COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Democratic state representative is accusing one of her Republican colleagues of publicly insulting her at the Statehouse.
Representative Juanita Brent (D-Cleveland) says Representative Kyle Koehler (R-Springfield) used profanity toward her in a hallway prior to a committee meeting last month. Koehler says he cursed to himself and not at Brent. Spectrum News Statehouse Reporter Josh Rultenberg spoke with both members about the exchange.
Brent, the ranking member of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee is urging the GOP’s leadership to appoint a new committee chairman as House Republicans try to also figure out how to remove Larry Householder from his role as Speaker. Brent says before the committee’s June 10 meeting, Koehler called her an insulting name.
“There’s a pattern that of people, particularly white men who don’t feel like they have to respect women of color, particularly Black women,” said Brent.
Brent says it stemmed from an amendment she introduced to House Bill 665. The bill was about making several changes to how county and independent fairs operate. Brent’s amendment called for a ban on the sale of confederacy memorabilia.
Koehler says he told her it was a freedom of speech issue and he would vote it down. Then Brent says things got heated.
“He said, ‘Rep, you introducing this amendment is gonna make me look like a racist’ and when he told me that, I was like, ‘Why would I be concerned if you look like a racist? You’re with us or you’re against us when it comes to this amendment.’ He was like, ‘You’re putting me in a very uncomfortable spot,'” explains Brent.
Brent says she told him that is not her concern and she was going to offer up the amendment.
“As we ended this conversation, he said, ‘You son of a (expletive)!’ And this is in the middle of the hallway inside of the Statehouse,” Brent emphasized.
Koehler admits he was upset but says he walked away from Brent before he muttered a profanity to himself, but did not direct it at Brent.
“I walked about 20 feet from her, grabbed the door handle to the committee door room, and when I did, I cursed the way my father taught me to curse when he slips with his screwdriver in the garage working on a motor and I said a phrase. I didn’t end nowhere near her. I was not looking at her,” explained Koehler.
Koehler says he was embarrassed by his behavior, but he is offended by any insinuation that his comment had anything to do with race. He says his family is helping to raise two mixed race children, one of who he has developed a particularly close bond with.
“Every Saturday morning, I get up and pick up this little guy and we spend the day together, and for Representative Brent to make that accusation, she has no idea who I am and what I represent,” says Koehler.
Koehler wrote Brent to apologize, but says he stands firm that his words were not intended as they were taken.
When asked why Brent waited to come out with the allegation until Monday, she says, “Well, originally, I reached out to the Speaker (Householder) to have a meeting, but with everything going on, that meeting I was going to have with the speaker, I could not have. Also, there are talks about the Chairman, Kyle Koehler, being part of someone’s leadership team as we are having talks about transitioning from one speaker to another and we cannot talk about people who are going to be discriminating, who are gonna be possibly racist, who are gonna be a bully, gonna be cursing at people and disrespectful, using the type of language, going into any type of leadership at all,” Brent says.
Koehler says he has no desire to be on anyone’s future leadership team and does not feel he should not have to defend himself about something he says did not happen.
Even though Brent wants Koehler out as agriculture and rural development chairman, Koehler says he will serve until he is asked not to serve.
