Former Sen. Martha McSally says she was sexually assaulted during the race

Former Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday that she was sexually assaulted by a man while jogging along the Missouri River near Omaha, Neb., on Wednesday.

McSally, who has previously spoken about being raped by a superior officer while serving in the Air Force, told an Instagram video that a man grabbed her from behind in a “bear hug” but eventually managed to dispel him.

“He pestered me and petted me until I fought him off,” she said.

“He was in a fight, flight or freeze situation, and I chose to fight. I ran after him, threw my water bottle at him and chased him into the trash, where he then hid while I called the 911 and waited for the police to come,” she said. “I don’t think they found him, and I’m fine.”

McSally, who said she was in Omaha to give a speech about “courage and heart, and how to be a brave heart,” said the incident triggered memories of past abuse she suffered, but from which she ‘he has cured to a great extent – “as much as I feel it can be done”.

“In this case, I felt like I got my power back,” she said. “He tried to take the power from me, but I turned it against him and he ran away from me instead of the other way around.”

The incident was reported shortly before 11 a.m. near Tom Hanafan River’s Edge Park in Council Bluffs, Iowa, near the I-480 overpass, according to an incident report shared with HuffPost by the Department of City of Council Bluffs police.

A search for the suspect, described as a white or Hispanic man, 25 to 40 years old with a stocky build, was unsuccessful and no arrests had been made as of Thursday morning, police said.

McSally spoke out in 2019 about raping a superior officer during his 26 years of service in the Air Force. She said she didn’t report the incident when it first happened because “like so many women and men, I didn’t trust the system at the time.”

In general, the number of assault reports on the US military has increased since 2010. Not all victims report their assaults, and of those who do, many have reported having suffered reprisals.

In 2018, while running for the Senate, McSally also alleged this The Wall Street Journal who was sexually abused by her high school track coach when she was 17.

“Even though he didn’t force me physically, it was definitely emotionally manipulative,” she said of her former coach, who was two decades her senior.

McSally left the Senate in 2020 after losing a special election for the late Sen. John McCain’s seat.

One in 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted rape or a complete rape in her lifetime, according to the National Network of Rapes, Abuse and Incestan organization against sexual violence.

Of the total incidents that occur, among all genders, more than 2 out of 3 are not reported, according to the organization.

Need help? Visit RAINN’s National sexual assault hotline or the Website of the National Resource Center on Sexual Violence.