No clue what to make of this. A Democrat running for Congress in Arizona says she was fixing a broken campaign sign at 2am when she was raped by an unknown assailant who called her a “democratic bitch” and she waited til 4-wks before the election to say anything because she felt embarrassed.
— Rob Schmitt (@SchmittNYC) October 7, 2026
No clue what to make of this. A Democrat running for Congress in Arizona says she was fixing a broken campaign sign at 2am when she was raped by an unknown assailant who called her a “democratic bitch” and she waited til 4-wks before the election to say anything because she felt embarrassed.
The story:
It was just after 2 a.m. on a pitch-black Friday morning when Bernadette Greene-Placentia’s life changed. The Democratic candidate for Congressional District 8 strolled across a parking lot to repair a damaged campaign sign. It was a routine she’d followed all summer. This time, she only made it a few yards.
An attacker smashed her over the head. She blacked out. She woke up to find a strange man on top of her.
Greene-Placentia struggled to open her eyes. She felt a sharp pain below her waist. The attacker was pulling his penis out of her.
She heard him mumble something like, “-ic bitch, not a very good fuck,” which her mind filled in as “Democratic bitch,” she recalled. She wasn’t sure that was exactly what he said.
One leg was out of her jean capris. She wore brand-new tennis shoes and a campaign T-shirt. Another man came over. Greene-Placentia felt his weight nudging her left leg further apart. She began swinging her foot at him. “Not even worth it,” she heard the man say as he moved away. He wore black boots and had small feet, she recalled.
The two men left Greene-Placentia face down in the parking lot. The hatch of her silver Jeep Grand Cherokee was still open. The car was still running. She heard music.
She doesn’t remember pulling up her pants or picking herself off the asphalt parking lot. She doesn’t remember closing her Jeep’s hatch and putting her foot on the gas. She doesn’t remember pulling her car into the driveway and collapsing into her bed.
“It’s just these little tiny flashes of things that I do remember,” Greene-Placentia said in an interview with Phoenix New Times. “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.”
Greene-Placentia is a longtime long-haul trucker who moved to the district with her husband in 2017. She’s challenging MAGA Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh for his congressional seat. The ultra-red district covers a large swath of the northwest Valley, including north Glendale, Peoria, Surprise, Sun City, and up into Anthem.
She’s gone out dozens of times in the middle of the night to repair campaign signs throughout the campaign. Sometimes her husband, Alex Placentia, joins her; other times, a campaign volunteer tags along. It’s been a successful way for Greene-Placentia’s campaign to put up signs while avoiding the heat and traffic.
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