Michigan Tea Partiers Fail To Win Back Seats After Fake Gay Sex Scandal

The two former Michigan lawmakers involved in a bizarre sex scandal earlier this year were crushed on Tuesday in their special primary bids to regain their seats, according to The Detroit Free Press.

Michigan state Rep. Cindy Gamrat (R) and Michigan state Rep. Todd Courser (R) were involved in an extramarital affair that was exposed by the Detroit News in August when Courser reportedly asked one of his aides to leak a fake story that he was spotted with a male prostitute.

Courser’s fake story was reportedly devised to make the real affair with Gamrat seem “mild by comparison,” the newspaper reported at the time. Gamrat had said she had nothing to do with the fake scandal and Courser later said that he faked the story to expose blackmailers.

A disciplinary committee in the Michigan House investigated the details and recommended that both be removed from their positions.

Courser resigned shortly after the committee’s decision was announced and Gamrat was expelled from the legislature.

Despite all that, both former lawmakers ran in the primary election to fill their empty seats.

But both were resoundingly defeated in the special primary Tuesday.

Unofficial primary results showed Gamrat in the third place with 9.3 percent of the vote and rival Mary Whiteford with 52 percent. Unofficial results showed Courser in sixth place — with less than 4 percent of the vote and rival Gary Howell with 26 percent, according to the Free Press.