Republican George Santos who ran as ‘openly gay’ was previously married to a woman: Report
Rachel Schilke
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Republican Rep.-elect George Santos, who ran as an “openly gay” man in the GOP, was married to a woman prior to the launch of his political campaign, according to a new report.
In 2019, someone with the name George Devolder Santos, a name used by the representative-elect during his campaign “Devolder Santos for Congress,” filed for uncontested divorce with Uadla Santos Vieira Santos, according to New York court records obtained by the Daily Beast.
Santos launched his 2020 campaign less than two weeks after the divorce was finalized. While his 2022 campaign bio mentions his husband, the existence of his wife was not publicly mentioned during either campaign, the outlet found.
It is unclear the nature of Santos’s relationship with his then-wife or why they filed for divorce.
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Santos made history as the first nonincumbent gay Republican to be elected to Congress, and he made a point during his campaign that he was not hiding his identity from anyone.
“I am openly gay, have never had an issue with my sexual identity in the past decade, and I can tell you and assure you, I will always be an advocate for LGBTQ folks,” Santos said in an interview with USA Today in October.
He has been under recent scrutiny for resume discrepancies after a New York Times investigation into his records discovered some potential fictitious areas, such as where he went to school and the nature of his financial disclosures.
CNN released its own report on Santos, discovering that while his biography lists he had attended school at New York University and Baruch College, both schools stated they never had a student under the name George Anthony Devolder-Santos or with his birth date.
Santos has not responded to any of the outlets seeking comment.
Santos’s attorney previously released a statement saying that the reports against his client are an attempt to slander Santos with “defamatory allegations.”
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“Santos represents the kind of progress that the Left is so threatened by — a gay, Latino, immigrant and Republican who won a Biden district in overwhelming fashion by showing everyday voters that there is a better option than the broken promises and failed policies of the Democratic Party,” Murray said.
Come January, Santos will be the first Republican to represent New York’s newly drawn 3rd Congressional District in nearly a decade. He defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman in the 2022 midterm elections, providing the GOP one more seat in the House of Representatives to secure a majority.