A young woman who was identified as a survivor of abuse in a campaign ad for Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) said Thursday she doesn’t know what the senator “could do that would make it better” — and has not yet heard from the senator in person, CNN reported.
Lexi Zhorela, a 24-year-old self-identified liberal from Bismarck, North Dakota (pictured above right, next to Heitkamp), was one of the women named in the ad without her permission — and she has yet to hear an apology from the senator.
“I don’t know what she [Heitkamp] could do that would make it better,” Zhorela told CNN’s Erica Hill Thursday on the program “New Day.”
The Heitkamp campaign newspaper ad, which reportedly ran in several Forum Communications Co. newspapers and other newspapers statewide last Sunday, named 127 women as victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or rape.
It was presented as an open letter.
Lagging behind in polls, Heitkamp was attempting to use the ad to slam her Republican opponent, Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), after he suggested “tough people” do not identify with the current national issue of sexual assault and the treatment of women.
The Democratic incumbent was reportedly trying to show Cramer “what prairie tough looks like,” said CNN.
Since the ad ran, several of the women listed publicly in the materials have come forward stating they never gave the Heitkamp campaign permission to use their names in this way.
“It’s a horrible, horrible mistake,” Heitkamp herself told North Dakota’s KVLY, as reported in The New York Times, on Tuesday. “We’re doing everything that we can to make sure that we’re reaching out. I’ve spoken to at least three, four of the women who were named, who did not give permission to be named. We’re trying to get to everyone. This is a horrible mistake that I take complete and total personal responsibility for.”
Related: Heitkamp Apologizes for Embarrassing #MeToo Snafu
By Wednesday, a person responsible for collecting the names for the campaign ad had been fired, said Julia Krieger, the Heitkamp campaign’s communications director.
Zhorela said on CNN, “I know … a lot of the people in this situation are reaching out to seek legal counsel — because of, you know, what she [Heitkamp] did is wrong.”
She also termed it “very reckless” for Heitkamp not to have approved the ad before it was published. “Somebody messed up,” she said.
CNN’s Hill told Zhorela during the live interview that her producer was notifying her through her earpiece that the campaign was at that moment telling CNN Heitkamp was going to reach out to Zhorela — which the young woman said she has already been told.
Zhorela also said she no longer plans to vote for Heitkamp. “As of right now, she definitely lost my vote,” she said.
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