The Reckoning Democrats Didn't See Coming

Watch my conversation with Cheyenne Hunt, co-founder of Reckoning Action, on the survivors bringing down powerful men and how she plans to take on the Epstein Class next

Two Democrats at the top of their races just saw their campaigns collapse over sexual abuse allegations — Eric Swalwell, a frontrunner for California governor, and Graham Platner, the galvanizing challenger to U.S. Senator Susan Collins in Maine. What you might have missed is who made it happen: survivors brave enough to come forward and the woman who made sure they didn’t have to do it alone, Cheyenne Hunt.

Cheyenne is an attorney, organizer, former Executive Director of Gen Z for Change and now founder of Reckoning Action. She’s built a fast and robust support system for survivors that includes pro bono legal counsel, communication support so women can tell their story on their terms, digital and physical security, and a community they can lean on after the media moves on.

I don’t share this often, but I’m a survivor of child sexual assault and of instances of assault in the workplace - more than once. When I was first assaulted in my workplace, I was just starting my career and knew instinctively what so many women learn too young - that if I were to speak out and report the assault, I would be the one with the most to lose, and with no certainty or even much hope that the man who assaulted me would face any consequences. Which is exactly why what Cheyenne and every survivor who has the courage to speak out about their experiences matters so much to me- and should matter to all of us who are fighting for a system that protects rather than oppresses or abuses people. There was no support system for me like this when I was in my early 20’s, and no public examples to point to of women who had spoken out and saw justice served. No, I could only draw on the examples of women who had spoken out and been publicly shamed, attacked, and diminished by the public for doing so. So when I see what Cheyenne and her team is building- and the impact they have already had in a few short months, I see an effort and community that might have changed everything for a younger version of me — and is already doing so and will continue to do so for so many women who have suffered similar experiences.

In our conversation, we discuss how the Platner story really transpired — and how The New York Times botched the handling of it so poorly, survivors had to put themselves through even more trauma and public security to force the candidate to step down in time for his party to find a more suitable candidate. With support from Cheyenne, Jenny Racicot came forward carefully, within the boundaries she’d set for what she was willing to make public. But the way the NYT piece was framed buried and muddled the gravity of what she was actually saying. It took Jenny providing more details than she ever imagined having to share publicly in a second story, in another outlet, before people took the allegations of assault seriously.

And I’ll be honest about my own initial reaction. When Jenny’s story first came out, some part of me thought, “surely the Times would have amplified the allegations if there was really something there, right?” Sit with that for a second. I, a survivor, was waiting for an institution to validate what Jenny and other victims were saying instead of simply listening to her. But there’s a name for this trap. Sociologists call it the “perfect victim.” It’s the idea that to be believed, a survivor needs the right job, the right timing and a complete, unflinching story told the first time. It’s a bar no real person clears and it’s exactly why “believe women” often turns out to be a phrase people say rather than something they actually do. It’s why everyone kept asking Jenny “why now?” But the answer is simple. As Cheyenne puts it, if your abuser’s middle management somewhere, you might not care as much about exposing him. But when he could become one of the most powerful people in the country, you think about it differently. This is the part of the reckoning we don’t talk about enough. It’s not just about the men. It’s about all of us examining what we’ve been trained to look past — myself included.

Cheyenne connects our conversation to something bigger than any one race, though. It’s the tradwife content all over your For You Page, the endless messaging to aspire to a softer, simpler life — to want a family instead of a career. And it comes at women from every direction: social media, our own family, even politicians. It seems harmless. That’s the point. But none of it is accidental. It’s an organized, well-funded resurgence of misogyny that works the way everything the right builds does: they seed an idea in the culture, make what used to be outrageous feel normal and by the time it shows up as actual policy, no one’s surprised. And the left has built almost nothing to combat it. We’re not fighting back and losing. Cheyenne rightly says we’re not even on the field.

That’s what she’s out to change. And her next target is the Epstein files. Because the reckoning didn’t start with Eric Swalwell and Graham Platner. The seeds of predators seeking and sitting in positions of power is a tale as old as time - in America and around the world. And although Epstein himself is dead, the powerful network of abuse he designed and built remains alive and very much protected by people in positions in power - all the way up to the President of the United States. And until we hold every perpetrator and protector of sexual abuse publicly accountable, we cannot go about business or elections as usual, or restore trust in our government and very institutions designed to protect us. So as we are doing at COURIER through The CoverUp, The Reckoning is going to be focusing on bringing justice to the survivors and victims of the Epstein Class in the months ahead.

At the end of each episode, I ask my guests the same question: where do you find the courage? Cheyenne told me that if you’re going to disrupt a system of power, you can’t also be seeking that system’s acceptance. This fight has cost her friends, allies and the comfort of the world she built her career inside. And she does it anyway. Because if survivors can do it, so can we.

Watch our full conversation and let me know what you think. And go follow her important work at reckoningaction.org! They’ve got big announcements coming out on their work with the Epstein survivors that you won’t want to miss.

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