The afternoon of April 11, 2025, was typical for a Friday in the Colorado House. Lawmakers debated bills and took votes on the chamber floor before adjourning to their districts for the weekend.
Democratic Rep. Yara Zokaie, a first-term lawmaker from Fort Collins, stood next to the podium waiting to speak before a final vote on one of her bills. The chamber was relatively quiet, with members in their seats, as is the protocol when the House is taking recorded votes.
It was at that moment that the number three House Republican, Minority Whip Ryan Armagost, lifted his cell phone to subtly take a picture of Zokaie from his seat in the front row of the chamber. House floor security footage reviewed by CPR News captured a quick flash of light from the phone before he angled it back down.
Armagost immediately shared the photo of Zokaie, who was wearing a black blazer over a short dress and knee-high leather boots, in a group chat with the rest of the Republican House caucus on Signal, with a comment he has since deleted.
CPR News has obtained screenshots that show several lawmakers quickly responded with comments on Zokaie’s outfit, comparing her to a prostitute and stripper.
Armagost wasn’t just a member of the GOP leadership when he took and shared the picture. He was also chair of the House Workplace Harassment Committee, the group tasked with investigating and recommending punishments when lawmakers and others in the capitol are accused of inappropriate behavior. He continued to hold the position until Minority Leader Rose Pugliese removed him from the committee last week after he announced he’s moving to Arizona.
Armagost declined to comment to CPR News about why he took Zokaie’s picture or why he shared it with his Republican colleagues moments later.
“I don’t have anything to comment on her or the accusation,” said Armagost in a text response to CPR News.
Anonymous social posts turn from insults to threats
The photo wasn’t just shared internally. Within an hour, it was posted online by an anonymous social media account with conservative followers.
The initial social media post on X was just captioned, “Thoughts?” It was followed by a second post, with a poll, asking “Smash or Pass Yara Zokaie.” Later it announced the final results were in and commented, “Who tf are the 11% that would smash?”
Months later, the image continues to circulate on various social media platforms, generating further harassing and vile comments about Zokaie. Republicans maintain they do not know who’s behind the original account or how they obtained the photo.
“The messages very quickly escalated from name calling and vulgar remarks about my appearance and what people wanted to do to me, to threats against my family, my children, death threats, rape threats,” Zokaie told CPR News. “Things got to a point where my staff needed to rotate who would check our messages because it was traumatizing to hear some of the things that people were saying.”
Zokaie is Colorado’s first Iranian American lawmaker, and said as a progressive woman of color, she’s often a target. Remarks about her appearance are something she’s learned to live with. While she initially planned to brush the photo off, when the social media comments started threatening the safety of her three children, all under the age of eight, “that is always going to cause things to escalate in my mind.”
A day after the initial picture was posted, a user commented on one of Zokaie’s own posts on X, writing that it took him 5 minutes to find her address. He followed up with, “I recommend just staying inside, if not a confrontation is inevitable.”
Zokaie said the level of harassment she’s experienced from the photograph isn’t something anyone should have to put up with just because they want to serve their community. It led her to take safety precautions and request security for her home and at her son’s elementary school after someone sent a threat about the school.
“Shortly after this happened, there were two legislators shot in Minnesota. So can I ever really feel comfortable? No, I don't sleep soundly at night. I do worry for the safety of my family. And when we are out in public spaces, I do get concerned because this keeps coming up. It started with this post, but this is a reality of me choosing to have a public life,” she said.
Zokaie is adamant that she’s still going to show up to the State Capitol to represent the most vulnerable communities in her district. “The work is far too important for me to back down.”
In the Signal chat, jokes and deleted messages
As Zokaie was speaking on the House floor about the dangers of price gouging on that Friday afternoon, a group of her Republican colleagues was having an entirely different conversation about her choice of outfit via the text message group chat.
“I thought it was come in Jeans day not in just your underwear day. That’s horrible and we need a professional dress code! And NO I don’t mean the “oldest profession” style!” said Rep. Rebecca Keltie in response to Armagost’s picture.
Rep. Brandi Bradley responded with three nauseated face emojis and a face-palm.
“That’s awful. I didn’t know it was dress like a stripper day,” Bradley typed in the group chat.
Screenshots show Armagost responded to Bradley, but he has since deleted his message.
“Wellllll, we ARE on Colfax….” Rep. Lori Garcia Sander wrote.
“Goes by the name of ‘Barbie Q’,...” Rep. Chris Richardson wrote.
“Those boots weren’t made for walking,” Garcia Sander wrote.
“Might be your best meme ever,” Bradley wrote.
“Armagost-more leg shots??” Garcia Sander wrote.
“Oh hell no,” Rep. Anthony Hartsook wrote.
Armagost deleted two of his messages in the Signal chat; a third and final message, where he asks his colleagues to “Please stop” was left undeleted.
CPR News reached out to the members who participated in the Signal thread and they responded through a spokesperson.
“My response to a private message was wrong,” said Rep. Richardson in a statement. “I apologize to Rep. Zokaie and my colleagues for failing to lead with respect. That poorly considered comment was out of place in our Legislature, and I take full responsibility. The Minority Leader immediately addressed the issue, and I take her counsel seriously.”
Reps. Bradley, Hartsook and Keltie declined to comment. Rep. Garcia Sander, a member of the Workplace Harassment Committee, disavowed her remarks.
“I regret my response to a private image that was shared months ago. It was inappropriate, and I apologize to Rep. Zokaie,” said Garcia Sander in a statement. “I am committed to upholding the respectful standards our workplace deserves, and I hope Democrats join me in following that higher standard.”
After being contacted by CPR News for this story, Bradley tweeted that she didn’t believe the photo prompted threats, and instead blamed Zokaie’s own comments and votes.
Republicans complain that Democratic lawmakers have also inappropriately disparaged and attacked their members and fellow conservatives and stifled debate at the capitol by limiting discussions. Last session, about a week before the social media post, Zokaie received blowback for her response when a Republican lawmaker asked during a hearing on a controversial transgender rights bill whether parents groups that aren’t part of the LGBTQ community were part of the stakeholding process.
“A well-stakeholded bill does not need to be discussed with hate groups,” said Zokaie. “We don’t ask someone passing civil rights legislation to go ask the KKK their opinion.”
Other Democrats have been criticized for comparing opposition to LGBTQ policies to Nazi ideology, and last year, a Democratic Representative decided to publicly step away from social media for referring to President Trump as the devil in a Tweet the day of the assassination attempt on Trump’s life.
‘Can you tell me what point you're trying to make besides to degrade and belittle another colleague?’
When Democrats became aware of the photo of Zokaie on social media, they could tell from the angle that it was from the GOP side of the aisle, taken from an area usually only occupied by lawmakers and Republican staffers. But they were still in the dark about who actually snapped it, or who posted it.
"It was obvious there wasn't good intent by putting that out there. So I was really disturbed with it and really felt like, ‘Where is the why? Can you tell me what point you're trying to make besides to degrade and belittle another colleague?’" said Majority Leader Monica Duran. She talked with Pugliese, the House Minority Leader, with whom she says she has a close working relationship, about her concerns and asked for her help in figuring out who took the picture.
“And she said, ‘Absolutely.’” Duran recalled. “She said, ‘That's not right. And I will certainly have conversations with my caucus and see what I can find out for you.’”
Pugliese belongs to the caucus-wide group chat where Armagost originally shared the photo, but did not tell Duran about it.
Not long after that conversation, the social media account re-posted the Zokaie picture for a third time.
“I’m hearing that [Democrats] are big mad that a photo of one of their legislators dressed like an escort in the Capitol got leaked and posted. Seethe demons!” the account wrote in an accompanying comment.
A fresh slew of racist, sexist and derogatory comments followed.
The morning after her conversation with Duran, Pugliese wrote in the GOP caucus’s Signal group chat: “Just a friendly reminder that the messages here may be subject to CORA.” CORA is the Colorado Open Records Act.
Republican House staff said it’s a reminder Pugliese posts somewhat regularly and was not related to the comments about Zokaie.
Republican Rep. Matt Soper called the text conversation shocking.
“I was disturbed. It’s unprofessional to talk about a member's attire or their weight. Democrats do plenty of wild and crazy things in their legislating that there's no need to dive into criticizing how they look,” Soper said.
Soper is the longest-serving House Republican and said over the years, the online toxicity between lawmakers — bullying, chastising, and personal attacks — has ramped up. He said there’s always some locker room banter-type talk behind the scenes from both sides of the aisle, but usually it’s more lighthearted jokes. He said the comments in the Signal group and the subsequent social media posts about Zokaie were uncalled for and that he made that clear to GOP leaders.
“They were gross, they were unprofessional. And quite frankly, they're not meritorious. There's no point to raise those issues.”
Despite accusations of inappropriate behavior, Armagost remained the head of the committee meant to enforce workplace standards
It took a month after the incident before Democrats retrieved House camera security footage showing Armagost taking the photo.
In a letter to Pugliese dated June 16, House Speaker Julie McCluskie asked the Minority Leader, who decides which of her members sit on which committees, to remove Armagost from the Workplace Harassment Committee immediately because his “conduct is inconsistent with the standards expected of members serving on the House Workplace Harassment Committee.”
The panel is charged with handling workplace harassment complaints in the House and helping to enforce the legislature’s harassment policy and workplace expectations. It meets intermittently as needed throughout the year.
“It is essential that members serving on this committee uphold both the letter and the spirit of its mission,” McCluskie said.
By the time McCluskie sent the letter, Armagost was already headed for the exit; he later told his colleagues he will resign this September to take a job in Arizona, where he wants to pursue a personal relationship.
Puglisese removed Armagost from the committee at the end of July, a month and a half after the request, and more than three months after she became aware that he took the picture. At that point, a story about the photo had already appeared in the Colorado Sun. However, as of this week, he was still listed as chair on the committee’s webpage.
“I take this matter very seriously and do not condone this behavior,” said Pugliese in a text message to CPR News about the posting of the picture to social media.
“Representative Armagost is currently vacating the legislature and has been removed from most of his committees, including the Workplace Harassment Committee. Had he not resigned from the Legislature, I would have removed him from the Workplace Harassment Committee,” she said. She did not address why she did not choose to remove him earlier.
In a follow-up message, CPR News asked Pugliese about the comments in the April 11 GOP caucus group chat and the assertion by some members that they were not aware that she addressed the situation with her caucus at large.
However, she told CPR News she did talk to her colleagues.
“I addressed the issue with members of the caucus,” said Pugliese in a text message. “I remain committed to ensuring a workplace that respects the dignity of all people.”
Pugliese did not answer CPR News’ question about why she did not make Democratic leaders aware she knew who’d taken the photo.
Freshman Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson was appointed last week to replace Armagost on the Workplace Harassment Committee. She said she rarely checks the GOP Signal chat and wasn’t aware of the internal comments from her colleagues prior to learning about them from CPR News.
“It is definitely something that’s not OK. We should be debating colleagues on political matters such as legislation not doing personal attacks,” she said.
Online comments remain free from legislative policing
The legislature’s workplace harassment policy says sexual comments or innuendo about a person's clothing, body, or sexual activity can be a form of verbal harassment. Telling sexual jokes or using sexual words or phrases could also constitute harassment.
But Zokaie did not file a formal complaint about the social media posts and it’s not clear if they would even fit under the legislature’s policy because it’s still unknown who exactly posted the picture to social media and the comments came from members of the public outside of the capitol. Even if the account was controlled by a member, social media is not covered under the policy and lawmakers have a wide berth to express themselves online.
“I have struggled with what I have seen on social media. And as we have explored how to address these types of things from happening, it has really been challenging because of everyone's First Amendment, right?” said House Speaker McCluskie.
But she added that free speech isn’t an entitlement to spew hate.
“And certainly disrespect at a level that I think is beneath the level of us as elected officials of this state,” said McCluskie.
She said the legislature is redefining the role of its office of Legislative Workplace Relations to better address complaints and she’s called on statehouse leaders to see if they can do more to rein in conduct on the social media front. She said the posts about Zokaie were especially disturbing because the photo was taken during floor work when lawmakers are meant to be at their most professional.
