Kristi Noem's former deputy director of ICE has lost her Republican congressional primary race following a bombshell Daily Mail exposé revealing her 'toxic' sexual relationship with a junior female subordinate.
Madison Sheahan fell in Ohio's 9th District Republican primary to real estate investor Derek Merrin, who had President Trump's endorsement. Sheahan received less than 20 percent of the vote and finished quietly in third place on Tuesday night.
The 31-year-old Sheahan announced her candidacy to challenge incumbent Democratic Representative Marcy Kaptur in January, shortly after resigning from ICE.
The district is regarded as one of the swing seats in Ohio that Republicans are targeting to flip to preserve their wafer-thin majority this November.
Prior to Noem appointing her to help lead the deportation agency, Sheahan had no law enforcement experience.
Sheahan's campaign was rocked in recent weeks by allegations that she carried on a 'toxic' relationship with a 19-year-old Ohio GOP staffer.
The ex-lover described how the two became involved during the 2020 Trump reelection campaign while Sheahan, at one point, served as her direct supervisor.
The woman alleges Sheahan pulled her into a controlling dynamic that would shape their nearly two-year relationship. Their secret romance reportedly started after the junior staffer lost her student housing during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Madison Sheahan, Kristi Noem's former ICE deputy director, has lost her Congressional election in Ohio's 9th District
Sheahan's failed election bid comes just weeks after the Daily Mail released a bombshell report from her former female lover about their 'toxic' relationship
The Daily Mail spoke with Sheahan's ex-lover, who detailed a 'toxic' and 'controlling' relationship where Sheahan tried to dictate what she was allowed to wear
The woman claims Sheahan's allegedly 'volatile' behavior escalated as she tried to dictate what the younger staffer wore, reportedly out of fear she would leave her for a man.
The most vivid episode allegedly came one evening in Atlanta in November 2020, when the ex-lover and a group of friends decided to go out.
The junior staffer was stationed about an hour from Buckhead, Georgia, where Sheahan was working with senior campaign officials for the Senate runoff campaign.
She was wearing black jeans and a tight-fitting black bodysuit, and sent Sheahan a photo before going out with friends.
'She lost it on me,' the woman recalled. 'It went from her saying, 'Have fun, have a great night,' to, 'What the f***, you're not gonna f***ing go. Are you actually f***ing serious? I'm not gonna talk to you again.''
The woman went out anyway. She came back to her hotel room in the early hours and called Sheahan. The conversation worsened.
The implication, she says, was plain: women who dressed like that were women who cheated.
Sheahan screamed at her lover on the phone: 'People who do that stuff, that's what they do. They cheat on people.'
A separate source who was present that night told the Daily Mail they could hear Sheahan screaming through the walls of the hotel room on speaker phone, corroborating the account.
Sheahan stands beside Krisi Noem as Pam Bondi speaks to announce the opening of a new US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility that will house immigrants convicted of crimes in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, near the town of St. Francisville on September 3
Madison Sheahan, a Trump conservative running for Congress, was allegedly engaged in a two-year secret relationship with a junior staffer with the Ohio Republican Party
Sheahan declined to comment when contacted by the Daily Mail
Sheahan was not jealous of the other women in the group. She was jealous of the men, her former lover claimed.
The younger woman had never been in a relationship like this before, a fact Sheahan did not know because, as the woman puts it, 'it just never came up.'
When it finally did, Sheahan's purported response was blunt: 'This is why I don't like to date people who aren't gay.'
The woman believes Sheahan's insecurities regarding her own sexuality played a role in their chaotic relationship.
A spokesperson for Sheahan denied the relationship: 'I can speak with authority that no such relationship existed. Madison was not and has never been in a relationship with a subordinate.'
After losing Tuesday's election night campaign, Sheahan political future remains uncertain.
Sheahan's election defeat was widely anticipated in Washington, DC where some of her former colleagues were skeptical of her chances given her polarizing leadership at DHS.
'It should come as any surprise that Madison was handily defeated, a win for the citizens of Ohio,' one DHS insider told the Daily Mail. 'While serving at ICE, she was a corrupt operator who relied on managing through fear, not leadership. It would no doubt be the same if she served in Congress.'
An ICE official added, 'She has the confidence of a seasoned expert, just without the experience or training part. Combine that with a habit of undermining and poorly representing the people she's meant to lead, and it's no surprise the same storyline played out at ICE and again in Ohio.'