toxic masculinity’ as the left phrases it,” Skarlatos said.

I’m not sure about America, but Skarlatos definitely owes a lot to toxic masculinity. He’s starred in a Clint Eastwood movie about his own life, he’s gotten to be creep on a major American reality show, and now he’s running for Congress again. The repeated misogyny isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.

Skarlatos is running against Democrat Val Hoyle in a district currently being represented by a Democrat, so his chances of winning are already slim. But he certainly adds to the list of problematic candidates the GOP appears to be running this cycle.