The ad opens with a shot of a quiet neighborhood street in western Nebraska, a bright red content warning about sexual assault splashed across the top of the frame. In 1993, her ex-husband broke into her home and violently raped her, she said, a crime for which he pleaded guilty and served a prison sentence. Twenty-nine years later, Snogren learned he had been pardoned by a panel that Ricketts, then Nebraska’s governor, presided over.
Ricketts cast the deciding vote. Snogren was not contacted before the pardon was issued, she said. The pardon restored her abuser’s right to own a gun and removed his name from the sex offender registry, which had made it easier for her and for local law enforcement to know where he was living.
Snogren decided that Ricketts, now a Republican senator running for reelection this fall, took the “easy way out” without concern for her safety. She agreed to share her experience with Nebraska voters because she believes Ricketts’ decision to issue the pardon sent a message about the kind of politician he is. It’s a well-trodden path for women, who often stand in as the most effective messengers on sensitive issues, particularly on behalf of candidates challenging Republicans.
In the 2018 midterms, at the height of the #MeToo movement, women shared stories of experiencing sexual misconduct. In 2022 and 2024, they spoke about the dangers they’d faced navigating their states’ abortion bans. In an election cycle where voters record drastically low levels of trust in government and politicians, these women can stand in for candidates and use personal stories to engender trust and relatability.
And for the women themselves, speaking out can feel like a way to channel their story toward a cause. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room, a traveling exhibit and library, features the women’s stories and files from the Justice Department’s trove on the case. Organizers billed the tour as nonpartisan, but pegged it to the upcoming election with a launch in Dallas that coincided with Republicans’ midterm convention and a final stop near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Election Day.
The women’s stories about a case that has become a political issue on its own have been an important fixture of the cycle. Though the tour is not affiliated with any one party, Democratic candidates like U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico and U.S.
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