OBSERVER Staff Report

A staff member for Democratic Congressional candidate Tracy Mitrano resigned Saturday night following posts the person made on Instagram.

“One of my campaign field workers put a post on social media last night that was not in keeping with the standards to which I have run my campaign for the last 16 months,” Mitrano said in a statement. “The staffer does not speak for the campaign and the statements made in the post do not in any way represent me or my values. I have long talked about the need for respect and decency in politics. As a result, the staffer has turned in her resignation and I have accepted it.”

The vulgar comments were reportedly targeted at Congressman Tom Reed, law enforcement, President Donald Trump and capitalism. According to a news release from Reed’s office, the Instagram post stated “[Expletive] Tom Reed, [Expletive] cops, [Expletive] Capitalism, [Expletive] Trump.”

“It’s stunning that a paid member of Tracy Mitrano’s staff and a spokesperson for her campaign would make such hateful and offensive statements,” said Abbey Daugherty, communications director for Tom Reed for Congress. “It shows what truly motivates Tracy Mitrano and her team: a hatred of our law enforcement community and our capitalist system.”

Campaign manager Ryder Kessler insisted Mitrano handled the issue appropriately and added, “That the Reed campaign would try to hype an ill-advised post from a young field staffer during the last few hours of this election fits within his broader pattern of using any tool to distract from his poor voting record.”