--- title: Donald Trump Accuser Rachel Crooks Running for Office description: Rachel Crooks, one of several women to accuse President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, is running for office. canonical: https://time.com/5135352/rachel-crooks-trump-accuser-running-office/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-06T16:29:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T08:56:45.571Z article:section: Politics og:title: One of the Women Who Accused Donald Trump of Sexual Misconduct Is Running for Office og:description: 'My voice should have been heard then, and I'll still fight for it to be heard now' og:url: https://time.com/5135352/rachel-crooks-trump-accuser-running-office/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta94723b4316bcb78/6988f49ecf40a8ce4bc4a8e1/rachel-crooks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Women Accusing Trump Of Sexual Harassment Hold Press Conference In NYC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: One of the Women Who Accused Donald Trump of Sexual Misconduct Is Running for Office twitter:description: 'My voice should have been heard then, and I'll still fight for it to be heard now' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta94723b4316bcb78/6988f49ecf40a8ce4bc4a8e1/rachel-crooks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # One of the Women Who Accused Donald Trump of Sexual Misconduct Is Running for Office > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b2a18d8b-1c3b-49ca-b072-c410b2e902d7&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 3 Women Who Accused Trump of Sexual Harassment Share Their Stories on Megyn Kelly Today [Watch (HLS stream): 3 Women Who Accused Trump of Sexual Harassment Share Their Stories on Megyn Kelly Today](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dO566Fue.m3u8) (2:29)  _Published 2017-12-11. Samantha Holvey, who said last year that Donald Trump personally “inspected” her before the Miss USA pageant a decade earlier, said it was “heartbreaking” when the business mogul was elected President of the United States._  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Feb 6, 2018 4:29 PM UTC Samantha Holvey, who said last year that Donald Trump personally “inspected” her before the Miss USA pageant a decade earlier, said it was “heartbreaking” when the business mogul was elected President of the United States.  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Feb 6, 2018 4:29 PM UTC Rachel Crooks, one of the [women who accused](http://time.com/5058646/donald-trump-accusers/) Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, is running for Ohio’s state legislature. The 35-year-old Democrat filed petitions on Monday to run for Ohio’s 88th House District, currently represented by Republican Bill Reineke. Crooks told _Cosmopolitan_ that she was [inspired to run,](http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a16566742/rachel-crooks-trump-accuser-running-for-office/) in part, because her voice wasn’t heard when she accused then-candidate Trump in October 2016 of [kissing her without her consent](http://time.com/4529049/women-allege-donald-trump-touched-inappropriate/), allegations which Trump has denied. “I think my voice should have been heard then, and I’ll still fight for it to be heard now,” Crooks told the magazine. “Americans are really upset with politics as usual, and I want to be a voice for them.” > [](https://twitter.com/OhioHouseDems/status/960570875652313088) Crooks told the New York _Times_ in October 2016 that Trump [kissed her without her consent](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/us/politics/donald-trump-women.html) outside an elevator in Trump Tower in 2005\. Trump denied her allegation, telling the _Times:_ “None of this ever took place.” In December 2017, amid the #MeToo movement, Crooks and two other women accusing Trump called for a Congressional investigation into the[ sexual misconduct allegations](http://time.com/5058518/donald-trump-sexual-harassment-allegations/) against him. Trump denies all claims. Crooks, one of a [record number](http://time.com/5107499/record-number-of-women-are-running-for-office/) of first-time female candidates running for office in 2018, said she doesn’t want the allegations to define her campaign, which has the backing of the Ohio Democratic Party. She said she wants to help create jobs, repair the state’s education system and increase access to affordable health care. “I think there will be a lot of people who see value in \[my campaign\],” she told _Cosmopolitan_. “But I hope more so because I’m a viable candidate rather than a participant in the #MeToo movement.” ## Transcript I sat right out front, behind glass doors and he used the elevator bank to get to his residence right outside our office. So I would see him almost daily waiting for his elevator. And on one day I decided to introduce myself because I did see him regularly. And he shook my hand and he gave me the normal double cheek kiss and but then he held on to my hand and he kept kissing me. You know he kept asking me maybe a question, where are you from? And kissing me again. Where is this, where is this happening? Right outside the elevators, right outside my office. So he kept kissing you? Yeah, he went, I don't know how many times back and forth, multiple. And then he kissed me on the lips and I was shocked, yeah. I mean, devastated, it happened so fast I guess and I didnt really I wish I have been crazy enough to be like, what's going on? You need to stop this. But I think ultimately he got on his elevator and I ran back into the office. Then I remember hiding in our bosses office because no one else was there. It was early in the morning. And I called my sister and I was like, I don't know what just happened but I felt. Horrible. They served a meal, and after the meal was cleared, all of a sudden, he was all over me. Kissing and groping, and groping and kissing, and believe me, my memory of it was that. Nothing was said. He didn't say by the way. Or and I didn't go eek, or help, or whatever. It was just this silent groping going on. And I do remember at one point, out of my side eye thinking that guy sitting across the isle, why doesn't he come to my defense? The stewardess, somebody? But then when his hands starting going up my skirt, I'm not a small person. I managed to wiggle out and stand up, grabbed my purse, and I went to the back of the airplane. I stayed in the back of the airplane until we landed and everybody was off because I did not want to take the chance of running into him at all. That was my story. Now, I didn't tell anybody then. I didn't complain to the airlines, I didn't tell my boss. I just thought, that's some creep on the airplane. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5135352/rachel-crooks-trump-accuser-running-office/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5135352/rachel-crooks-trump-accuser-running-office/"},"headline":"One of the Women Who Accused Donald Trump of Sexual Misconduct Is Running for Office","datePublished":"2018-02-06T16:29:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-12T08:56:45.571Z","description":"'My voice should have been heard then, and I'll still fight for it to be heard now'","url":"https://time.com/5135352/rachel-crooks-trump-accuser-running-office/","keywords":["Ohio","Donald Trump","sexual misconduct"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta94723b4316bcb78/6988f49ecf40a8ce4bc4a8e1/rachel-crooks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta94723b4316bcb78/6988f49ecf40a8ce4bc4a8e1/rachel-crooks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Women Accusing Trump Of Sexual Harassment Hold Press Conference In NYC","caption":"Women Accusing Trump Of Sexual Harassment Hold Press Conference In NYC","creditText":"Monica Schipper—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ohio/","name":"Ohio"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5135352/rachel-crooks-trump-accuser-running-office/","name":"One of the Women Who Accused Donald Trump of Sexual Misconduct Is Running for Office"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"3 Women Who Accused Trump of Sexual Harassment Share Their Stories on Megyn Kelly Today","description":"Samantha Holvey, who said last year that Donald Trump personally “inspected” her before the Miss USA pageant a decade earlier, said it was “heartbreaking” when the business mogul was elected President of the United States.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/dO566Fue/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-12-11T17:38:14.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dO566Fue.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5135352/rachel-crooks-trump-accuser-running-office/","duration":"PT2M29S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5135352/rachel-crooks-trump-accuser-running-office/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```