David Byrd is known around the Tennessee capitol as “Coach.” It’s a throwback to the 24 years he spent coaching the Wayne County High School girls basketball team, before he was elected state representative in 2014. Byrd is such a beloved figure in his hometown of Waynesboro that the high school dedicated the basketball court in his name. He was re-elected for the second time with 78% of the vote last year — even after three women came forward with stories about how Byrd made sexual advances against them when they were teenagers and he was their coach in the 1980s.

One of the women, Christi Rice, revealed a recording she made of Byrd apologizing to her in a phone call. “I’ve punished myself so much for that,” Byrd said in the recording, though he doesn’t explain what he means by “that.” As the women came forward last March, Byrd did not explicitly deny the allegations against him. Instead, he issued a statement at the time noting that he hadn’t done anything wrong while in office, and said people should “question the motives of these three former students out of the hundreds of students I have coached.”

“Conduct over 30 years ago is difficult, at best, to recall, but as a Christian, I have said and I will repeat that if I hurt or emotionally upset any of my students I am truly sorry and apologize,” Byrd’s statement said. “I do not believe either of these ladies can show that they made a report to the authorities or received any subsequent mental health counseling for what they have alleged but, again, if my acts or omissions cause them distress I am truly sorry.” Byrd did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Many public officials accused of sexual misconduct in the past two years either resigned or were voted out of office, events often celebrated as evidence of the power of victims coming forward. But for Byrd, a Republican from the most pro-Trump county in Tennessee, the situation has displayed a dramatically different scenario. Not only has Byrd stayed in office, he has enjoyed vocal defenses from multiple GOP colleagues. The American Conservative Union, the group best known for hosting the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, gave Byrd an award in February. (The group did not return Teen Vogue’s request for comment.) As a reporter waited in a hallway earlier this year to ask Byrd about the allegations, Kent Calfee, a GOP lawmaker, stopped to point out that Byrd “got re-elected by a huge number,” and asked, “Why don’t y’all get off of him?” Calfee did not return Teen Vogue’s request for comment.

Byrd was promoted to chair of an education subcommittee in January. When a group of female activists showed up at a committee hearing in February to protest Byrd’s promotion — each holding 8.5 by 11 inch pieces of paper in front of their chests with statements like “Resign Byrd” and “Survivor Against Byrd” — they were chastised by Jerry Sexton, a Republican state representative who also didn’t respond to a request for comment. “I think it’s a shame that you can pick certain individuals to pick out and demean,” Sexton said to them before state troopers escorted the women out of the hearing.

The activists, who were working with the Enough is Enough Voter Project, believe that a large reason why Byrd has not resigned is because of Glen Casada, who announced on Tuesday, May 21, that he plans to step down as Tennessee’s Speaker of the House in light of a controversies involving lewd and racist behavior by one of his top aides and after a vote of no-confidence from his party. Casada ran ads through his political action committee last fall calling the accusations against Byrd “fake news.” He was captured on video in February downplaying the allegations against Byrd, and stated, “if I was raped, I would move.”