2018 has been a year with constant new innovations in the field of politician revenge porn. First Missouri Governor Eric Greitens. Later St. Paul Minnesota City Council candidate David Martinez posted a semi-nude photo of his estranged wife to his campaign website after she got a restraining order against him. He then got arrested. But this new story out of Illinois makes these other incidents sound almost run-of-the-mill by comparison. Meet rising star State Rep. Nick Sauer from Illinois.
Two years ago Illinois state Rep. Nick Sauer began a relationship with a California woman who he met on the dating app Tinder. It was at first a long distance relationship. But she eventually moved to Illinois to be closer to him. The two broke up in March of this year when the girlfriend Kate Kelly found out Sauer was dating other women behind her back. So far, it’s your average story of a rotten boyfriend.
But there’s more.
Not long after Kelly found out that Sauer was cheating on her, according to Shia Kapos of Politico, she discovered that soon after they started dating Sauer set up an Instagram account under Kelly’s name and identity. He populated that account with nude photos of Kelly that she had taken of herself for Sauer during the time they were living in separate states. From Kelly’s account, it doesn’t seem like Sauer was doing this to retaliate against her, at least not in the conventional sense most of us would think of. Sauer used the account to troll for men with whom he would then engage in graphic online sexual conversations with, using Kelly’s identity.
There’s a lot going on here. So let’s take stock. Kelly shares nude photos of herself with Sauer as part of their long-distance relationship. Sauer takes those photos and posts them to an Instagram account which is based on her identity but which she doesn’t know about. Sauer then sexts with the men who express sexual interest in “Kelly” under the guise that Sauer is his then-girlfriend. Sauer is sexting with other men while impersonating his girlfriend.
Again, this is completely new territory for politician revenge porn and possibly all revenge porn. The crap hit the fan earlier this month when a man who had been sexting with the Sauer/”Kelly” persona for four months reached out to Kelly on her real Instagram account to tell her what was happening.
After she confronted Sauer, according to her complaint, “he came to my house & confessed to catfishing men with my photos for 2 years to at least 8 men. He was unable to provide the names and begged that I let it go.”
She did not let it go. Sauer is currently running for reelection. But it would seem not for long.
