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According to social media reports, several women who have been mistakenly named victims of sexual violence in an open letter from North Dakota Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp are planning to take legal action for the offense.
"Heidik's political agenda has disrupted or ruined our lives," said one of the affected women in a Facebook post announcing the possibility of a trial.
She continued, "Victims of aggression who took care to avoid the subject were suddenly bombarded with questions asking them to explain to their loved ones why their name was on this list."
The letter, published Monday in local newspapers in North Dakota, was intended to call the opponent of the 2018 Senate of Heitkamp, Kevin Cramer, for his critical remarks on the #MeToo movement, calling it a "movement of victimization" .
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In an interview with the New York Times last week, Cramer said that the women of his life were in agreement and that they embodied a kind of tenacity that made #MeToo – a movement to defend the cause irrelevant sexual assault. "They are pioneers of the meadow. They are difficult people, "he said.
In the letter, Heitkamp's campaign retorted: "As North Dakota who have lived through this absolute terror and survived these crimes, we are all very severe in the Prairies."
The announcement, in the form of an open letter, listed more than 100 North Dakota women's names, the undersigned, without their consent, the contents of the letter, or the name of the letter. Some of the women named said they were not victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or rape, as the letter claimed.
"Many of these people, including myself, have not given anyone permission to publish our names," said another of the women named in a Facebook post. "I do not even support Heidi Heitkamp and I am not a survivor of domestic violence," she continued.
The Heitkamp campaign officially apologized on Tuesday, explaining that she had filled the list by addressing "victim advocates" and that she was in the process of issuing a retraction and presenting personal apologies to all women.
"It was incompetent. It was wrong. That should never have happened, "Heitkamp told North Dakota's conservative blogger Rob Port during his radio show on Tuesday. "It was a very blatant mistake of the campaign and I own it."
Lexi Zhorela told The Associated Press that she had learned of her inclusion in the announcement Monday night.
"I'm furious," said Bismarck, a 24-year-old hairdresser and single mother. "I know I'm not the only woman to suffer from this."
Zhorela said she figured in the advertisement because she had been tagged by a friend in a Facebook post who knew that she had been a victim of sexual assault.
"I shared my story only with a few confident people," she said. "I did not want it to be bright for the whole world."
Cramer already had the wind on his back before Heitkamp's horrible campaign error. He earned up to 12 points in a recent survey. He also thinks that he could take advantage of a new state-wide voter identification law that, according to some analyzes, could eliminate more than 5,000 voters, mainly Amerindians, electoral lists. Heitkamp won his race in 2012 with 2900 votes, a tiny size, mainly thanks to the support of the large Amerindian population of this state. Senate control, which Republicans control at two seats, may depend on the outcome of that race.
Zhorela said that she intended to vote for Heitkamp in November, but that she will not "certainly not now."
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