Nevada politician Lucy Flores has come forward accusing former V.P. Joe Biden of smelling her hair and giving her a long, unwanted kiss. We’ve got five thing to know about the former state assemblywoman.
In what could be a blow to former Vice President Joe Biden‘s hopes of entering the 2020 Democratic presidential field, a former Nevada state assemblywoman has accused him of unwanted touching and kissing. Lucy Flores made the claims in an article describing her first meeting the 76-year-old when he flew to Nevada to help her campaign for lieutenant governor in 2014. The 39-year-old claims he put his hands on her shoulders from behind, leaned in to smell her hair and gave a prolonged kiss on the back of her head. “He was there to promote me as the right person for the lieutenant governor job. Instead, he made me feel uneasy, gross, and confused,” she wrote in a piece published by The Cut on March 29. Here are five things to know about Lucy.
1. Lucy is one of 13 children.
She was born in LA but her family moved to Northeast Las Vegas shortly after her birth. Only one brother ended up graduating from high school and several of her sisters became teen moms. Lucy was forced to care for some of her younger siblings when her mom left when she was nine.
2. Lucy had a turbulent youth and ended up getting involved in gangs.
“After my mother left my family when I was 9 years old, and without a support structure at home or in school, I got involved in the only thing I had left: gangs and negative influences. Law enforcement and inadequate school policies pushed me to the school to prison pipeline – a pipeline that is all too present for so many young people in our country still today. By 15 I was on juvenile parole and by 17 I had dropped out of high school,” she reveals on her website. Lucy said it was the guidance of a parole officer who gave her a second chance instead of sending her back to jail that made her decide change her path in life.
3. Lucy turned her life around in a major way when entering adulthood.
Through hard work and the support of people who believed in her, “I got my GED, enrolled at the Community College of Southern Nevada Cheyenne Campus, and earned my bachelor’s degree at the University of Southern California as a transfer student. I went on to earn my law degree at the UNLV Boyd School of Law and was recognized with multiple awards for my work and accomplishments in the community,” she explained on her web page.
4. In her first political race, Lucy successfully ran for a seat in the Nevada State Assembly.
In 2010 during her final year of law school, Lucy won a seat in the state assembly representing Nevada District 28, which served the same neighborhood in which she grew up and was incarcerated as a teen. She held that position until 2015 when she ran for the United States House of Representatives seat in Nevada’s 4th congressional district. She was defeated in the state Democratic primary by State Senator Ruben Kihuen.
5. Lucy is now CEO of the website Luz Collective.
The mission statement on her company’s website reads “Luz Collective embodies Latina potential. We challenge false and inaccurate media narratives through high quality digital content and build community through tangible in real life programs, experiences, and opportunities. Luz Collective is here to tell Latina stories and invest in their potential. We redefine and reclaim what it means to be a US Latina.”