The face of the Obamacare contraception mandate has lost her bid for state Senate in California’s 26th Congressional District.
Sandra Fluke was facing off against another Democrat, Ben Allen, who is a board member of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.
The women’s rights activist received 39 percent of the vote while Allen won with 61 percent.
Fluke and Allen faced off in the general election after being the top two vote-getters in a June 3 primary. Results were much closer in that race. Allen won 22 percent of the vote; Fluke received 20 percent.
The 33-year-old Fluke turned to politics after gaining national prominence in 2012 when, as a Georgetown law student, she was blocked from testifying in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee by Republican members. Committee chairman Darrell Issa justified blocking Fluke saying that she had no expertise on the issue and that she was not listed as a witness for the hearing in time. (RELATED: Meet Law Student And Feminist Hero Sandra Fluke)
Committee Democrats criticized Issa for failing to invite any women to testify in front of the committee on the contraception mandate and invited Fluke to testify in front of an all-Democratic Oversight panel. In her testimony, Fluke called on Georgetown, a Catholic university, to cover co-pay for female students’ contraception.
Fluke’s testimony brought her to the attention of talk radio show host Rush Limbaugh who asserted that asserted that the law student’s stance on the birth control mandate implied that she wanted taxpayers to pay for her to have sex. He said that this technically made her a “slut” or a “prostitute.”
Limbaugh’s remarks prompted President Obama to call her to offer his support. The radio host later apologized for his remarks, saying they were a poor choice of words.
Fluke cites both her testimony in front of Congress and her exchange with Limbaugh on her campaign website. (RELATED: Sandra Fluke Still Wants Stuff For Free)
As you head home from work, stop at the polls if you haven’t voted! Find your polling place: http://t.co/P5Dqvibi3S. pic.twitter.com/MJevLGs01R
— Sandra Fluke (@SandraFluke) November 5, 2014
Both Fluke’s and Allen’s campaigns reportedly raised over $1 million apiece in their election bids.