Elliott Pritt
In February 2023, West Virginia Delegate Elliott Pritt gained national notoriety as the lone Democrat to back a statewide ban on gender-affirming care for youth. By April, he officially joined the GOP – framing his defection around “protecting children” from queer rights.
He later championed a 2025 bill banning discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms.
Yet behind the family-values posturing lay a horrifying reality.
Federal authorities recently arrested Pritt – who also worked as a public high school teacher – for enticing a minor.
According to court records, Pritt spent a year grooming an eighth-grade girl over Snapchat and Roblox, an app notorious for child safety issues.
He sent explicit requests, professed his love, and eventually abused her inside his own classroom multiple times. When pressuring her to stay silent, Pritt warned that exposure would “open up hell” and ruin his career.
After the victim’s family went to authorities, West Virginia House Speaker Roger Hanshaw stripped Pritt of his leadership roles and joined widespread calls for his resignation, calling the allegations “shocking and disgusting.”
Pritt’s downfall lays bare the dangerous hypocrisy of anti-trans politicians who weaponize “child safety” to score political points – proving once again that the loudest voices peddling moral panics are often the very ones children actually need protection from.
