Coleman has been accused of engaging in abusive, harassing and/or criminal behavior on a series of occasions, although he has not been convicted of a crime as an adult.
In February 2021, the Select Investigating Committee of the Kansas House of Representatives sent Coleman a letter of warning and admonition in regard to past conduct unbecoming of a state legislator.
[5] In 2017, as a seventeen-year-old who had dropped out of high school, Coleman entered the race for governor of Kansas as a write-in independent candidate ahead of the 2018 election.
[16] In August 2020, Coleman told former Republican state lawmaker John Whitmer that he would "laugh and giggle when you get COVID and die".
[18] Coleman ran on a platform of women's rights (specifically, access to contraceptives and abortion services, as well as equal pay), tuition-free public college, defunding the police, Medicare for all, legalizing cannabis, and the Green New Deal.
[19][17] Coleman won the general election to the Kansas House of Representatives on November 3, 2020[20] at the age of 20,[21] garnering 66% of the vote against two write-in candidates, including Frownfelter.
In November 2020, Coleman tweeted that he would "call out a hit" on Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, and predicted she would face an "extremely bloody" Democratic primary in 2022.
[22] Coleman said that his tweet was not a call for physical violence against the governor,[23] but an expression of his belief that Kelly's moderate political positions did not appeal to him or the party's left wing; he self-identifies as a democratic socialist.
[22] Seven recently elected female Democratic state legislators signed a December 21, 2020, letter calling on Coleman to resign before taking office.
[26] On December 31, 2020, Democratic House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer denied Coleman any committee assignments in the incoming legislature.
[27] On January 13, 2021, two days after being sworn in to the Kansas House of Representatives, Coleman announced he had left the Democratic Party and would sit as an independent.
[29] In February 2021, following a hearing, the Select Investigating Committee of the Kansas House of Representatives dismissed a complaint against Coleman regarding acts of misconduct he committed before taking office.
[37][38] After his 2020 Kansas House primary victory, Coleman's past history generated significant controversy, leading to him admitting that he had leaked revenge porn in middle school when he was 12.
[40][10] The Kansas City Star reported that in May 2015, when Coleman was 14, he was arrested and charged for threatening to shoot a girl at another high school.
[34] Coleman was released on bail, with the judge ordering him to undergo a mental health evaluation and follow recommendations by the provider.