Aaron Coleman, former KS lawmaker with abusive history, loses WyCo school board race
Aaron Coleman, a former Democratic state legislator with a history of abusive behavior toward women, lost his bid Tuesday for a spot on a Wyandotte County school board.
Voters’ decision to not elect Coleman, who was arrested twice while in office, to the Turner USD 202 Board of Education ends his quixotic search for a political comeback after he lost a primary election last year to remain in the Legislature.
Five candidates ran for the four at-large school board seats up for election, guaranteeing the top four vote-getters would join the board. Every candidate other than Coleman, including Wyandotte County Sheriff Daniel Soptic, was an incumbent.
Coleman received 307 votes, according to unofficial final results from the Wyandotte County Election Office. The next lowest-performing candidate had 856 votes.
Soptic and another one of the incumbents, Bryan Fishbaugh, during the race urged residents to vote for the current board members. Without naming Coleman, Soptic warned that electing anyone else “could have a devastating effect on our students, parents, district and staff.”
The district, with about 3,900 students, includes areas of the Turner and Argentine neighborhoods south of the Kansas River, as well as an area from the river north to State Ave.
Other incumbents are Theresa Tillery and Becky Billigmeier. According to unofficial results, Soptic had 1,078 votes, Tillery had 1,019 votes, Billigmeier had 913 votes and Fishbaugh had 856.
In a statement, Coleman said the 307 people who voted for him “sends a message to the establishment.”
“These are real people and their concerns won’t go away after election day,” Coleman said.
Taking office as a 20-year-old state representative in 2021, Coleman was accused of a pattern of prior abusive behavior, including allegations he slapped and choked a former girlfriend when they dated in 2019. A legislative committee that investigated Coleman found that he had engaged in abusive behavior.
As a lawmaker, Coleman was also banned from the Kansas Department of Labor offices in Topeka after he allegedly berated a security guard. He received diversion last year after he allegedly kicked and pushed his brother during an argument in 2021, leading to a misdemeanor battery charge.
He was also found guilty of a traffic infraction in Douglas County after a November 2021 episode in which he allegedly led state troopers on a brief pursuit on Interstate 70 and acted in an “erratic” manner after he was pulled over.
Some of Coleman’s alarming behavior occurred when he was a teenager. Then 14, he was charged with a felony for threatening to shoot a student at a Turner School District school. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of harassment.
During his campaign for school board, Coleman had vowed to address mental health concerns among students so the district can “solve bullying.”
“I will continue to champion proper mental health not only on the school level, but on the community level as well,” he said in an email last month to The Star.
Other Wyandotte County School Board Races
USD 203 Piper
Four at-large seats; top four vote-getters win
Allison Armstrong - 1,387
Jeb Vader - 1,321
Larry Beashore - 1,286
Ashley Biondi - 1,241
Kim Brown - 989
Jami Applegate - 721
Mark Gilstrap - 661
CaShanda McConnell - 506
Kevin Braun - 434
Write-ins - 14
USD 204 Bonner Springs-Edwardsville
Four at-large seats; top four vote-getters win
David Pierce - 777
Jennifer McConico - 739
Angie Thomas - 676
Christopher Russell - 642
Ashley Razak - 630
Tracy Schinzel - 571
Write-ins: 13
USD 500 Kansas City
Four at-large seats; top four vote-getters win
Randy Lopez - 3,200
Robert Milan, Jr. - 2,661
Valdenia Winn - 2,407
Yolanda Clark - 2,149
Yolonda Johnson - 1,985
Stacy Yeager - 1,982
Brenda Scruggs Andrieu - 1,878
Janey Marie Humphries - 1,859
Mary Ann Mosley - 1,841
Angelynn Howell - 1,179
Deon Whitten - 1,077
Write-ins - 115
