Women who were named in an open letter by the North Dakota senator said her ‘political agenda interfered’ with their lives

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Several women who were erroneously named as sexual assault survivors in an open letter by the North Dakota Democratic senator Heidi Heitkamp are considering taking legal action over the blunder, according to social media.

“Heidi Heitkamp’s political agenda has interfered with, or downright ruined, our lives,” said one of the affected women in a Facebook post announcing the possibility of a lawsuit.

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She continued: “Survivors of assault who had taken care to avoid the subject were suddenly bombarded by questions asking them to explain to their loved ones why their name appeared on this list.”

The letter, published in local North Dakota newspapers Monday, was intended to call out Heitkamp’s 2018 Senate opponent Kevin Cramer for critical remarks he had made about the #MeToo movement, calling it a “movement toward victimization”.

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In an interview with the New York Times last week, Cramer said the women in his life agreed, and that they embodied a sort of toughness that made #MeToo – a movement to speak up about sexual assault – irrelevant. “They are pioneers of the prairie. These are tough people,” he said.

In the letter, Heitkamp’s campaign shot back: “As North Dakotans who have experienced this absolute terror first-hand and survived these crimes – we are all prairie tough.”

The letter, placed as an ad, listed more than 100 undersigned North Dakota women without obtaining their consent to either the contents of the letter or to be publicly named. Some of the women named said they weren’t victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or rape, as the letter claimed.

“A lot of these people listed, including me, did not give anyone permission for our names to be posted,” said another one of the women named in a Facebook post. “I don’t even support Heidi Heitkamp and I am not a domestic abuse survivor.”

The Heitkamp campaign issued a formal apology Tuesday, explaining that it had populated the list by reaching out to“victims advocates”, and was in the process of issuing a retraction and making personal apologies to all the women.

“This was incompetent. It was wrong. It should have never happened,” Heitkamp told Rob Port, a conservative North Dakota blogger, on his radio talk show Tuesday. “It was a very flagrant error of the campaign and I own it.”

Lexi Zhorela told the Associated Press that she learned of her inclusion in the ad Monday night.

“I’m furious,” the 24-year-old hairdresser and single mother from Bismarck said. “I know I’m not the only woman hurt by this.”

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Zhorela said she was listed in the ad because she had been tagged by a friend in a Facebook post who knew she had been the victim of sexual assault.

“I have only shared my story with a couple of people in confidence,” she said. “I didn’t want it blasted for the world to see.”

Cramer already had the winds at his back before Heitkamp’s campaign error. He has been up by as much as 12 points in recent polling. He also figures to benefit from a new statewide voter identification law which some analysis has suggested could purge upwards of 5,000 mostly Native American voters from the rolls. Heitkamp won her race in 2012 by a razor-thin 2,900 votes, largely on the strength of support from the state’s sizable Native American population. Control of the Senate, which Republicans control by two seats, may hinge on the outcome of this race.

Zhorela said she had intended to vote for Heitkamp in November but will “definitely not now”.