Joel M. Koskan, a 44-year-old Republican candidate for the South Dakota state senate, allegedly sexually abused a girl he and his wife adopted, and though the girl told state child welfare officials, she remained in the house, KELO CBS-10 in Sioux Falls reports.

The girl, who was adopted by the couple in 2014 when she was 12-years-old and the abuse started almost immediately.  She didn’t understand Koskan’s touching was abusive until she attended a sexual abuse seminar at a summer camp.  She told camp counselors, who informed state child services officials, but the girl would not talk to state officials because she feared being put back into the state’s foster care system.

Camp counselors kept her at the camp for an additional two weeks, but she eventually had to return to her family home, where her mother accused her of trying to tear the family apart.  Though her mother monitored contact between Koshan and the girl, Koshan installed a video camera in her room so he could monitor her 24/7 on his cell phone.  When she objected to the camera, her parents called her “disrespectful.”

The harassment continues to this day, according to the now 20-year-old woman who filed a police report with authorities recently, saying Koshan sexually assaulted her at two family houses in the state.  Investigators found a number of text messages on the victim’s phone from Koshan, including him imploring her to stay quiet:  “you promised you’d never do this,” and “I’m begging you, you don’t want to do this.”  While state Party officials have spoken out and said Koshan should not serve in the legislature, they cannot take him off the ballot.

Even though the titular head of the Republican Party has been accused of child sex abuse and a member of the Party’s Florida caucus was investigated for child sex trafficking, anti-LGBTQ “grooming” allegations were a central part of the GOP’s pre-election culture war offensive.  When a gay couple in Georgia was accused of abusing their adoptive child in August, it was a multi-day story on conservative media outlets.  This story?  Notsomuch.