A Democrat running for a U.S. House seat in Orange County, California, who sent out a message saying he was suspending his campaign over a “lack of joy” announced hours later that he actually has no intention of dropping out.

Aditya Pai, a 45th Congressional District candidate seeking to win over the district represented by Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA), apologized in a second email on Thursday, claiming the prior missive was “sent by a now-former aide in error.”

“I wrote that letter as an emotional processing exercise after an exhausting glimpse into the political machine,” Pai said. “I sent it to some mentors and staff for perspective before getting back to work; it was never supposed to be shared.”

Though Pai conceded that the thought of “calling it quits has occurred to me,” he stressed that he will “absolutely NOT be suspending my campaign.”

Pai is a 31-year-old trial attorney who was born in Bombay, India, and moved to Southern California at the age of 8 with his parents, according to his campaign website. Pai’s “key” issues included fighting corruption in Washington, D.C., codifying Roe v. Wade, lowering the cost of housing, boosting small businesses, and encouraging more legal immigration.

OOPS!

8am: #CA45 House candidate Aditya Pai tells donors he's dropping out

4pm: jk, Pai says that was sent by "a now-former aide in error," he's still running pic.twitter.com/RRe5lz1hVZ

— Jeremy B. White (@JeremyBWhite) August 10, 2023

Jeremy White, a reporter for POLITICO, noted that Pai’s new email got sent eight hours after the first message went out on Thursday morning. Pai’s now-retracted message said his 2024 effort was “going well” but found his “heart is not quite in it” and announced the suspension of his congressional campaign for a “simple” reason: “a lack of joy.”

The Orange County Register noted on Thursday that Pai has raised slightly more than $139,000, nearly $17,000 of which came from a loan to himself. The report said two other Democrats in the race, UC Irvine Law graduate and TikTok influencer Cheyenne Hunt and Garden Grove Councilmember Kim Bernice Nguyen, have raised about $170,000 and $151,000, respectively, while Steel has raised more than $2 million.

The primaries are set to take place in California in March. In the general election, Democrats are hoping to flip several GOP-held seats in the state, including the district held by two-term Steel, as part of a strategy to retake the House, according to the Associated Press.

Pai’s new message said his “call to service — not politics — far outweighs” the “emotional weight” of his candidacy. He cited his “deep frustration with the lack of nonpartisan service” as a reason for why he is running and told supporters to “rest assured: I am here to run, win, and serve you to the absolute best of my ability come what may and this has only strengthened my resolve to do so.”

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has maintained that he doesn’t support sex change surgeries on minors, but that he does support access to other so-called “gender-affirming” treatments, procedures that have been linked to negative health outcomes for children.

The issue has come to the forefront of the Kentucky gubernatorial race with Beshear saying in recent weeks that he doesn’t support transgender surgeries on kids, and that they don’t happen in the commonwealth. He has openly voiced support for non-surgical procedures. In his veto message of a bill banning all transgender procedures, including surgeries, on children, Beshear said that the bill would “cause an increase in suicide among Kentucky’s youth.”

This message is disputed by “detransitioners” and medical associations who say that transgender treatments on minors do not actually help mental health or reduce suicide rates, as well as medical groups that have warned of potential health risks from non-surgical gender procedures.

“There is not a single long term study to demonstrate the safety or efficacy of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for transgender-believing youth. This means that youth transition is experimental, and therefore, parents cannot provide informed consent, nor can minors assent to these interventions. Moreover, the best long-term evidence we have among adults shows that medical intervention fails to reduce suicide,” the American College of Pediatricians says.

The American College of Pediatricians is a medical association group founded in 2002 that is composed of over 600 physicians and other health care workers across the U.S. “who are dedicated to the well-being of children.” 

The group also points out that giving children cross-sex hormones, such as giving young girls testosterone, can be associated with an “increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots and cancers across their lifespan.”

Dr. Miriam Grossman, psychiatrist who treats children, adolescents, and adults and the author of the new book “Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist’s Guide Out of the Madness,” spoke with The Daily Wire about the problems of giving young children with gender dysphoria puberty blockers.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP

“Puberty is not a disorder, puberty is not a disease. It’s a necessary stage of development, and it’s the most important stage of development since the womb,” she said, pointing out how puberty is a necessary part of becoming an adult. “Puberty is not something that needs to be blocked.”

She added that if allowed to go through puberty, the “vast majority” of children will grow to be comfortable with their bodies and that preventing puberty may actually end up “cementing in the dysphoria” instead of allowing the child to grow out of it.

Beshear has accused Kentucky Republicans of lying about his record on the issue and said that cross-sex surgeries are not performed on children in Kentucky. However, a hospital affiliated with the University of Kentucky has done “a small number of non-genital gender reassignment surgeries on minors, such as mastectomies,” according to a letter first reported on by The Washington Free Beacon.

“Andy Beshear can’t stop lying about gender reassignment surgery for minors,” Kentucky Attorney General and Republican nominee for governor Daniel Cameron said in a statement. “We know for a fact that gender reassignment surgery for kids was taking place in Kentucky. Andy Beshear sided with his far-left allies and vetoed a bill to ban these procedures. Andy is lying in the middle of an election to mislead voters. Kentuckians are smart enough to see through his shameful lies.”

Beshear’s office did not reply to a request for comment.