Queens woman Ana Maria Archila has been identified as one of the women who confronted Sen. Jeff Flake in an elevator Friday morning.
Early on Friday, Flake announced that he would vote in favor of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, becoming the swing vote to push Kavanaugh out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Flake was then confronted by two women who blocked an elevator door in order to speak to him.
Ana Maria Archila to Sen. Flake: “I told you the story of my sexual assault.”
“On Monday, I stood in front of your office,” one of the women, Ana Maria Archila, told Flake, a Republican Senator from Arizona. “I told you the story of my sexual assault.”
“I told it because I recognized in Dr. Ford’s story that she is telling the truth,” she added. “What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit on the Supreme Court. This is not tolerable. You have children in your family. Think about them.”
Ana Maria Archila was identified as one of the two women in a tweet by New York City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer. The New York Times also attributed the above quotes to her.
She was joined by a Maria Gallagher, who told Sen. Flake not to look away from her.
“Look at me and tell me that it doesn’t matter what happened to me. That you will let people like that go into the highest court of the land,” Gallagher, who also identified herself as a sexual assault survivor, said.
The two women were protesting Kavanaugh’s nomination. While Sen. Flake did vote to advance Kavanaugh out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he also called for an FBI investigation into the sexual assault allegations against the judge.
The two women received praise from many on Twitter for their comments.
Who is Ana Maria Archila?
“So proud of Ana Maria Archila Gualy of Astoria, Queens who was one of two women in that elevator calling out @JeffFlake this morning,” Van Bramer tweeted.
Ana Maria Archila is the co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, a nonprofit based both in Brooklyn and Washington. The Center for Popular Democracy identifies her as Ana María Archila Gualy.
The left-leaving advocacy group says it’s goal is to “envision and win an innovative pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial and economic justice agenda.”
Ana Maria Archila is also a national committee member of the Working Families Party and is herself a mother of two, per the times.
Before working at the Center for Popular Democracy, Ana Maria Archila was co-executive director of immigrant rights organization Make the Road New York and was the executive director of the Latin American Integration Center.
Per her Center for Popular Democracy bio, “Ana María emigrated to the U.S. from Colombia at the age of 17 and has become a leading advocate for civil rights, health care access, education equity, and immigrant rights in New York State, and nationally. She was awarded a Coro fellowship in 2004.”
