Brian L. Ellis (born 1969) is a former member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, who represented the 11th House district in Butler County. He served as Chairman of the House Consumer Affairs Committee until 2019.

Personal

Born in 1969 in

Butler, Pennsylvania Butler is a city and the county seat of Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located north of Pittsburgh and is part of the Greater Pittsburgh region. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 13,502. History Butler was n ...

, Ellis graduated from Butler Senior High School and graduated from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

with a degree in communications. Prior to his election, he worked for his family's automobile dealership in Western Pennsylvania.

Political career

Ellis first won a seat in the House in 2004, finishing first in a three-way

Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP ("Grand Old Party"), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. The GOP was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists who opposed the Kansas–Nebraska A ...

primary and going on to defeat

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

Fred Vero with 55.9% of the vote. In 2006, he defeated a challenger in the Republican primary with 78% of the vote and won the general election over Democrat Bill Neel with over 64% of the vote. Ellis was unopposed in the 2008 primary and was opposed in the general election by Democrat Dave Wilson. He was re-elected in the 2010 general election. Ellis has served as the Pennsylvania State Leader for the

American Legislative Exchange Council The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives who draft and share model legislation for distribution among state governments in the United State ...

(ALEC).

Accusations and Resignation

In January 2019, the

Dauphin County Dauphin County (; Pennsylvania Dutch: Daffin Kaundi) is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 286,401. The county seat and the largest city is Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's state capital and ninth ...

District Attorney's Office opened a criminal investigation into allegations Ellis had raped a female state employee while she was incapacitated, prompting members of the Pennsylvania state house, including the Republican leadership, to call for his resignation. The victim later issued a complaint to the Pennsylvania House Ethics Committee detailing the alleged assault. Ellis, who was married at the time, denied the accusations, but leading Republicans began to call for a full investigation. He resigned on March 18, 2019, six days after the complaint was issued. In August 2019, Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo declined to charge Ellis.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Brian Living people University of Pittsburgh alumni People from Butler County, Pennsylvania Republican Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives 21st-century American politicians 1969 births State and local political sex scandals in the United States