Survivor Slams Tom Cotton for His Cowardly Votes That Put Women In Jeopardy

Stacy Malcum was being repeatedly abused by her husband. She turned to her local women’s shelter in Arkansas for help, and she believes the shelter saved her life.

Today Stacy Malcum is calling out Republican Tom Cotton (R-AR) for voting against not only the Republican substitute of the Violence Against Women Act, but also voting against the final passage of the law, which provides funding for Arkansas’ women’s shelters. “When I hear that Tom Cotton voted against something that could protect women, it’s upsetting. He would leave women like me with nowhere to turn.”

Stacy Malcum is making sure those votes come back to haunt Cotton now, telling her story in the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ad entitled “Survivor”:

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Stacy Malcum: I was unrecognizable and I was black from my shoulder down to my ankle. You feel alone, when you’re being abused. I felt like I couldn’t get away. Having the women’s shelter there, it saved my life. When I hear that Tom Cotton voted against something that could protect women, it’s upsetting. He would leave women like me with nowhere to turn.

In 2013, Representative Cotton voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. The law had expired in 2011, due to Republican obstruction. In the meantime, shelters and other vital resources for victims of partner assault and stalking were left unfunded, including shelters and training for law enforcement.

The law also had new provisions to protect victims from discrimination based on gender, to protect Native American victims, and trafficking victims. Republicans objected to these provisions.

After the Republicans failed to reauthorize the VAWA because they chose to politicize the protection of women, the Arkansas News-Herald reported in January of 2013 that local and state advocates had to go begging for money to protect women, “Local and state advocates raising awareness of domestic violence have been forced into a new fight — trying to secure vital funding for battered clients seeking a new life. For the first time since its inception in 1994, the 112th U.S. Congress failed to pass the Violence Against Women Act last year. VAWA grants are crucial to shelters and domestic violence groups seeking to put an end to abuse.”

For anyone who used or knows someone who used a shelter in a time of desperate need, this is unforgivable. To deny a woman who is being hunted down and whose life is in danger the most basic shelter and protection is unforgivable. To do that for over a year just to appease the Republican base who stand against protections for women in jeopardy is pathetic. But that is exactly what Republicans did.

Murder by intimate partner is one of the top causes of death of pregnant women in the United States of America. So much for Republicans being pro-life.

To stand against providing shelter to women whose lives are in imminent danger is the opposite of a culture of life.

Women deserve to feel free and safe. It is everyone’s responsibility to make sure that happens, especially when they are residing in a position of great power within the halls of government. To use that power to place women like Stacy into more danger is pure mean-spirited madness.

Women’s lives aren’t political. Partner assault can happen to any woman, from any political party. It’s wrong, it’s beneath us as a nation, and we need Senators and representatives who will stand tall against it, not men like Tom Cotton who cast cowardly votes against safety and protection for women.

Cotton is running for Senate against incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor, who is trailing Cotton (within the margin of error) in polls, in a race considered a tossup. However, Bill Clinton is returning to his home state to rally the troops for Pryor, which Democrats hope will be a game changer.

Tom Cotton is one of many men who used his power as a Representative to harm women, to place women in jeopardy, for over a year just to score political points. He’s a cheap, cowardly version of what a Senator should be.