The Tennessee House on Tuesday voted to expel state Rep. Jeremy Durham (R), two months after a damning report detailed numerous women’s accounts of Durham’s sexual harassment and inappropriate contact.
The state house voted 70-2 to expel Durham in a special legislative session, The Tennessean reported
Durham spoke to his colleagues in the state house on Tuesday, noting that he has not been formally charged for his actions. He called the report about his actions issued by the state attorney general in July “anonymous hearsay,” and he denied sexually harassing anyone, according to The Tennessean.
He also sent his colleagues a letter on Monday arguing that the actions detailed in the July report do not “remotely fit any definition of sexual harassment.”
The report issued by the state attorney general in July included accounts of sexual harassment and inappropriate physical contact from 22 women. The accounts show that Durham often harassed women who worked in or with the legislature over text message and sometimes tried to get them alone.
Following the report, Durham suspended his re-election campaign, but he did not resign from the legislature. The speaker of the state House, Rep. Beth Harwell, in July called for a special session to expel Durham so that he could not receive retirement benefits.
