While at a Tea Party event last week, Rep. Dan Crenshaw clashed with a young woman who questioned his faith. Video of the interaction went viral, with many social media users, political pundits, and news outlets claiming that the woman was a 10-year-old girl.
The basis for this claim is a comment made in the video, where an audience member shouts that the questioner is 10 years old. Crenshaw’s primary opponent Jameson Ellis tweeted a video of the same interaction from a different angle, identifying the questioner as an 18-year-old woman. Ellis also stated that he spoke with the woman afterward and she confirmed her age to him, and tweeted a picture with her. In a statement released after claims that she was a plant for the Ellis campaign went viral, Ellis identified her as a supporter of his campaign and said again that she was 18 years old.
A conservative Christian Texas publication interviewed the woman, saying that she preferred to remain anonymous but confirming that she was 18 years old.
Crenshaw later told The Daily Beast that he “probably [regretted the incident] a little.”
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