Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari knows firsthand about the dangers that lurk on the campaign trail.
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She remembers a resident flashing a weapon after knocking on their door. Another person made disturbing comments as she walked away. Just this week, someone sent her office a “suspicious letter” containing an unknown substance.
That’s one of the reasons why Ansari, a progressive Democrat from Arizona’s 3rd congressional district, rallied her colleagues in support of congressional candidate Bernadette Greene-Placentia, who was raped by two unknown men while fixing her campaign signs at 2 a.m. in the West Valley.
“The fact that she came forward just speaks to the challenges that women in particular face when running for office,” Ansari said in an interview with Phoenix New Times. “It can be very lonely. It can be dangerous.”
The Democratic Women’s Coalition, which nearly 100 Democratic congresswomen are a part of, stood in solidarity with Greene-Placentia, condemned the violence against her and called for her attackers to be “swiftly brought to justice,” in an exclusive statement to New Times.
“No candidate for office should be faced with physical or sexual violence, something which we have seen far too often across this country and in Arizona in particular,” the Democratic Women’s Coalition stated. “It’s high past time that we as a country do everything in our power to protect victims and address it with the severity it warrants.”
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Greene-Placentia’s story has drawn support from Arizona’s Democratic leadership and organizations, as well as shock and horror. But others haven’t been as kind. The co-hosts of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” one of whom is a Turning Point USA spokesperson, called her story a “hoax” and suggested she made it up as part of a political conspiracy.
While Greene-Placentia’s story has gone national, her next two weeks until Election Day will be an uphill battle. The long-haul trucker is challenging MAGA Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh for Arizona’s ultra-red eighth congressional district that covers the northwest Valley. The Cook Political Report found Hamadeh leading by eight points.
The coalition called sexual violence a “national crisis” and cited the estimated 443,634 rapes and sexual assaults that occur annually in the U.S., according to RAINN. “These numbers underscore the devastating scale of this violence and the disproportionate harm it inflicts on women,” the coalition’s statement said. Arizona’s Democratic Reps. Greg Stanton and Adelita Grijalva also joined the coalition.
“What she described was an experience many of us have had in terms of late-night, going across the district and putting up street signs,” Ansari told New Times, adding that as a candidate she’s gone with a group to fix or put up campaign signs late at night. “That can be really tough work. And sometimes you’re doing it every hour of the day.”
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