Emily’s List-Backed Democratic Candidate Drops Out of Congressional Race Over Sexual Harassment Allegations

Retired lawyer and Democratic candidate for Kansas’s 3rd Congressional District, Andrea Ramsey, dropped out of the race on Friday after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced from 2005. Ramsey was running as a 2018 challenger of Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder.

Ramsey is an Emily’s List-backed candidate, a group that funds women running for elected office in an effort to fight for abortion rights.

The allegations were published in the Kansas City Star and were followed by Ramsey’s announcement less than an hour later, despite releasing a statement denying the allegations against her.

“In its rush to claim the high ground in our roiling national conversation about harassment, the Democratic Party has implemented a zero tolerance standard,” Ramsey said in a statement Friday. “For me, that means a vindictive, terminated employee’s false allegations are enough for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to decide not to support our promising campaign. We are in a national moment where rough justice stands in place of careful analysis, nuance and due process.”

According to the Star, Ramsey was accused of sexual harassment, making sexual advances on a business trip, which resulted in retaliation against a male subordinate, Gary Funkhouser, in 2005. The company where she was vice president of human resources at the time, LabOne, reached a settlement with Funkhouser in 2006.

In her statement defending herself, the scenario she describes of secrecy and being offered no chance to defend herself or confront her accuser sounds all-too-familiar in the current climate.

“Had those allegations, those false allegations, been brought against me directly instead of the company I would have fought to exonerate my name. I never would’ve settled,” Ramsey said in an interview on Thursday. “And I would have sued the disgruntled, vindictive employee for defamation.”

It’s unclear how much support Ramsey would have garnered during the primary, but as late as last week her campaign was fundraising over the allegations against Roy Moore.

Rep. Kevin Yoder has held Kansas’s 3rd District seat since 2011. In 2016, he won with 51.3 percent over Democrat Jay Sidie’s 40.6 percent.

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