On Jan. 12, Rolling Stone magazine published a powerful and previously untold story about Congressional Candidate for NY-17 Effie Phillips-Staley, entitled “She Got Justice After Her Sexual Assault. She’s Using the Money to Run for Congress.”
To quote from the story:
“This campaign could only happen because of the New York Adult Survivors Act, in truth, because we all know how brutally expensive it is to run a campaign in the era of Citizens United,” Phillips-Staley says. (Campaign finance records indicate that Phillips-Staley, who previously worked in the nonprofit space, has loaned her campaign $165,000 to date.)
As she was going through the process of filing and defending her claim, Phillips-Staley watched Trump reclaim the nation’s highest office — after he was found liable for sexual abuse — then go on to install, in similarly lofty positions, a string of men credibly accused of sex crimes. “The Me Too movement and the Adult Survivors Act — these are advances to enable justice that are actively being dismantled [by the Trump administration and its allies],” she says.
You can read the story here.
Watching that dismantling lit a fire under her, one that was matched only by her frustration watching the Democratic Party fail to meaningfully engage with and activate the tens of thousands of Hispanic voters in her district.”
Effie is currently serving her second term as Trustee in the Village of Tarrytown. Visit https://effieforcongress.squarespace.com, for more information.