Trump accuser running for office in Ohio secures Dem nomination

Rachel Crooks, the 35-year-old Democrat running for state legislature in Ohio who says President Trump forcibly kissed her in 2005, secured the Democratic nomination for her intended seat on Tuesday after running unopposed, CNN reports.

Crooks, a former receptionist who worked in Trump Tower, accused the president of forcibly kissing her in 2005 and came forward with her accusation in 2016 just before the general election.

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Trump denied her claims after The Washington Post covered the allegations in detail in February.

“A woman I don’t know and, to the best of my knowledge, never met, is on the FRONT PAGE of the Fake News Washington Post saying I kissed her (for two minutes yet) in the lobby of Trump Tower 12 years ago. Never happened! Who would do this in a public space with live security cameras running,” the president tweeted.

Crooks responded through her campaign’s Twitter account at the time, challenging the president to share video footage of the alleged date of the incident.

“Please, by all means, share the footage from the hallway outside the 24th floor residential elevator bank on the morning of January 11, 2006,” her campaign account tweeted. “Let’s clear this up for everyone. It’s liars like you in politics that have prompted me to run for office myself.”

Crooks told Cosmopolitan magazine in February that friends and a liberal activist group encouraged her to run for office, and that she was inspired by a wave of Democratic activism in the face of Trump’s election.

“I think like a lot of women, because we’ve been historically underrepresented in politics, I didn’t necessarily see myself in this role,” she said. “But multiple people encouraged and said, ‘I think you would be great.’ … Once I sat down and mulled it over, I felt like it really was a duty that I had, that I should take on this responsibility firsthand and try to make a difference for other people.”