The Democratic nominee in Colorado’s competitive Eighth Congressional District, Manny Rutinel, frequently leans on his upbringing by a single mother on the campaign trail and in fundraising emails. He has left out any mention of his father, who is part of a powerful, long-running political dynasty in the Dominican Republic. And while the two are estranged, they still hold several similarities, including arrests over left-wing causes and a penchant for socialism, a Washington Free Beacon review found.
His father, César Santiago Rutinel Domínguez—who goes by “Tonty,” Manny’s legal first name—is an accused domestic abuser who has been elected to both chambers of the Dominican Republic’s legislature and was appointed consul general in Colombia immediately after his latest term ended. He has also held leadership positions in the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) and the Modern Revolutionary Party, affiliates of the Socialist International, a worldwide alliance of left-wing political parties. During one of his failed mayoral bids, he promised to head a “socialist” government.
Manny, a state representative, has never publicly explained his father’s absence during his upbringing and has rarely mentioned him at all. It’s unclear why Manny’s mother moved to the United States when her son was six years old or if Tonty provides any form of child support.
As a University of Florida student, Manny told the Facebook page Humans of UF, “Technically, you could say I come from a broken home.”
“My father, Tonty Rutinel, is a Senator in the Dominican Republic and my entire family over there is political,” he said, noting that his brother and eight half-siblings are all named Tonty. “I guess you could say he has a bit of an ego.”
Tonty isn’t Manny’s only family member who’s held power in the Caribbean nation. Tonty’s cousin is former leftist Dominican president Hipólito Mejía, while his mother, Francisca Otilia Domínguez, served alongside known Marxist-Leninist leaders during a revolution in 1965 and was herself a consul general in Haiti and Panama. Tonty’s brother, Abelardo Antonio Rutinel Domínguez, was a PRD leader, and his nephew—Manny’s first cousin—Abelardo Antonio Rutinel serves in the lower chamber of the Dominican Republic’s legislature.
Manny’s campaign did not comment on his family’s politics or explain the father and son’s estranged relationship.
“Manny has rarely seen or spoken to his father,” a spokesman said in a statement. “He was raised by his single mother, and she’s the person who made him who he is today.”
Details of Manny’s socialist family tree come as the Democrat vies to unseat Rep. Gabe Evans (R.) in Colorado’s Eighth Congressional District, which is expected to be among the closest races in the nation and will play a central role in determining which party controls the House of Representatives. The district has only existed since 2021 and has flipped parties in its only two prior elections.
Tonty, like Manny, became an activist at a young age. He joined the PRD as a teenager and was “imprisoned for defending leftist positions” when he was 15, the local news outlet Diario Libre reported. Manny, meanwhile, began a crusade against animal agriculture in college—lasting until he launched his congressional bid—and was arrested during law school for joining left-wing protesters who stormed the field at the 2019 Yale-Harvard football game to accuse the universities of being “complicit in climate injustice” and chanted, “hey hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go.”
Tonty also ran failed campaigns for Santo Domingo Este, Dominican Republic, mayor in 2010 and 2016. During his first bid, he said, “My government in the city council would be socialist,” and promised to expand taxpayer-funded services, according to Diario Libre, which called him a “legendary member of the PRD.”
Manny likewise began pushing for socialism in blog posts just a few years later. Between 2013 and 2014, he penned headlines like, “What Would Jesus Do? Socialism,” and “Why a More Socialistic Society Is Superior,” the Free Beacon reported.
Manny’s family history isn’t the only part of his past he hopes to bury. He ran to the left of his primary opponent but now says he isn’t a socialist and supports the congressional district’s vast ranching and oil industries. He claimed during a June debate that he abandoned his vegan diet and activism because “it’s important for me to be able to enjoy the delicious products that Colorado ranchers make.”
Tonty has been accused of several violent incidents. In December 2011, he was arrested on domestic violence charges after Leidy Dayanara Caraballo, his girlfriend and mother of one of Manny’s half-siblings, accused him of hitting her on the head and throwing her against a wall, causing an injury that allegedly required 12 stitches—Tonty claimed he accidentally knocked her out of bed and that only two stitches were needed, Listín Diario reported. Prosecutors alleged Tonty had subjected Caraballo to physical and psychological abuse for years.
In February 2012, Tonty filed a lawsuit against Caraballo in an attempt to reduce his monthly child support payments from roughly $1,500 a month down to less than $130, according to Diario Libre. Caraballo’s lawyer called it an attempt to force her to drop the charges. While that effort failed, Caraballo ultimately withdrew her complaint, saying she actually hit her head after slipping on her son’s vomit, Acento reported.
That wasn’t the first time Tonty was accused of violent behavior. In 2005, he got into a heated argument with Alfredo Pacheco, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, the Dominican Republic’s lower chamber, over a bill Tonty wanted on the agenda. Pacheco said Tonty “reached into his pockets, seemingly to pull out a gun,” but bystanders intervened, Hoy reported.
Elsewhere, Tonty in 2021 called to “destroy” the police force and “bury it in the deepest ruins of the earth.” He was also expelled from his own party on two occasions: first in 1987 during a leadership power struggle, and again in 2005 when the party’s secretary general took “a hard line against indiscipline” against members like Tonty, who consistently defied leadership, according to a U.S. embassy cable released by WikiLeaks. He was readmitted both times.
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