Ryan Cook, a candidate for Republican precinct chair in Nacogdoches County, has been accused of sending inappropriate messages to individuals under the age of 18.
The allegations, reported on by Current Revolt, gained attention from prominent social media users such as Sara Gonzales of Blaze TV and former congressman George Santos.
“Let me be very clear. As a gay man, I know the difficult task it is to thread the very fine line of upholding conservative values and understanding who I am within the conservative movement,” Santos posted on X. “One thing I will say is that I loath pedophiles and will never stay silent when someone is a risk to society… The allegations against [Ryan Cook] are staggering and troubling.”
Sara Gonzales posted a screenshot on X of a purported conversation between Cook and Santos in which Cook allegedly acknowledged the age of one of the people he was direct messaging.
“The person that I messaged with in this is 17. In our state 17 is the age of consent. Nothing sexual was ever done between us, even if that was my intention,” Cook supposedly wrote.
Not all the screenshots circulating on X were apparently real though. A group chat on X called “End Ryan Cook War Room” was allegedly leaked by a social media user with the handle Liberty_Sean, according to Current Revolt.
The X user behind some of the purportedly fake screenshots, SoCal Populist, encouraged the group to pretend the fake messages were real. SoCal Populist later supposedly admitted in an X space that he and others worked to manufacture some of the messages, per Current Revolt.
SoCal Populist and other involved X accounts reportedly deleted their accounts.
Still, Gonzalez insisted the screenshots she had posted were real. “Apparently, the account who posted these went on to make other DM screenshots that were fake. The ones I posted are verified as true by both boys,” she wrote.
Gonzalez had previously posted, “Ryan Cook (@ryanc_2025) is running for GOP precinct chair in Nacogdoches County. He is a gay man who has a history of grooming boys online. Here is an exchange between Ryan (at 20 years old) and a 16-year-old boy. He must be stopped.”
