Member-only story
Running for office as a woman may be exactly what you think.
I was harassed during a political campaign. I was the candidate.
Three years ago, while contemplating whether or not to write this article, I started by googling “sexual harassment of senate candidates.” The search results were always populated by the same stories.
“She’s disgruntled.”
“She’s working for my opponent.”
“She’s upset because she was passed over for a promotion.”
“She’s trying to extort money from the campaign.”
“Anthony Wiener.”
How much has changed. The #MeToo movement emerged the following year, exposing countless misdeeds by countless politicians and candidates.
But this isn’t just a story about sex. This is a story about politics, about factions and entrenchment in a system that rewards dirty people — the dirty side of our government that everyone seems to know about but that no one on the inside seems to have tried, or been able, to cure.
In 2016, I was the Libertarian Party candidate for US Senate in Alaska. This was my 3rdattempt at public office. My second as a Libertarian. My first for a national office. This is what I learned.
