Donald Trump’s campaign is being accused of sex discrimination, which seems pretty inevitable after the comments he’s made about Megyn Kelly, Carly Fiorina and pretty much any other high-profile woman who crosses his path.
Elizabeth Mae Davidson, Trump’s former campaign field organizer in Davenport, Iowa, filed a discrimination complaint saying that men doing the same job as her were paid more and got to take more of a public role during rallies, according to the New York Times. Davidson also reported that she met Trump at a rally last summer he told her and a another female volunteer, “You guys could do a lot of damage,” referring to their looks. Just…ew.
“In a telephone interview on Sunday, Mr. Trump denied making the remark but did not address the other two allegations,” the Times reported.
After Davidson reported problems with the campaign’s senior Iowa leadership to the Times, she was fired on Jan. 14. Davidson says she was fired for making “disparaging comments about senior campaign leaders to third parties” and breaking a nondisclosure clause in her employment contract. She denied ever making negative comments about the campaign.
Davidson filed the complaint on Thursday with the Davenport Civil Rights Commission. Trump said that he didn’t know Davidson, but his staff told him “she did a terrible job.” After the Times article came out, Trump denied knowing anything about Davidson in an interview with The Daily Mail and criticized the Times reporter, Trip Gabriel, as being “a bad guy who only writes negative stories about me.”
Davidson’s complaint said that in addition to being paid more, men with the same job as her were quoted in news sources without consequence—even though that’s what she was fired for. Davidson was was paid $2,000 a month, while men with the same title were paid between $3,500 and $4,000 a month.
Dorothy A. O’Brien, Davidson’s lawyer, said the Davenport civil rights agency would investigate the complaint. A complaint like this could definitely affect the outcome of the primaries—Even Trump thought so.
“A story like this could damage my chances,” he told the Times. Think it had anything to do with his loss in Iowa?
The former Miss Iowa contestant is stirring up some conversation, and rightfully so.