The photo could have been taken at any prom or sorority formal. Girls with long hair and fancy dresses, their arms draped around each other's shoulders, smiling wide.Just five seconds into the campaign ad, a narrator makes clear that the image had not captured a celebratory kind of night."It
The photo could have been taken at any prom or sorority formal. Girls with long hair and fancy dresses, their arms draped around each other’s shoulders, smiling wide.
Now, Russo is placing her assault and the battle that followed at the center of her campaign to be the Democratic candidate in a southern Virginia congressional race. Her television ad is the first to feature a candidate’s personal recollection of rape, according to political strategists and organizations that track political ads. Set to air on broadcast and cable networks starting this week, the spot is expected to make up a major portion of her advertising, according to her campaign.
But the party’s position grew far more complicated in March, when Joe Biden was accused of sexual assault by Tara Reade, a former Senate aide. As Democrats have rallied to the defense of their presumptive presidential nominee, Republicans are seizing on the issue, slamming the party as hypocritical for continuing to support Biden.
Running from the North Carolina border to the outer reaches of the Northern Virginia suburbs, Virginia’s 5th Congressional District was last won by a Democrat in 2008. In 2016, Trump won the area by 11 points and last year, Rep. Denver Riggleman, a Republican, won by nearly seven points even as other areas of the state flipped blue.
Russo said she is supporting Biden, pointing to the difference between how the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee handled Reade’s allegation and how Trump has responded to claims of sexual assault and misconduct from more than a dozen women. Biden has called for the release of documents related to Reade’s employment in his office and emphasized that survivors “have a right to be heard.
Tresa Undem, a pollster who has studied the intersection of politics and gender issues since before the #MeToo movement, said her own research suggested that a charge of hypocrisy had the potential to taint not only Biden but the Democratic Party in general — particularly among independent female voters.
She said the assault and the fight that followed are not the reasons she decided to run for Congress, pointing to her military service in Iraq and Afghanistan, work in national security and her three young children as all part of her motivation. The experience of battling a big institution like the military to take her case seriously, though, isn’t far from her thoughts in this campaign.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
How low budget horror movie 'The Wretched' became America's #1 filmThe supernatural shocker expanded to 45 drive-ins this weekend.
Read more »
Joe Biden releases campaign ad against Trump: 'The death toll is rising. The president is playing golf'The ad spliced footage of healthcare workers on the front line of the pandemic with clips of the president on the course at his private Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.
Read more »
9-Year-Old Fla. Boy with Autism Was Allegedly Kidnapped in Front of Mom, Found Dead the Next DayAlejandro Ripley was allegedly abducted from his mother's van by two men demanding drugs
Read more »
The 18 Best Night Creams on the Market, According to DermatologistsIn the market for a new night cream? We've got you.
Read more »