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The state House of Representatives has voted to expel Dickinson Republican Representative Luke Simons because of sexual harassment.
The vote was 69 to 25. It needed a two-thirds vote, or 63, to pass.
Simons has been accused of inappropriate comments made toward female colleagues and interns. This is not about someone occasionally using coarse language, or saying something that was misconstrued, said House Majority Leader Chet Pollert (R-Carrington), one of the authors of the expulsion resolution. This is about a pattern of inappropriate behavior, and about someone who was given multiple chances to avoid being in this situation.
Pollert told the House he had met with Simons several times to counsel him about hiks behavior.
After spending the last half of the week doing damage control over comments by Dickinson Representative Luke Simons, leaders of the North Dakota GOP are now calling for Simons resignation. House Majority Leader Carrington Representative Chet Pollert says initially, the issues with Representative Simons began when he used expletives toward another lawmaker who asked him to put on a mask while in the capitol lunchroom… .Because after that, there was an open records request and more stuff came out. When we hit crossover, which was Wednesday, it had started then. And Thursday and Friday, I haven t had a lot of free time, if you want to know the truth.