Progressive Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison Accused of Physical Domestic Abuse

Minnesota Congressman and DNC Deputy Chairman Keith Ellison, the first Muslim American elected to Congress, is being accused of alleged domestic physical abuse against his former ex-girlfriend. The accusation comes right the state’s primaries on August 14. The six-term representative is currently running to become the state’s next attorney general. Ellison has denied all or any allegations made against him regarding these accusations.

Last weekend between August 11 and August 12, Austin Monahan, son of local community organizer Karen Monahan, wrote on Facebook that he found a video on his mother’s computer last year in 2017 allegedly showing Monahan’s boyfriend at the time, Ellison, attempting to drag her out of her bed and curing profanity towards her. After the post went public, Ellison’s Democratic Party primary opponents in the attorney general’s race, including state legislator Debra Hillstrom and local Minneapolis attorney Matt Pelikan have urged Ellison to respond to these allegations.

This is not the first time Ellison, a progressive Democrat who supported Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election, has encountered controversy in recent years. During the leadership election for Democratic National Committee Chair back in 2017, Ellison was heavily questioned and criticized for his past ties and views with the Nation of Islam led by Louis Farrakhan, a Black nationalist and supremacist group known for its anti-Semitic, homophobic, and anti-white rhetoric.