WASHINGTON – Rep. Diane Black says she was sexually harassed while she was a member of the Tennessee legislature.

Black, a Gallatin Republican who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor next year, describes in a new article her experiences with what she calls the "Good Ol' Boy culture" and details an incident that she says occurred during her first year in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

“It was 1998, and having spent my career as a nurse and an educator, I had a lot to learn about the legislative process,” she wrote in a column published Wednesday in the conservative website Townhall. “I immediately figured out that the state House had a ‘good ol' boy’ culture – and learned about the inappropriate actions of some of my male colleagues.”

“One member always seemed to manage to get on the elevator with me, and proceed to back up until I was against the wall and he was pressed against me,” Black said. “I learned fairly quickly to cross my arms with my elbows out so they dug into his back. Another member rarely called me by name and addressed me only as ‘Nurse Goodbody.’ It was objectifying, disrespectful and highly inappropriate for any work setting.”

Black, who did not name the perpetrators, recalled that in 2009, while she was the state Senate Caucus chairman, she called on one Republican state senator to resign after learning of his affair with an intern.

“I firmly believe now what I believed then: as elected officials, we are public servants and must be held to the highest of standards,” she said.

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Black, who was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1998 and has served in Congress since 2011, is among a number of Congressional members who are pushing for more transparency when it comes to sexual harassment allegations against public officials.

Black and Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Brentwood, and Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, are sponsoring legislation that would bar Congress members from using a secret, taxpayer-funded account to pay settlements or awards for claims of sexual harassment or assault by members or their staff.

The names of any Congress member who already has used the fund to settle such claims would be made public under the proposal, and they would be required to pay the money back, with interest.

Black said in an interview last week with the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee that she had never personally experienced sexual harassment while serving in Congress.

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Black was first elected to the legislature in November 1998 when Republicans were in the state House minority, and typically lawmakers don't take office and begin work until the following January.

In a statement, the spokesman for Black's gubernatorial campaign, Chris Hartline, said some of the harassment she described started happening right after her election, when new lawmakers attend orientation sessions and other events.

She did not experience the same behavior in the state Senate, he said.

"In the one instance she described in the state Senate," when Black says she called for the resignation of a fellow Republican, "all the leaders of the Senate called for that individual to step down," Hartline said. "There was real transparency and real accountability."

"Diane shared her own experiences and how she handled it," Hartline said. "She experienced these things as a member of the legislature like many women around the country, and she reported that conduct to the leaders of her party.

"Now, she's fighting to make sure that women in similar positions, and more importantly congressional staffers, aren't subject to harassment and abuse at the hands of people in positions of power. She's fighting for transparency and to hold perpetrators accountable."

State Rep. Steve McDaniel, R-Parkers Crossroads, the Republican House minority leader during the late 1990s, said he would have remembered a formal complaint and likely any informal conversation on the issue.

McDaniel said if the matter were formally brought to someone’s attention, the complaint would likely have gone to then-House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, a Democrat.

“If it happened, she should have reported it to me and it was not reported to me nor do I recall any conversation about it with anyone,” Naifeh said in an interview.

Naifeh and Black were political rivals. Black unsuccessfully challenged Naifeh for House speaker in 2003. Naifeh served as House speaker from 1991 to 2009, the longest in state history. He also oversaw the House during a time when some lawmakers were accused of inappropriate sexual conduct and other public corruption.

McDaniel supported Naifeh for speaker over Black and is backing one of her GOP rivals, House Speaker Beth Harwell, in the governor's race.

Jordan Buie contributed to this report.