John Bogna
After a report by the Daily Beast on sexual misconduct in the Texas statehouse centering on Democratic state Sen. Borris Miles, a women’s political group is calling for him and Democratic state Sen. Carlos Uresti to resign.
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Annie’s List, who’s motto is “changing the face of power,” works to get women elected to office in Texas. They issued an official statement in response to “credible allegations of sexual misconduct.”
“As we know all too well, men like Borris Miles and Carlos Uresti have been asserting themselves upon others without their permission for millenniums,” said Executive Director Patsy Woods Martin in the statement.
“What is new is that now we’re calling it out, taking these instances out of the shadows of shame and doubt that perpetrators, and their enablers, have foisted upon women,” she added.
Miles and Uresti both deny the allegations against them, according to the Texas Tribune.
A spokeswoman for Miles called the allegations false after a previous piece the Beast ran on the senator. Uresti says the lack of identified sources in the Daily Beast piece call its validity into question. Thursday night, Miles released his own statement regarding the allegations.
https://twitter.com/OliviaMesser/status/938929879697035265
“While the story ends that the people being interviewed for this story ‘asked not to be named,’ such un-sourced accusations, without specific information as to time, place or alleged accuser, prevents me from being able to defend myself from completely unfounded innuendo,” Uresti said in his own statement.
Uresti specifically called out one part of the Daily Beast article that said he had a woman sitting on his lap at a party in 2013, who he claims was his wife. He sent a screenshot from the night in question to the Texas Tribune and Daily Beast.
Both politicians said in their statements they will continue to aid other lawmakers in developing more effective sexual harassment policy, and will not resign from their positions.
