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Ralph Allan Lee Shortey (born 16 February 1982) is a Republican politician, who served as an Oklahoma State Senator from 2011 - 2017. He was also Donald Trump's state campaign chair in Oklahoma during the 2016 election.
Shortey resigned in March 2017 after he was arrested on charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution. He was indicted on state charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution and transporting someone for prostitution, and Federal charges of sex trafficking and Child Pornography. He pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking in a plea deal and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Biography edit
Political career edit
Shortey first became involved in politics in 2002, when he was active in a number of Republican political campaigns, and went on to establish a right-wing political consultancy firm. His political positions included opposition to homosexuality, illegal immigration, gun control, abortion, transgenderism and drug legalization.
Shortey was first elected to the Oklahoma Senate in 2011, beating Democratic nominee Randy Rose with 57% of the vote. As senator, he and other Republican politicians attempted to introduce a variety of laws regulating LGBT issues, mostly relating to discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. He also unsuccessfully attempted to have the Oklahoma State Senate grant Senators the right to carry guns into the Senate. Shortey briefly became a figure of national ridicule in 2012 when he attempted to introduce a bill banning the alleged widespread use of aborted foetuses in food, apparently to deter their use in stem cell research. This bill was never passed and didn't even receive a committee hearing.
Shortey was re-elected in 2014, beating Michael Brooks-Jimenez with 52% of the vote. In February 2017, he was widely criticized for attempting to undo legislation voted for by the Oklahoma public that made marijuana use a misdemeanour rather than a felony. This was rejected. He also successfully passed a bill allowing businesses to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation. Shortey resigned in March 2017 after his sex trafficking indictment, after which Brooks-Jimenez won 54% of the vote and took his seat.
Sex trafficking charges edit
In March 2017, Shortey was arrested in Cleveland County after police were called to a motel where Shortey was residing with a 17-year-old male prostitute and smoking marijuana. According to body cam footage, Shortey was wearing a shirt reading "now go make me a sandwich" and citing a Bible verse telling women to be obedient to their husbands. Police said they had discovered sexually explicit text messages between the two in which Shortey offered the teenager money for sex. The messages also revealed that they had had sex twice before. Shortey resigned once the scandal broke.
The Cleveland District Attorney filed charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution and transporting a person for prostitution against Shortey. A Federal grand jury then indicted him on sex trafficking and child pornography charges, after which the state charges were dropped. On 19 November, Shortey reached a plea deal and pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking in return for all other charges being dropped. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison and 10 years of supervised release on 17 September 2018. He was also forced to pay $125,850 in restitution to the victim.