Sandra Fluke, the well-known women’s rights activist and attorney, is “strongly considering” running for Rep. Henry Waxman’s congressional seat, she told a California radio station yesterday.
Waxman, who has spent 40 years in the House of Representatives, announced yesterday that he will retire at the end of the Congressional session. According to Fluke, who became a household name in 2012 when she was a Georgetown Law student and denied the chance to testify at a Republican hearing on the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage requirement, several key Democratic leaders urged her to run.
“I’m flattered that I’m being discussed as a potential candidate,” she told the station. “A number of folks I respect very deeply have reached out today and encouraged me to run. I am strongly considering running.”
Since 2012, when radio jockey Rush Limbaugh called her a “slut” and “prostitute” for needing birth control, Fluke became an out-spoken feminist leader. She spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention and at Feminist Majority’s 2012 Women Money Power Summit in Washington, D.C.
Media Resources: Huffington Post, 1/31/2014; Politico 1/30/2014; SCPR, 1/30/2014; Washington Post, 1/30/2014; Ms. Magazine 3/1/2012
