Dem NY Sen. John Mannion berated workers, was often ‘sexist and homophobic,’ ex-staffers allege

Democratic New York State Sen. John Mannion — who is hoping to flip the hotly-contested 22nd Congressional District seat — fostered a hostile work environment where he routinely berated employees and retaliated against those who spoke up, former staffers allege.

In a scathing open letter posted on Medium Monday night, several people who worked in the lefty lawmaker’s senate office described being traumatized by Mannion’s “often sexist and homophobic” harassment.

They alleged it was “so severe” that it caused one staffer to become “physically ill.”

“We started our work with him because we wanted to make a difference in our community, but many of us have left public service due to the trauma we endured,” the letter addressed to “Central New Yorkers” begins.

“We have come together now to write this letter because there is still time to avoid elevating yet another abuser to high office,” it continues.

It then describes a laundry list of disturbing allegations, including “out of control yelling” and “blatantly sexist” behavior targeting young women.

“In one instance, the screaming was so severe, a staffer became physically ill. In another instance, one staffer, a young woman, was brought into a room alone to be verbally berated for nearly an hour,” the anonymous former staffers wrote.

Mannion is a state senator representing the 50th district, which encompasses Syracuse suburbs and Oswego, but is now running in a primary in the 22nd Congressional District — a race widely believed to be one of Democrats’ best opportunities to flip a seat in New York during this year’s midterms.

Two former staffers who spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity after the letter was published painted a picture of a “paranoid” and irate Mannion who would also fly into a rage over his wife.

He said something to the effect of “ ‘I am the king, and she is the queen,’ meaning you are not to question me, and you are also not to question my wife,” a staffer recalled being told by Mannion in 2021 after he won his first term in the state Senate.

The senator’s wife, Jennifer Mannion, was actively involved in her husband’s 2020 state Senate campaign and that work trickled over into his transition into the state senate, sources said.

Another staffer claimed that during John Mannion’s 2020 campaign, she was blocked and removed from the campaign’s Facebook account after she deleted a picture that was posted by his wife of a group of children, out of concern that they didn’t have the kids’ parents’ consent.

She then claimed she was excoriated by a red-faced Mannion in his office at the West Genesee Teachers Association, a union where he was then president.

“I went into this conversation open-minded and it turned into John verbally berating me for 45 minutes,” the staffer, who said she asked for the meeting in the first place, told The Post.

“The power dynamic was so deeply uncomfortable and unfair.”

The staffer said she finished out the campaign but was excluded from some meetings and had virtually no communication with either Mannion or his wife.

She also claimed other former staffers told her that Mannion instructed them not to speak with her or be her friend.

She said it was her belief that the only reason she wasn’t fired was because she was the campaign’s only female staffer at the time.

The first former Mannion staffer also alleged that Jennifer Mannion once tried to make a joke about him wearing assless chaps because he is gay.

“I don’t know if I knew how bad it really was at the time,” he said.

The same staffer alleged that Mannion, after winning the election, expressed concern about hiring an attractive scheduler in the office — out of fear it would cause tension with his wife.

Jennifer Mannion then sat in on the interviews with those candidates.

Both staffers deny working for Mannion’s primary opponent, Sarah Klee Hood, though one said they made a small contribution to her campaign.

The former staffers said they were hesitant to identify themselves until more people come forward — but that they still wanted to get it out before the primary so that it wouldn’t fuel Republicans’ attempts to hold onto the battleground district this fall.

“These allegations are disturbing and we take them seriously. We will be investigating them further through both Senate Personnel and outside counsel as dictated by Senate Rules,” a spokesperson for state Senate Democrats told the Post.

“The graphic accounts detailed in the former staffers’ joint letter regarding Senator John Mannion are absolutely appalling and deeply troubling,” the Sexual Harassment Working Group wrote in a statement.

“We fully support the writers and unequivocally believe them. It takes immense courage to publicly disclose such traumatic experiences, especially when the perpetrator holds a position of power.”

The Mannion campaign vehemently denied the allegations and dismissed them as “politically motivated.

“It’s obvious that releasing this letter one week from election day is politically motivated. Senator Mannion rejects these tactics and will continue to run a positive campaign focused on his record and delivering for his constituents in Congress,” the campaign wrote in a statement to the Post.

The 22nd Congressional District is currently rated by the Cook Political Report as a lean Democrat district, the only seat currently held by a Republican in that category.

The district has shifted slightly more Democratic after the district was redrawn by the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission to encompass more left-leaning voters in the City of Cortland earlier this year.

The district is currently held by Rep. Brandon Williams (R-NY), who won with 50.5% of the vote in 2022.