Democratic House candidate Bernadette Greene-Placentia says two men attacked and raped her in a Sun City parking lot while she repaired a damaged campaign sign before dawn, an assault she reported weeks later out of embarrassment.

Greene-Placentia, the Democratic nominee in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, described the attack in a recent interview and said it left her bruised, bleeding, and struggling to piece together what happened. She told the Daily Caller she was walking across the lot around 2 a.m. when she was struck on the head and blacked out.

She said she woke up with a stranger on top of her and felt sharp pain below her waist as he sexually assaulted her. A second man approached and began spreading her legs before stopping. The men left her there as music played from her still-running car. She did not remember how she got home.

The candidate said her body was covered in bruises afterward and she believed she may have suffered a concussion. She told interviewers she “just wanted to forget it” and felt embarrassed, which delayed her decision to come forward.

Report filed two weeks later with Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office

Just The News reported the assault occurred August 14 in Sun City. Greene-Placentia said she first told campaign staff days later, then her husband the following day. Her campaign manager described her as “missing in action” for a few days after the attack.

Her husband later recalled noticing something was wrong. “I did talk to her a couple of times,” he said. “I distinctly remember I said to her, ‘Something’s not right. You’re being weird or something.’”

She reported the assault to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office on August 31, about two weeks after the incident. Fox News reported the sheriff’s office confirmed the investigation remains ongoing. No arrests or charges have been announced.

Political fallout and ethics questions have already disrupted other campaigns this cycle, including cases where a Texas Democrat exited a House race after a federal conviction surfaced.

Greene-Placentia said she tried to cope in the following weeks by embracing an angry persona. She recalled telling her husband and campaign manager she wanted a “rematch.”

“I want a f***ing rematch. I want to call them out. I want to like go on TV and say ‘Let’s go again and don’t come at me from behind.’ I know that sounds crazy, but I was just mad.”

She also described limited memory of the attack itself. “It’s just these little tiny flashes of things that I do remember,” she said. “As much as I don’t want to remember, I’ve tried very, very hard to remember more stuff. But that’s where I’m at.”

Candidate says she went public so other women would speak up

The New York Post reported she experienced vaginal bleeding for three days and that the second man left after she kicked him. She said she sequestered herself at first and did not want the campaign defined by the attack.

“When it first happened, I didn’t want to tell anybody,” she said. “I don’t want my campaign to be about this. But women need to know it’s OK to come forward.”

In another statement she added she never imagined telling the story but knew she was far from the only woman who had lived through something similar. “I am speaking out because I want them to know they are seen, they are heard and they are not alone,” she said. “What happened will not silence me. I’m going to keep showing up, keep fighting for this community.”

Scandals and misconduct probes have hit multiple races and party committees lately, from ethics problems that helped sink a Florida primary bid to a federal grand jury subpoena targeting Sen. Ruben Gallego’s PAC over campaign cash questions.

Gallego, the Arizona Democrat, responded to Greene-Placentia’s account by saying he was “absolutely heartbroken to hear this news” and that “We cannot tolerate political or sexual violence in any form.”

Greene-Placentia is challenging Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh in the district. High-profile cases involving abuse and political figures continue to surface across both parties, including the recent death of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert after his own conviction on related charges years earlier.

She has framed her decision to speak as a message to other survivors rather than a campaign centerpiece. The sheriff’s investigation is still open, and no suspects have been publicly identified.

Voters in Arizona’s 8th District now have a candidate whose own account puts street crime and personal safety at the center of her story whether she wanted it there or not. Law-and-order questions do not stay theoretical when a congressional hopeful says she was attacked at 2 a.m. while doing basic campaign work.