Senate candidate Sean Parnell suspended his campaign Monday, hours after a judge ruled against him in a custody battle that included allegations he had physically and verbally abused his wife and children.
While Parnell denied those claims, the judge found his wife, Laurie Snell, to be more credible.
“There is nothing more important to me than my children, and while I plan to ask the court to reconsider, I can’t continue with a Senate campaign,” Parnell said in a statement. “My focus right now is 100% on my children, and I want them to know I do not have any other priorities and will never stop fighting for them.”
His decision capped a rapid collapse for a candidate once viewed as the GOP front-runner in Pennsylvania’s nationally watched race to replace Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. Parnell, a decorated Army veteran who received a Purple Heart after serving in Afghanistan, won an August endorsement from former President Donald Trump, but his campaign quickly unraveled after a rival questioned his personal conduct and his wife, Laurie Snell, testified under oath that Parnell choked her, pinned her down and called her “a whore.”
» READ MORE: Pa. Senate candidate Sean Parnell’s wife testified that he choked her and hit their children
Parnell’s departure leaves a scrambled Republican field in one of the country’s most critical Senate races, one of a handful likely to decide control of the chamber. It comes as Republican insiders have raised concerns about the strength of their candidates and as other contenders, including celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz and hedge fund manager David McCormick, consider entering the GOP contest — with Oz said to be hiring aides and almost certain to run.
And it re-opens the door for other candidates who had hoped to capitalize on their ties to Trump.
The judge’s ruling Monday came after emotional testimony earlier this month that for the first time publicly aired Snell’s allegations of Parnell’s abuse and uncontrolled anger. While Parnell, also under oath, denied Snell’s claims, Judge James Arner concluded she was “the more credible witness” of the two and that Parnell had committed “some acts of abuse in the past.”
The judge added that he didn’t weigh the abuse claims in his decision, since he didn’t believe Parnell had been abusive in the last three-and-a-half years, and that both parents were “equally capable of providing adequate physical safeguards and supervision of the children.”
Still, his written ruling undercut Parnell’s denials, and he gave Snell primary physical custody and sole legal custody of the couple’s three children, ages 8 to 12. He allowed Parnell to have the children three weekends a month, a decision both painful to Parnell personally and devastating to his political aspirations. The parents until now have split custody.
While many Republicans thought Parnell’s campaign was finished once the allegations were made in open court, the judge’s decision piled on even more pressure. Parnell’s campaign had hoped a favorable ruling might lend weight to his denials of abuse.
But Arner wrote that Snell “could remember and describe the specific incidents about which she testified. She described many incidents. She provided factual details of each incident, including when they happened and what happened. She testified in a convincing manner.”
By contrast, he found, Parnell was “somewhat evasive” and “less believable.”
“He was dressed very casually for his appearances in court, in blue jeans and untucked plaid shirts, which did not show respect for the seriousness of the occasion,” Arner wrote. “While testifying he looked mainly in the direction of this attorneys and toward members of the news media in the back of the courtroom, rather than at me.”
Arner did not offer conclusions about which specific acts of abuse against Snell happened, but wrote that he believed her accounts of two incidents involving Parnell and their children.
Snell, in her testimony, accused Parnell of choking her, pinning her down and screaming insults at her, and once leaving her on the side of a highway while she was pregnant with their first child. She also said he had violently struck their children while flying into rages.
In one incident, she said, he slapped one of the children so hard it left finger-shaped welt’s on the child’s back. Another time, she asserted, he punched a door in such fury that it struck another child in the face, leaving a bruise.
Parnell flatly denied those incidents and cast himself as a loving, caring father.
Arner did not identify which of the abuse allegations involving the couple that he believed were true, but said he believed Snell’s accounts of the incidents with the children.
“I find that the incidents involving the two boys did happen as described by Laurie Snell, but I am not placing weight on that evidence because a period of three and one half years has gone by without further incident,” wrote Arner, a Clarion County judge brought in to oversee the case in Butler County.
He added that Parnell has “properly cared for the children” since then. He also noted that Snell’s agreement to allow Parnell significant time alone with the children, “indicates she does not view him as a threat of harm.”
Another major factor in the ruling, Arner wrote, is Parnell’s frequent travel because of his work as a public speaker, and additional travel required by his Senate campaign. Parnell, in his statement, said that weighed on his decision to end his Senate campaign. He said he was “devastated” by the custody decision.
Snell’s lawyer, Jennifer Gilliland Vanasdale, said she was “grateful that justice prevailed” and that Snell, now with custody of the children, “will continue, as always, to focus on their best interests.”
Republicans were left to reassess their field months before the 2022 primary.
“We thought Sean was a strong candidate. We’re disappointed he’s suspending his campaign,” said Al Lindsay, the GOP chairman in Butler County, north of Pittsburgh. “We certainly need a good Republican senator.”
Sam DeMarco, the Republican chairman in Allegheny County said Parnell “was the clear leader” previously.
“It is certainly going to shake up the race but we had good candidates that are running as well, with more potentially entering soon,” DeMarco said. He said he expects McCormick, a veteran and former Bush administration aide, to enter the race.
Questions about Parnell’s behavior first arose days after the Trump endorsement, when a rival, Montgomery County developer Jeff Bartos, attacked him over protection from abuse orders Snell sought in 2017 and 2018. While both were temporary and later expunged, they raised concerns about Parnell’s personal behavior.
The details of Snell’s accusations became public in a cramped courtroom in Butler County, with Parnell sitting just feet from his estranged wife.
Staff writer Andrew Seidman contributed to this report.
