To me, Chicago congressional hopeful Benjamin Thomas Wolf—aka the “cannabis candidate”—seemed like someone I could get behind when he burst into the spotlight before last month’s primaries.
More disturbingly, I also learned he was accused of abusing women.
I care about people and families, NOT politics, corporations or the chicago establishment. The people need healthcare, they want cannabis, they hope for free education. I’m fighting for them. Rahm and the establishment are afraid we might win. They are fighting back. #VoteWolf pic.twitter.com/2pNDIe7FZ5
— Benjamin Thomas Wolf (@benjaminwolfBTW) March 8, 2018
Then his social media pages went dark. On March 10, Wolf appeared at a forum hosted by the Northcenter Chamber of Commerce. According to video of that event, the moderator asked Wolf to respond to news articles that had accused him of padding his resumé and of “escalating and abusive behavior” toward a former campaign intern. Other women had also made claims, but declined to be interviewed out of fear of retaliation. Wolf denied being abusive.
On March 19, after ten days of silence on social media, Wolf did put in some last requests for votes.
He said he was disappointed he didn’t win and blamed his loss partly on young people in the district who didn’t go to the polls on March 20. Less than 15 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds in the city voted in the primary, a spokesman for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners said.
“I need to reconnect with relatives and fr
