November 9, 2023 / Modified nov 9, 2023 4:52 p.m.

Former Arizona senator reports being molested while running in Iowa

Martha McSally described the Wednesday morning attack in a video she posted online.

mcsally trump rally VIEW LARGER Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., at President Donald Trump’s rally in Phoenix in February, faces a difficult election in the fall to fill out the remaining two years of the late Sen. John McCain’s term, who she was appointed to replace in 2018.
Reno Del Toro/Cronkite News

A former United States senator from Arizona has said she was molested while jogging along the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Martha McSally described the Wednesday morning attack in a video she posted online.

“A man came up behind me and he engulfed me in a bear hug and he molested and fondled me until I fought him off,” she said. “I then chased him down. I said a lot of swear words in this moment. I was in a fight, flight or freeze. And I chose to fight.”

After McSally chased the man into the brush at Tom Hanafan River’s Edge Park, she called the police.

Council Bluffs Police said in a statement that McSally lost sight of the man before officers arrived around 11 a.m., and he escaped. Police are still looking for him.

The former Senator turned keynote speaker who failed to win reelection in 2020 said she was in the area to deliver a speech about courage just across the Missouri River in Omaha Wednesday night.

The first woman to fly a fighter plane in combat said in the video that she was OK, but that the assault “tapped into a nerve of other sexual abuse and assault that I’ve been through in the past.”

McSally disclosed during a 2019 Senate hearing on sexual assault in the military that she had been raped by a superior officer in the Air Force. She didn't report that assault at the time because she didn't trust the system, but she said Wednesday: “I took my power back. He tried to take power from me, but I turned it on him and he was running from me instead of the other way around.”

McSally said she still has a lot to process, and in a follow-up video Thursday she said she was overcome with emotion while she was working on a PowerPoint presentation in the airport ahead of another speech in Chicago.

McSally served in the Air Force from 1988 until 2010 and rose to the rank of colonel before entering politics. She served two terms in the House before narrowly losing a bid to represent Arizona in the Senate against Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.

In 2018 she was appointed to replace longtime GOP Sen. John McCain after his death.

MORE: Arizona, News
By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona