| STATEMENT BY TAMMY AND RYAN MORALES |
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| Press Contact: Laurence K. Email: [email protected] Date: 8/10/2022 STATEMENT FROM RYAN MORALES: My family and I are mortified at the recent exploitation of a deeply personal family matter by the West Orlando News. Without even contacting us or requesting more information, they published a libelous perversion of an incident my wife and my family went through five years ago, skewing the facts, making inaccurate inferences unsupported by evidence, and publishing private details related to my wife’s mental state. My wife’s struggle with postpartum depression should not be used by the media as a political jab. Families who have struggled with PPD know the toll it can take, how helpless it can make you feel, how it takes time to heal and find a path forward. To invoke this extremely fraught period of my wife and family’s lives to score political points is wildly inappropriate and deeply invasive of our privacy.I would never fault law enforcement for reacting to what was alleged.I believe in due process and through my care and concern for my wife and family, I found it prudent for the process to avail of the actual facts and clear my name of the allegations. I’ve also attempted to navigate the nightmarish obstacle course that is campaign finance law, and have had to learn to manage that aspect of campaigns myself. I never took corporate donor money or money from shady donors. It was difficult to pay even a skeleton staff, as was the case in my 2020 state House of Representative campaign, although I ultimately was able to pay my former staffer every cent she was owed. These accusations are grasping at straws to make me look bad to the voters of Florida and overlooking the big picture of how our political system is rigged to favor the wealthy. Yes, come after me for my campaign’s $1.20/week Orlando Sentinel subscription. We know who is behind the attack and we condemn their actions. But I prefer to keep talking about how Florida’s waters need to be cleaned, how predatory developers are eating up farmland because farmers lack support, and how we have invasive species decimating Florida’s crops. I love my family and have done everything to shield them from these types of dirty, political hit pieces, and am truly saddened to see the media and my Democratic opponent stooping so low. Statement from Tammy Morales: A personal incident between my husband and me happened in 2017, which, as it turns out, was the apogee of untreated postpartum depression. Contrary to the libelous report in the West Orlando News, I have never filed any domestic violence charge against Ryan because he has never raised his hand or struck me–ever. This 2017 incident was a unique circumstance. I had struggled with an undiagnosed thyroid condition and my mental health for three years after the Pre-term birth of our second child (at 32 weeks due to Preeclampsia.) This personal struggle put me in a position where I reported an argument to the authorities, and in a distraught state, exaggerated the incident. I knew I had no reason to file charges, and therefore none were filed. Soon after, I received treatment and took some time for self-care. I never filed for divorce. With the help of friends and family, my husband and I worked on saving our marriage and keeping our family together–he is a great dad and our kids wouldn’t have it any other way. With that said, today we are stronger than ever, but I would like to bring awareness to the many struggles people have with mental health, especially women who have and are struggling with Postpartum Depression. If I can help bring a voice to those struggling with mental health issues via my husband seeking public office, then I consider this a privilege. I look forward to opportunities where I can help bring awareness. ————— In light of the clarifications I and my wife have been forced to make, I am hereby demanding West Orlando News issue a retraction of their offensive and misleading article, and my family and I would appreciate an apology. |
