Mississippi Republican state Sen. Jeremy England told Newsmax on Tuesday that he wore a crazy pink costume three years ago to raise money for breast cancer, contrary to what those attacking him online would have people believe.
"In 2020, I was an ambassador for the 'Real Men Wear Pink' fundraiser here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast," England said during an appearance on "American Agenda." "[It] was, of course, a COVID year [and] it was tough to raise money, so my wife came up with this idea of putting costumes out there that I would wear at Halloween, and people could donate to the most embarrassing costume.
"Of course, this pink bodysuit won, and I'll say that the tutu actually wasn't an original part of the costume," he continued. "But it was really body tight, so we ended up going with the tutu to not scare too many people."
According to the Associated Press, a photo of the Republican state lawmaker in the outfit has been misused and a slur directed at him over his support of Mississippi Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann for reelection.
Someone backing one of Hosemann's opponents tweeted a photo of the tutu-clad England with the caption, "Hosemann and his groomer weirdos."
The term "groomer" is commonly used to describe how sex offenders initiate contact with their victims.
When asked why breast cancer awareness is a special topic for him, England said that his grandmother, or "Nana," who was watching him on TV in Florida, is a breast cancer survivor.
"When they asked me to be an ambassador for this program, it was right after I had gotten elected, and of course, I said, 'Yes, I'll do anything I can to raise money for breast cancer [awareness],'" he said. "And obviously, I'll do anything I can because this picture showed up in a way that this other campaign was trying to use against me. And we were able to flip that, and I've raised almost $7,000 in less than two weeks now, since that campaign did that."
Describing the costume as "something that was very fun" for his family, which includes two young children who "loved it," England said that the response from Mississippi voters has "been positive."
"People have been very happy that I was able to spin the picture back around for its original purpose and raise more money on it for this very worthy cause," he said. "A lot of the folks that I've talked with, especially my constituents and other people in Mississippi, [say] the muscling in politics is just getting kind of old. We want to get back to the issues and this was just kind of over the line, I think, for a lot of people, so the response to the way I handled this has been very positive."
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