The Democratic candidate for Congress for Ohio's 10th District, David Esrati, has a long history of making offensive remarks and even alleged criminal acts: insults against women, taking unauthorized photographs of children, use of the word nigger (derogatory against blacks) on social networks and criticism of laws against sex offenders. The Washington Free Beacon newspaper futher uncovers the profile of this controversial candidate.
"The fact that David Esrati is the Ohio 10th District candidate shows how badly the DNC has failed their party.... It's the Democrats' problem," one Republican strategist told The Washington Free Beacon. He is running without support. The Ohio Democratic Party does not endorse him because of his "inflammatory and offensive language" and the Congressional Campaign Committee does not publicly mention his candidacy.
For his part, Esrati is standing firm in his candidacy and defending himself against criticism, "It's a shame that the DNC has no idea how to promote their message or their candidates, including me, if they really want to keep control of the House and Senate."
"Incendiary and offensive language."
- In March 2016, a Facebook comment raised the first alarm about the Democratic candidate's thoughts. He took issue with an article that said women are often left unsatisfied after sex and wrote: "I don't know why so many women are unable to tell us what's going on.... If sex sucks, it's probably because you're not communicating well."
"I could easily rant about women who never initiate, who refuse to touch or taste sperm, or about vanilla sex, they pass it off as if it's a gift.... Frankly, most of America is sexually repressed and confused. Especially here in the Dunlop region of the Bible Belt," the Democrat added.
- In August 2017, he had an incident that landed him in court. Security guards at the Dayton Metropolitan Library ejected him from the premises for taking photographs of minors without their consent. In a blog post, the Democrat detailed how he captured an "adorable" little girl with his camera: "I walked up to the Eichelberger auditorium and was taking pictures when a little girl was playing on stage. She was adorable. Snap, Snap, Snap, Snap, Snap, Snap."
The candidate did not deny taking pictures of children in the library: "She was like, 17, probably! It was a totally innocuous image, the problem is that the guard suggested that I was a pedophile."
There are no laws against taking pictures of children in public, okay? These people are crazy, they are making claims that have no factual or legal basis. It is not a crime, you lose all rights to privacy in public. I was absolutely within my rights, no doubt about it.
The Democrat sued the library for refusing to turn over security footage showing what he actually did on the premises. And he walked out with a $39,446 settlement in his favor. He said the footage showed "he did nothing wrong."
- In July 2015, he criticized laws that convict sex offenders: "25% or more of my high school class would probably have made the sex offender list under these rules.... Sex offender registries are insane," he wrote in a Facebook post.
- He again ratified his opinion in April 2020, when he attacked his neighbor on social networks for "exposing" a sex offender: "You are a really stupid woman." He subsequently wrote her a direct message after she notified members of a private Facebook group that a sex offender lived in her neighborhood.
Esrati is still standing firm on this, he said the sex offender had already served his time in prison and was living peacefully in the neighborhood: "He has served his time. If he´s not doing anything wrong, where are we supposed to put him, Guantanamo? Let's talk about real issues, thank you."
A few hours after giving an interview to The Free Beacon, Esrati went live on YouTube in which he confirmed that he criticized women who don't touch the male ejaculate, that he used the word niggar in a Facebook post, and also doubled down on his criticism of the sex offender registries.
