State Sen. Marty Flynn has no regrets about getting into a verbal argument with some teenagers after a local high school football game.
Video of part of the incident, circulated on social media, shows the Dunmore Democrat across the street and includes audio of him and youths cursing at each other. Republican Sharon Soltis Sparano of La Plume Twp., Flynn’s opponent in the 22nd state Senate District race in Tuesday’s election issued a statement critical of Flynn and questioning his judgment.
The incident occurred after a Scranton Prep/Valley View game Friday night when Flynn was walking with his 7-year-old daughter to their vehicle to leave. They passed by some young men who were screaming at each other, Flynn said in an interview Tuesday.
Flynn said his daughter became scared and he told the youths to tone it down and watch their language and they then cursed at him. He put his daughter in his vehicle and then resumed the verbal clash with the youths, cursing at them. A former boxer, Flynn also told them he would knock them out.
In describing the incident, Flynn said youths from two schools were fighting with each other, screaming back and forth and cursing. He told them to “chill with the language” and “they started screaming at us,” with vulgarities. His daughter became afraid, “so I just put her in the car, and that’s when I was pissed off, screaming at them.”
The next morning, he posted on Facebook a video he took at his home of him asking his daughter to recount the incident.
On Monday, Flynn defended himself on the Sue Henry Show Podcast and said he would do the same thing again. The show’s description of the episode: “State Sen. Marty Flynn tells Sue Henry his side of a story about a confrontation involving teenagers and a few “f” bombs that flew Friday night after a high school football game.”
Some opinions on social media included that Flynn exercised poor judgment and actions, especially for a state senator.
“Listen, I’m a father first, period,” Flynn told The Times-Tribune. “If it happened tomorrow, the same thing could happen.”
Soltis Sparano’s statement issued Tuesday called into question Flynn’s behavior and claimed it fit a pattern of what she views as poor judgment exercised by him.
“Leadership means de-escalating conflict, protecting children, and exercising good judgment under pressure. It does not mean returning to confront teenagers, threatening them, and then telling the public you would do it again,” Soltis Sparano said.
She cited the following three incidents: In 2014, Flynn fired his own gun to defend himself and another legislator from would-be robbers while walking on a street in Harrisburg; in 2021, Flynn reported a theft of a loaded .357-caliber handgun from his unlocked vehicle parked in West Scranton outside of his home at the time; and in 2024, after Flynn “brake checked” an erratic vehicle behind him on Interstate 81, the vehicle pulled into the left lane and a front seat passenger pointed a handgun at Flynn and smiled.