(Update: One day after the publication of this article, Abby Broyles conducted a video interview with KFOR and admitted that she attended the party in question. The article below remains in its original form.)
A Valentine’s Day weekend sleepover party for tween girls that included watching the film Titanic turned bizarre and tearful after parents say Oklahoma 5th Congressional District candidate Abby Broyles allegedly became drunk and berated some of the children in attendance.
The party, held at the home of a Deer Creek Public Schools parent on Feb. 11, included eight girls between the ages of 12 and 13. Broyles was allegedly at the home the night of the party at the invitation of the homeowner, who is the mother of one of the children.
According to multiple accounts of the evening, Broyles became intoxicated and spoke derogatorily to some of the girls. She allegedly called one girl an “acne fucker,” which prompted the girl to leave the room in tears. Broyles allegedly called another girl a “Hispanic fucker” and another a “judgy fucker.”
At one point, Broyles allegedly vomited into a laundry basket and onto one girl’s shoes.
Sarah Matthews, whose daughter attended the party, outlined some of Broyles’ alleged behavior in a Twitter thread Wednesday that tagged Broyles’ account. Matthews was not present but was told of the alleged events by her daughter and the mother who hosted the party.
Both Matthews and her 12-year-old daughter discussed the situation thoroughly with NonDoc. Another parent, who asked not to be named, corroborated the story based on details provided by her daughter after the party. Text messages from the homeowner outlining and apologizing for Broyles’ actions were also provided to NonDoc by multiple people. In a phone conversation, the homeowner also confirmed to NonDoc that Broyles had caused an incident “of magnitude” at her home.
NonDoc also obtained two photographs of Broyles: A picture of her drinking wine in a kitchen next to two girls, and a screenshot of her in a TikTok video posing with four girls, three of whom are wearing matching pink pajama outfits adorned with hearts.
Matthews said she is still shocked by her daughter’s account of what happened.
“It’s so sad, because this is someone who has stood on a soap box and talked about empowering women, and rather than do that with these girls she chose to belittle and denigrate the next generation of women,” Matthews said. “And she does this at a time when their bodies are changing and their features are changing and they are vulnerable.”
Reached early Thursday, Broyles flatly denied the allegations and said she was not at the house that evening. She eventually said she was out of town.
“I saw the tweets. I have been out of town on a fundraising trip, and they are awful and offensive and false,” Broyles said. “I mean, I get trolled on Twitter all the time, but I don’t know these women and I don’t know what is behind this, but it’s just not true.”
Asked if she had even gone to the house where the slumber party occurred, Broyles said, “No.”
“I don’t want to talk about — I mean, this is ridiculous that this is becoming a thing,” Broyles said. “This didn’t happen.”
Broyles announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party’s 2022 nomination for the 5th Congressional District in September. U.S. Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK5) was first elected to the seat in 2020. Broyles unsuccessfully challenged incumbent U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe in 2020, capturing 32 percent of the vote. Soon after, Broyles launched a nonprofit called Grit for Democracy to increase voter participation and “ensure every Oklahoman from every walk of life is seen and heard.”
An attorney and a former KFOR reporter who attended law school with the host of the sleepover, Broyles threatened to sue NonDoc for reporting the claims against her.
“I’m running for office. You don’t think this is a political attack? You don’t think this is something they cooked up?” Broyles said.
Asked if she meant that 12 and 13-year-old girls had “cooked up” a story against her for political purposes, Broyles said she meant “their moms.”
“I mean, I don’t know,” Broyles said. “I have no idea. This is — I’m just telling you it’s not true, and if I were a journalist I would not be doing a story, because it’s not a story.”
Broyles said she was out of town Feb. 11. Asked if she could prove that she was out of town, Broyles hung up the phone. In a subsequent email exchange, she again declined to specify her whereabouts, instead criticizing a “lack of evidence and facts of your possible reporting.”
Matthews, who tagged media and Bice’s accounts in her Twitter thread, expressed frustration after being told that Broyles denied the incident had occurred.
“I find it grotesque. She was 100 percent there, these children were 100 percent abused by her verbally and emotionally,” Matthews said. “The fact that she is trying to hide it or act like it is no big deal is disgusting, particularly for someone in her position who tries to present herself as so pro-woman.”
‘She was telling me I wasn’t going to be as successful as her’
Matthews’ 12-year-old daughter directly detailed her experience at the sleepover. NonDoc has withheld her name from this article.
The daughter said Broyles was initially pleasant before becoming upset without provocation.
“It really just happened,” the 12-year-old said. “It was like it was a switch and she started being rude to people. Early in the evening, she had been nice.”Â
The party attendee said Broyles seemed to be angry at everyone there.
“We were all sitting around, and she was just going around in a circle saying rude things and would end with ‘F-er’ and saying ‘F-you’ to all of us there — really rude things,” the 12-year-old said. “My friend has acne, and she had been talking about her acne early in the evening, and then [Broyles] called her an ‘acne F-er,’ and she ran upstairs crying.”
The attendee said she eventually became the target of Broyles’ pronouncements.
“She was telling me I wasn’t going to be as successful as her,” the 12-year-old said.
While the girl said she was offended at Broyles’ remarks, she said she chose not to respond because she was scared of what Broyles might say or do to her.
Later, the same attendee said one of the girls attempted to return a pair of eyeglasses she believed belonged to Broyles. When asked if the glasses were hers, Broyles allegedly said they were “the Hispanic fucker’s,” in reference to a girl at the sleepover.
A text message from the homeowner to Matthews the next day corroborates many of the events. The text message included an apology.
“Hey, I’m available to talk or address last night in any way if it can help the girls or the parents,” wrote the homeowner. “I have no excuses, and it’s sick honestly. If I can confirm the nasty words or recount the incident I’m willing to. I don’t know how to best handle it and I imagine each parent and child may need or desire different things but if it was me I would like to hear that at least.”
The homeowner — who donated $2,550 to Broyles’ 2020 U.S. Senate campaign, according to federal records — told Matthews she was happy to meet with the parents as a group or individually to discuss the incident.
“Unfortunately it really was as bad as it sounds,” the homeowner wrote. “She went from zonked out to attacking kids.”
NonDoc contacted the homeowner, who confirmed that the incident occurred at her house and involved her friend Abby Broyles, whom she had met in law school. The homeowner asked not to be identified.
“I can confirm that an incident occurred of the kind of magnitude that I needed to make phone calls to every parent (of the children) in attendance the next day to discuss one on one, parent to parent,” the homeowner said.
The homeowner’s ex-husband, Coy Reed, confirmed that his former spouse and their daughter relayed the story to him.
“My reaction was I just wanted to vomit,” Reed said. “My heart was broken. (…) My ex did a great job of throwing the party and did it all up. It sounds like it was a great evening until it wasn’t. I feel terrible for the girls, and I feel terrible for my ex.”
Told that Broyles was denying that the incident occurred, the homeowner expressed shock.
“Let’s handle this aftermath, because it was that large of an incident to me,” she said. “But to deny it occurred would be blatantly wrong.”
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‘I’m so sorry they were accosted’
In her text message to Matthews, the homeowner wrote that Broyles had brought two bottles of wine to her house.
“Not excusing anything. At all,” the homeowner wrote. “I’m just so sorry the girls saw anything like this ever and I’m mortified that it was someone whose been around my kids dozens of times and knows that my children are the center of my world.”
The homeowner concluded her text message with her own recollection of the events of that night.
“The girls faces as a grown woman slurred speech and puked in a hamper is burned in my mind,” she wrote to Matthews. “I’m so sorry they were accosted.”
Matthews said she was only partially familiar with Broyles before the incident. Matthews said that while Broyles is not a candidate for whom she likely would have voted, her decision to speak out is not about politics.
“I didn’t know anything about her other than she used to be on the news and had run for office,” Matthews said. “I follow politics, but I’m not involved in politics. The only involvement I have in politics is voting. I’m not sure if I would have done anything had she apologized and said, ‘This behavior is disgusting, it’s inexcusable.’ But to just completely ignore it is gross.”
Matthews’ 12-year-old daughter said Broyles attempted to apologize that night but that the homeowner did most of the talking. Matthews said the girls were asked to delete photos and videos of the incident from their phones.
“She stayed overnight and there wasn’t any discussion (the next morning),” the attendee said. “I could tell she was embarrassed to say anything to us.”
The 12-year-old said what happened was not something she thought she would see at a party with friends.
“It was really just crazy because I’ve never seen anyone act like that,” the girl said. “It just seems like really weird the way she was acting. And just mean. I was really surprised by it. It just happened, and she started acting aggressively.”
