A woman who said she was inspired watching Christine Blasey Ford testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday has publicly accused a prominent Washington state legislator of raping her 11 years ago.

Candace Faber, in a tweet sent out Thursday afternoon, alleged that moderate Republican Joe Fain, the minority floor leader of the state senate, assaulted in her in 2007 on the night she graduated from a master’s program at Georgetown University.

If it’s bad that Blasey Ford waited to raise this until Kavanaugh got to the highest levels of government, then maybe the rest of us shouldn’t sit on our secrets just crossing our fingers that they won’t come into more power. — Candace Faber (@candacefaber) September 27, 2018

So okay, let’s do it.



@senatorfain, you raped me the night I graduated from Georgetown in 2007. Then you had the audacity to ask me to support your campaign. I’ve been terrified of running into you since moving home and seeing your name everywhere.



I’m done being silent. — Candace Faber (@candacefaber) September 27, 2018

Fain has denied the allegation and called for an investigation, according to the Associated Press.

In a statement published late Thursday night on the west coast, Faber repeated that she was “inspired by Dr. Ford’s courage” but said the decision to name Fain felt “like a decision I have been building up to for a long time.”

Faber claims she has spoken with people about her assault, and she has written about a sexual assault by an unnamed person. She said in her statement that she withheld his name even in private conversations. She wrote:

I hoped that I could help change the culture of sexual assault without needing to say his name. I no longer believe that to be the case. We cannot heal without accountability. Like Dr. Ford, I can no longer remain silent knowing that the man who raped me is in a position to influence the laws that govern my state and impact every woman who lives here. I do not believe that survivors have a civic duty to speak out. I believe that we have a civic duty to believe survivors.

In an earlier post published on Medium, Faber described walking back with a man to his hotel, after she had met him at the Capitol and the two had been drinking, dancing, and kissing. In her account, he pins her to the bed, pulling down her dress with enough force that the straps tore. She wrote that she tried to push him away with her foot.

I kicked you moaned and I realized you liked it better when I fought and I didn’t want to give you that if I wasn’t going to win anyway. I felt so tired my voice began to disappear whether you knew what you were doing or really thought I was just trying to make it sexy for you I’ll never know

In the essay, she says that after the man raped her, she contemplated going to a hospital but decided that the questions she would face would be too difficult.

According to KUOW in Seattle, Faber had to leave a job in Seattle city government in 2017 because of a mental health breakdown. She told KUOW that her mental health issues stemmed from several traumas, including the rape.

She told KUOW that she met Fain in 2007, when she was graduating from a Georgetown master’s program in foreign service. She scheduled a tour of congressional buildings for her parents and found their way into a reception, where she met Fain. She invited him to a party after her graduation ceremony.

Faber’s parents and colleagues told KUOW that she told them about the rape. Her mother said she identified the assailant as Fain after Trump’s election in 2016.

According to the AP, a spokeswoman for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said he “believes this is a very serious allegation that unquestionably deserves a full investigation by law enforcement officials.” The statute of limitations for serious sex crimes in Washington, D.C., is 15 years, according to the AP.