Lindsey Port was considered a “rising star” in Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Post. She was a candidate for state office and was raising money toward that goal. Last November, in the midst of the #MeToo movement, Port and state Rep. Erin Maye Quade came forward to discuss sexual harassment they had experienced at a Democratic event in 2015. Port said that state Sen. Dan Schoen had come up behind her, grabbed her, and made a comment about her ass. Within a month Schoen was out of a job and Port’s star once again seemed to be rising.
Unfortunately for Port, that was also about the time when Minnesota Senator Al Franken was being accused of sexual harassment by a number of women. To be clear, Port was never one of the women making accusations about Franken, but because she had become the public face of #MeToo in Minnesota, she wound up taking the brunt of a backlash from her own party. In January, she gave up on her run for office after many of her donors dropped off. Some people even began suggesting she was part of some hidden effort to take down Franken. HuffPost reports:
Port’s willingness to call attention to sexual harassment went from being applauded to being questioned. Members of her own party said she had “softened the ground” for Franken’s resignation in early January, and some people even wondered if she was secretly a conservative operative who had planned to take down the popular senator all along.
On social media, Port saw comments that questioned her identity, motives and truthfulness…
About a week after Franken’s resignation, she dropped her state legislative bid because donors began pulling their contributions, and she felt she couldn’t focus on the district and its priorities.
Port also co-operates a nonprofit, Blueprint Campaigns, that helps progressive individuals from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds run for office. The nonprofit also lost donations.
“We had $70,000 pulled the week that Al Franken said he was going to resign,” Port said. “In that same window, I also lost $6,000 from my own campaign.”
So, to sum this up, a rising star Democrat talked about sexual harassment and was praised until, unexpectedly, the #MeToo movement cut against a Democratic Senator. Then her own party dumped her and some accused her of being a GOP plant. According to Port, it’s even worse than that, because the people who were suddenly shunning her weren’t just Democrats, they were Democratic women:
“I honestly think the most frustrating part of it has been not only Democrats ― this is our team, these are the people who are supposed to be with us ― but it has been primarily women. There’s definitely a generational divide, 100 percent. But it has primarily been women pushing this,” she said of the criticism she’s faced.
Rep. Erin Maye Quade, who also heard the rumors that she was part of a plan to bring down Franken, told HuffPost, “No matter who it is, it’s always about the fall of men and never about the women who were just trying to work and do their job and have to endure this over and over and over.”
I don’t think this looks very good for the Democratic Party in Minnesota but I doubt this is limited to one state. There’s a reason that so many people who were fine with giving Bill Clinton a pass on sexual harassment and even alleged (I believer Juanita) rape suddenly feel very differently about the whole thing when it comes to President Trump.
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