Texas GOP Rep. Blake Farenthold

Late in 2014, GOP Rep. Blake Farenthold was sued by his former communications director for sexual harassment. Lauren Greene alleged that Farenthold, who represents a heavily Republican seat around Corpus Christie, "regularly drank to excess" and told another employee he had" sexual fantasies" about her, and fired her after she complained about him and his top aide. Farenthold and Greene settled for an undisclosed sum the next year, but while the story largely disappeared from the headlines, Farenthold only won renomination in 2016 by a soft 56-44 margin against a little-known primary foe. But the congressman went on to an easy victory last fall and might well have imagined the whole matter was behind him.

Until everything came roaring back on Friday, when Politico's Rachael Bade reported that Farenthold had used $84,000 in taxpayer money for his settlement with Greene. Bade writes that Farenthold is the only sitting member of Congress known to have relied on funds from an internal body known as the Office of Compliance to settle a sexual harassment complaint. In response to Politico’s report, Farenthold's office released a statement saying he "can neither confirm nor deny that settlement involved my office as the Congressional Accountability Act prohibits me from answering that question."

Farenthold was already facing another primary challenge, this time from former Victoria County Republican Party chair Michael Cloud, but he had a meager $22,000 on hand at the end of September—though Farenthold himself had only $209,000 in the bank, an underwhelming sum even for an untainted incumbent. But if anyone else wants to take advantage of Farenthold’s new woes, they’ll have to act fast, since Texas' filing deadline is Dec. 11. And there’s an important twist: Texas requires a primary runoff if no one takes a majority, so if Farenthold does pick up a few new opponents, he can't just sail to renomination with a plurality. This seat, which includes much of the Texas Gulf Coast, backed Trump 60-37, so the GOP primary is Farenthold's biggest worry—and it could be a very big one indeed.

That's because there’s a whole trove of material to use against Farenthold, beyond even these latest revelations. Three years ago, as Greene's lawsuit was becoming public, the Huffington Post dug up several of Farenthold's old online comments on a forum geared to frequent fliers that spanned from 2006 to 2010, the year he was elected to the House. Among other things, Farenthold wrote, "I get upgraded. It’s my seat. I can give it to my wife if I like, or if I’m traveling alone the hot redhead in 12B in hopes of......" and, "Pregnant wife in [business class] with me in [economy] = waste of 9 hours of free booze. Pregnant wife in [economy] with me in [business class] = waste of 9 MONTHS of my happiness." We also learned around that same time that Farenthold had owned a domain name called "Blow-me.org,” which his office said he would not be renewing.

Oh, and there's also that infamous picture of Farenthold in duck pajamas with a scantily clad model from a group called "The Crush Girls" leaning up against him. That photo actually came out during Farenthold's initial 2010 campaign against Democratic incumbent Solomon Ortiz, and it was the first thing that many political observers, including us, ever heard about him. A few weeks later, Farenthold took advantage of incredibly low Democratic turnout to narrowly beat Ortiz in an utter shocker. Republican map makers gave Farenthold a considerably redder seat the next cycle, allowing the accidental congressman to win re-election three times. A fourth win is now very much up in the air, especially if GOP leaders decide to call for Farenthold’s resignation. They probably wouldn’t miss him much.