Blake Farenthold, a former Republican congressman from Texas who resigned in 2018 after it was revealed that $84,000 in public funds had been used to settle a sexual harassment suit against him, died on Friday in Corpus Christi. He was 63.
His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by his longtime political consultant, Steve Ray, who said that Mr. Farenthold had been treated for liver and heart ailments.
Mr. Farenthold’s congressional career ended abruptly. In December 2017, some two weeks after the news broke of the settlement payment, he announced that he wouldn’t run again for the seat he had held since 2010, when he rode the Tea Party wave into Congress.
During his time in office, he told a constituent that Congress should have investigated President Barack Obama’s birth certificate; he voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act; and he spoke of “a pathway to legalization” for undocumented immigrants, in a district with a large Hispanic population.
His resignation came at the height of the #MeToo movement; in that December alone, three other congressmen had stepped down over sexual misconduct.
Less than four months later, in April 2018, Mr. Farenthold abruptly quit his seat amid a new investigation by the House Committee on Ethics.
Funds for the settlement payout had come from an obscure congressional agency, the Office of Compliance, after Mr. Farenthold was sued in 2014 by his former communications director, Lauren Greene. In her complaint, she said that he had regularly made comments suggesting that they might have a sexual relationship. She also said that his executive assistant had told her that the congressman had “sexual fantasies” about her.
Ms. Greene was fired after she complained. Her successor later described an abusive workplace environment in which the congressman regularly made sexually graphic jokes.
Mr. Farenthold denied Ms. Greene’s allegations, and in 2015, the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent nonpartisan board, cleared him.
But after reports came out about the settlement, he acknowledged in a statement that he had allowed “a workplace culture to take root in my office that was too permissive and decidedly unprofessional.”
“It accommodated destructive gossip, offhand comments, off-color jokes,” he said.
He explained his behavior by telling constituents, “I’d never served in public office before.”
Mr. Farenthold first promised to pay back the money, but then he recanted, saying his lawyers had advised him not to. The Capitol Hill publication Roll Call called him the 39th wealthiest member of Congress, and the Center for Responsive Politics estimated his worth at $35 million, stemming in part from family businesses and trusts.
Mr. Ray, the political consultant, said in an interview that Mr. Farenthold had been “an easy target on some of this stuff.”
“He was just a regular old guy,” Mr. Ray added. “He had a good time with stuff.” Even before taking office, he had acquired a somewhat clownish reputation: During his first campaign, a photo surfaced of Mr. Farenthold wearing duck-patterned pajamas with his arm around a lingerie model.
Still, Mr. Ray praised Mr. Farenthold’s representation of his district, saying he had made strides to secure funding for infrastructure in Corpus Christi. “He worked on local issues over and over,” he said.
But, he added, “We all make some mistakes along the way.”
Randolph Blake Farenthold was born on Dec. 12, 1961, in Corpus Christi to George Randolph Farenthold and Mary Sue (Ogg) Farenthold. His father was a wealthy rancher and the stepson of Frances T. Farenthold, who was known as Sissy, a liberal politician who served as the only woman in the Texas House, at the end of the 1960s, and twice sought the governorship. His grandfather George Farenthold was a wealthy Belgian immigrant who made a further fortune in the Texas oil industry.
In 1972, George Randolph Farenthold, known as Randy, was murdered after agreeing to testify against con men who had swindled him; his body was found washed ashore on the Texas coast, at Port Aransas Beach, with a 40-pound concrete block chained around his neck.
Blake Farenthold attended Incarnate Word Academy, a private school in Corpus Christi, and then earned a B.S. in radio, television and film from the University of Texas in 1985 and a law degree from St. Mary’s University School of Law, in San Antonio, in 1989.
He spent seven years at the Kleberg law firm in San Antonio, leaving in 1996 to start a computer consulting company. He was also a conservative radio personality for a time, co-hosting the popular talk show “Lago in the Morning,” on KKTX-AM in Corpus Christi.
In his 2010 race, Mr. Farenthold defeated the incumbent, Solomon Ortiz, a Democrat who had held the seat since 1982, by barely 800 votes. Subsequent re-elections were far easier to secure after the Texas Legislature redrew Mr. Farenthold’s district to make it more heavily Republican.
After leaving Congress, he worked briefly as a lobbyist for a port authority in South Texas, then returned to his old radio show in Corpus Christi.
Mr. Farenthold is survived by his wife, Debbie; two daughters, Morgan and Amanda; one grandson; and a sister, Sue Farenthold.
Adam Nossiter has been bureau chief in Kabul, Paris, West Africa and New Orleans, and is now a Domestic Correspondent on the Obituaries desk.
The post Blake Farenthold, 63, Congressman Who Quit in Harassment Case, Dies appeared first on New York Times.
