A Democratic congressional candidate in Arizona who alleges she was sexually assaulted while repairing a campaign sign in August told MS NOW she was going public with her allegations to support survivors of sexual abuse.

“I can’t go around telling people I’m going to fight for them if I’m not going to fight for women who are victims of sexual violence,” Bernadette Greene-Placentia said in an interview Wednesday.

Greene-Placentia, who is running to unseat Republican Rep. Abraham Hamadeh in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, told the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 31 that two weeks earlier, two men attacked her, knocking her unconscious, according to the incident report obtained by MS NOW.

She said she awoke to one of two men raping her, which the incident report characterizes as “rape.” She alleged the second man penetrated her before pulling out and saying, “not worth it,” using an expletive, which the report characterizes as “simple assault.” The allegations were first reported by the Phoenix New Times, an alternative weekly, earlier Wednesday.

The Democratic challenger said the alleged assault occurred while she was walking back to her car after repairing a campaign sign at around 2 a.m. on Aug. 14 in a parking lot in Sun City, about 25 miles northwest of Phoenix, according to the incident report. The incident report said Greene-Placentia did not recall the men’s appearances, but that she believed they were white and that one was wearing black boots and had small feet.

She also told authorities one of the men called her a “Democratic bitch” during the assault, though she could not remember when. The report concludes that she could not identify the “exact location” of the alleged assault, but said it “could have taken place north of 99th Avenue, south of Bell Road, and within the Sun City area.”

The report also states that Greene-Placentia did not seek medical attention for her injuries or photograph her bruises. She told police she took “three showers and a bath” after the alleged assault.

Dave Moyer, a spokesperson for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, told MS NOW the investigation is ongoing.

The allegations come as the news of an alleged gang rape at Cornell University has dominated national headlines, sparking a renewed reckoning over the problem of sexual assault. But Greene-Placentia said she spoke to the alternative weekly outlet several weeks ago, prior to the Cornell news breaking.

The candidate said she had gone out to repair campaign signs that fell over or were damaged by storms “dozens of times” to avoid heat and traffic. Since the alleged assault, she said she has stopped going out in the middle of the night. Aside from that and her staff being “a little more hyper-aware,” she said the alleged assault has not changed her campaign.

Greene-Placentia told MS NOW that she was initially “embarrassed,” “pissed” and “angry” that she did not manage to fight the alleged perpetrators off. But she said she eventually concluded she would be a “hypocrite” if she did not come forward to report her allegations.

“Me coming forward is me taking my power back,” she said.

Greene-Placentia ran for the same House seat in 2024 before withdrawing during the primary. In July, she won the Democratic primary with more than 65% of the vote.

She will take on Hamadeh, who has earned the backing of President Donald Trump and ran unopposed in the Republican primary, in the general election next month. The Cook Political Report characterizes the district as solidly Republican.

In a statement provided to MS NOW on Wednesday night, Hamadeh called the report of the allegations “disturbing” and asked authorities “to investigate these serious allegations thoroughly, including finding all possible camera footage of the time and place in order to prosecute the crime to the fullest extent of the law.”

“No American should become a victim of a crime in their own community,” Hamadeh said.

This story has been updated with Hamadeh’s statement and more details from the interview with Greene-Placentia.

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