Democratic congressional candidate Andrea Ramsey announced that she will drop out of the race for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday after allegations of sexual harassment against a male coworker resurfaced.
“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, announcing her retirement from the race.
Her announcement comes after Gary Funkhouser accused Ramsey — the former executive vice president of human resources at LabOne — of subjecting him to “unwelcome and inappropriate sexual comments and innuendos” in 2004 when he was a LabOne human resources manager, according to the Kansas City Star.
“After I told her I was not interested in having a sexual relationship with her, she stopped talking to me,” Funkhouser wrote in a 2005 lawsuit against her. He alleges that prior to rejecting her advances, Ramsey had said great things about his performance, but that following his refusal of her posturing, she reported poor performance and subsequently fired him. LabOne dismissed the lawsuit in 2006 after mediation.
CNN politics reporter Eric Bradner tweeted out the surprising news Friday morning.
Whoa: Andrea Ramsey drops out of the #KS03 race — costing Democrats their leading candidate in a winnable district — amid sexual harassment allegations.
That’s a BIG blow for the @dccc already, and she’s going down swinging at them. https://t.co/LUFhuXT6zD
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) December 15, 2017
Ramsey maintains that she fired Funkhouser because he was not adequately fulfilling the duties of his position in the company. It’s sad that “a vindictive, terminated employee’s false allegations are enough for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to decide not to support our promising campaign,” Ramsey said in her Friday statement.
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