Heidi Heitkamp’s ‘Victims’ Are Fighting Back

As I mentioned earlier, Heidi Heitkamp ran a political ad listing women as supposed victims of sexual abuse WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT.

“I know I’m not the only woman hurt by this.” A North Dakota hairdresser says she never gave Sen. Heidi Heitkamp permission to use her name in a newspaper ad listing abuse victims. https://t.co/fPa6cJEY28

— AP Central U.S. (@APCentralRegion) October 16, 2018

This is a strange headline… the problem wasn’t “misidentification,” which suggests that the campaign accidentally used the wrong names.

The ad named people the campaign had heard were victims, publicly outing them to make a political point.

— Katie Landoll (@KatieSteampipe) October 16, 2018

The campaign printed names of “victims” without explicitly getting their signed permission. Many of the women say they never experienced assault.

This is campaign 101 and MAJOR legal mistake. Using someone’s name or likeness in a paid ad is grounds for a lawsuit.

— Adrienne (@AdrienneRoyer) October 16, 2018

They are understandably livid…

And Heidi has issued an apology.

But it’s not enough… and now some of the women are looking to lawyer up.

Harsh new statement from a group of women misidentified in the Heitkamp ad: “Heidi Heitkamp’s political agenda has interfered with, or downright ruined, our lives.”

The women threatened legal action and said they have begun to “search for a lawyer.” https://t.co/GMkUVvEkcS

— Dan Merica (@merica) October 17, 2018

This is from CNN, folks. That’s how you KNOW it’s bad:

The misstep has led some women misidentified in the ad to decry the Democratic candidate and question how their names landed on the list, with one group of women saying they are seeking “a lawyer who will take our case” because the ad has “interfered with, or downright ruined, our lives.”

The Heitkamp campaign, looking to slam Rep. Kevin Cramer, her Republican opponent, for suggesting “tough people” do not identify with the national conversation around sexual assault and the treatment of women, ran an open letter to Cramer to show him “what prairie tough looks like.”

The letter featured over 120 names at the bottom, but several women have come forward to say they were either included without their permission or were not survivors of “domestic violence, sexual assault, or rape,” as specified in the letter.

This is outrageous. Like… I don’t even understand how something like this happens.

While some of the women were NOT victims, some were…but had purposely kept that information safely guarded:

After Heitkamp spent hours on Tuesday trying to clean up the mistake, Shylah Forde, Megan Stoltz and Alexandria Delzer, three of the misidentified women, provided CNN with a statement from a group they said represents over a dozen women who landed on the list without their consent. They declined to provide the names of all the women who signed on to the statement.

“Heidi Heitkamp’s political agenda has interfered with, or downright ruined, our lives,” they wrote. “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. Women who have never been assaulted spent the day reassuring loved ones of their safety.”

The group of women went on to say that their “privacy was violated on this day” so they have begun to “search for a lawyer who will take our case.”

One woman has made it CLEAR Heitkamp has MORE than lost her support…

Lexi Zhorela, another woman named on the list, also responded that she did not give permission to have her name published.
“I am beyond furious,” she wrote. “There are so many woman (sic) in this list including myself that have been victims of sexual adult (sic) — and more of us probably didn’t want our name (sic) to be spread across the news for everyone to see.”

She added: “I will not stand for this.”

Zhorela, in an interview with CNN, said that she and “many other women on this list” were “very publicly humiliated on more than one level.”

She added that a representative from the campaign has contacted her and said she will receive a personal phone call apology from the senator, but that the call has yet to happen.

“That doesn’t really do justice to the hurt this has caused not just me but many women that were wrongfully put in this situation,” she said.

Zhorela said she was a liberal and had planned to back Heitkamp.

“That has changed,” she added.

And I’m sure many others who TRULY care about the survivors of sexual assault feel the same way.

This is absolutely revolting.