With Biden expected to announce whether he will enter the race for president in April, Flores’ story attracted scrutiny on his interactions with women over his long career in national politics. On Sunday, Biden released a statement defending himself, saying he did not believe he had ever acted inappropriately on the campaign trail.
Several candidates for the Democratic nomination were asked over the weekend to weigh in on the accusations, and Flores herself discussed her essay, and the response to it, in an interview with The New York Times on Saturday and on CNN Sunday morning.
Here’s a look at Flores, her career in politics, and her more recent efforts to speak out on social justice issues, sexism and harassment.
Early Political Success
In 2009 — her last year in law school — Flores, a Democrat, won an election to represent Nevada’s Assembly District 28, in the same part of Las Vegas where she had grown up, becoming one of the first Latinas elected to the state Legislature.
She served two terms in the Assembly, during which she said she focused on issues like education, consumer protection and aid for victims of domestic violence.
At one point in 2013, she gave testimony at a committee meeting on sexual education about having had an abortion when she was 16, and subsequently received threats, according to local news reports.
Felicia Ortiz, a friend of Flores who is on the state Board of Education in Nevada, said she let Flores stay with her after someone shot a bullet into Flores’ house.
“Her strength is phenomenal,” Ortiz said.
Failed Runs for Higher Office
Flores ran as the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2014, which was when she met Biden. The vice president, she wrote in the essay, had agreed to come to a rally to help her fledgling campaign.
At first, she wrote, she felt “grateful and flattered.” But as she was preparing to take the stage, she “felt two hands on my shoulders” and “froze.” Then, she said, Biden leaned in and “inhaled my hair,” and “proceeded to plant a big slow kiss on the back of my head.”
Flores lost the election in a landslide. Prominent Nevada political analyst Jon Ralston tweeted Saturday that her loss caused her to fall out of favor with the state’s Democratic establishment and with Harry Reid, the powerful former senator.
She ran for Congress in 2016 in a bid to represent Nevada’s 4th District, but lost in a tight primary to Ruben Kihuen — Reid’s choice — in what she called “a high-profile, full-of-controversy race.”
“I think there have been issues because she has challenged the norm,” said Chris Miller, former chairman of the Clark County Democratic Party in Nevada.
In a Facebook post in early 2016, Flores endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for president and became a campaign surrogate. She also served on the board of Our Revolution, the Sanders-aligned advocacy group.
“I believe that Bernie Sanders will lead the charge, with many millions of Americans behind him, against the unfettered Wall Street greed that has threatened the very existence of the middle class and shackled so many more to permanent poverty,” she wrote in the Facebook post. “I believe that now, more than ever, America needs a political revolution.”
Life After Politics
After her primary loss in 2016, Flores moved to California, where she worked at Mitú, a digital media company, and then helped found a company, Luz Collective, focused on empowering Latinas.
Flores has also embraced the role of social justice advocate, speaking out about sexism and harassment in politics in recent years. She gave support to Masha Mendieta, a woman on Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign who said she was mistreated.
And in a 2017 interview with Nevada Public Radio, she said it was “wonderful” that “we are having this conversation about what is the difference between sexism, what is the difference between sexual harassment, what’s the difference between sexual assault.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.