Heitkamp Staffer Fired After Campaign Ad

UPDATE: Senator Heidi Heitkamp says the person responsible for getting information for a campaign ad has been fired.

UPDATE:  Senator Heidi Heitkamp says the person responsible for getting information for a campaign ad has been fired. 

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (KFGO) – Democrat Senator Heidi Heitkamp is apologizing for her campaign ad that appeared in print media statewide that identified some women as sexual assault survivors without their permission.

In a statement, Heitkamp said, the ad was an attempt to bring awareness to the issue of sexual assault and to push back on what she called “dismissive comments” toward sexual assault survivors made by her opponent, Republican Representative Kevin Cramer.

Heitkamp said her campaign worked with victim advocates to get the names of women who have experienced assault of abuse.

However, Heitkamp discovered that several of the women’s names supplied to her campaign, and used in the ad did not authorize their names to be shared.

Heitkamp said she “regrets the mistake and is in the process of issuing a retraction, personally apologizing to each of the people impacted by the ad and taking the necessary steps to assure this doesn’t happen again.”