Former U.S. Senator Martha McSally disclosed Wednesday that she had been sexually assaulted while running near Omaha, Nebraska.
In a post on Instagram, McSally shared details on how she was sexually assaulted during a run alongside the Missouri River near the border of Iowa and Nebraska.
McSally said a man had embraced her in a bear hug and touched her inappropriately until she managed to fight him off. After calling the police, she chased the attacker into the brush but at the time of the video posting, she was uncertain if he was caught.
McSally said the incident tapped into her past experiences of sexual abuse, but in this case she felt she had taken back her power.
The police in Council Bluffs, Iowa, confirmed they were investigating the matter. McSally is listed as an upcoming speaker at an event in Nebraska.
In 2019, she publicly revealed that she had been raped by a superior officer in the Air Force, but she had chosen not to name her assailant. In 2018, she had disclosed that she had also been sexually abused in high school. McSally, who had been appointed to the Senate to replace John McCain, lost her election bid in 2020 to Mark Kelly. McSally is now an executive coach and corporate board member.