“SABATTUS — Controversial Republican candidate Leslie Gibson, who drew fire for insulting several teen survivors of the Florida school shooting, is abandoning his effort to win a state House seat this year.
“I am not walking away with my head hung low. I am walking away with my head held high,” Gibson said Friday.
Gibson said he made the decision after talking with his family, praying and discussing it with friends and colleagues, including Thomas Martin Jr., another Republican contender who entered the 57th District race Thursday.
“It’s the best thing for everybody,” Gibson said.
Gibson has been under fire this week for comments he made online about the teens in Florida who survived a school shooting in Parkland, Florida. He criticized two of them who were leading an effort to increase restrictions on gun sales in the wake of the Feb. 14 killings, calling one a “skinhead lesbian,” and another a “bald-faced liar.”
Martin said on Thursday he felt compelled to run after he read Gibson’s strident comments about the two Florida students.
Martin, a former state senator from Benton, said it is important to have a candidate who represents real Republican values.”
Funny, I thought Gibson exhibited “real Republican values.”