For any political candidate, the danger can begin with a single question.
It may not come from a television interviewer or an opponent on a debate stage. Sometimes, it comes from a voter at a local party meeting—one holding a microphone and carrying a detailed memory of the past.
‘Is that why you chose to grope me at an event for Jeff Landry at the Texas Club?’
That allegation, delivered last month at a Republican gathering and recorded in video obtained by Our News Outlet, has triggered denials, accusations of political interference and a rupture between former friends.
The question came from a woman in the audience at a Louisiana golf club, shortly after a married Baptist minister seeking a congressional seat said he had ‘voted for every protection act’ benefiting women.
The woman was Republican activist Abby Crosby, 55. The candidate was state Senator Rick Edmonds, 70, who immediately rejected the accusation, saying it was ‘not even remotely close to any truth.’
Crosby alleges that Edmonds approached her from behind at the 2023 event for Landry, seized her hips and whispered: ‘I want to thank you, for myself and all these men in here, for wearing this pink dress.’
Edmonds has described the account as ‘a fabrication’ and linked Crosby to his rival, Blake Miguez. The two candidates are competing for Donald Trump’s endorsement in a heavily Republican district, where the president’s backing could prove decisive.
Republicans view the district as a rare pickup opportunity in a difficult election year. Louisiana redrew its congressional map this spring, converting a Democratic stronghold into territory favorable to Trump. Democrats need a net gain of only three seats to win control of the House, while the Cook Political Report projects a Republican loss of between five and 15 seats.
Louisiana state Senator Rick Edmonds, 70, pictured with his wife, Cindy, 68
Abby Crosby (right) stands to address state Senator Rick Edmonds at Carter Plantation golf course in Springfield on September 14
At the meeting, Crosby told Edmonds: ‘You ran from me after you did it and I chased you down.’
She continued: ‘I have witnesses, Sir.’
Edmonds replied: ‘Well good, I wish that you would produce them, I’d be glad to answer any question at any time.’
The confrontation unfolded during a Livingston Parish Republican Executive Committee endorsement meeting at Carter Plantation golf course in Springfield on September 14.
Crosby says the alleged assault occurred at the Texas Club, a well-known country music venue in Baton Rouge, on August 9, 2023. Landry, who was then Louisiana’s attorney general, was launching his campaign for governor, with John Rich, Tracy Lawrence and Craig Morgan scheduled to perform.
Images from the event show Edmonds wearing cowboy boots, jeans and a short-sleeved Western shirt. A separate photograph shows Crosby in a pink dress.
Crosby, a longtime Republican volunteer, had met Edmonds before. Her pastor, who knew both of them, introduced the pair when Edmonds was still a state representative.
She told Our News Outlet that she was standing on steps beside the stage with her husband and friends when Edmonds came up behind her, placed his hands on her hips and leaned toward her.
‘He got up in the left ear and I could feel his breath,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t move and I’m thinking, do something, do something, and I couldn’t.’
Crosby, who has spoken publicly about surviving childhood sexual abuse, told Edmonds at the September meeting: ‘I am a rape victim, do you know how that startled me?’
She said she chased him into the crowd. Brad Crosby, 55, a jeweler, said he did not see the alleged contact but looked over to see Edmonds walking away and his wife looking ‘stunned.’
Edmonds told Our News Outlet his wife ‘was by my side the entire evening’ at the event, which he said drew ‘more than 1,000 public officials, legislative colleagues, friends and voters with many cameras.’
Crosby at the Texas Club for the Jeff Landry campaign event in Baton Rouge on August 9, 2023
Edmonds is seen behind a man in a black shirt, his wife Cindy, to the left, wears a blue denim shirt and raises her right hand
What Crosby describes ‘would have been seen by hundreds of people and caused quite a scene,’ he said.
One of those people was Hollis Day.
Day, 50, a life insurance salesman and friend of the Crosbys, was one of the witnesses Crosby named at the meeting. He said he only agreed to speak to Our News Outlet after Edmonds’ campaign lawyer, Lauren Ventrella, put his name forward without telling him.
He said Ventrella, who is also a state representative, later asked him to sign an affidavit. ‘I said, “I’m not signing anything. I’m out of this,”‘ he said.
Day said he was seven or eight feet away and saw Edmonds stop beside Crosby and put a hand on her. He said it did not appear sexual or inappropriate.
‘I remember just the hips. Yeah, just one hand around the side right there, the hip,’ he said.
He said Edmonds ‘stopped to talk to her, to tell her something,’ for ‘no more than three or four seconds.’
Day could not hear what Edmonds said to her. ‘It could be a big deal. I don’t know what he told her. I don’t know that, but I saw the interaction,’ he said.
Day said Crosby turned to him straight after. ‘She turned around and made eye contact and she said, “Did you see that?” And I said, “Yes,”‘ he recalled.
He said Edmonds’ wife was not with him at the time. ‘No, he was by himself,’ he said.
But Day did not see Crosby chase Edmonds. ‘No, she stood right there for a minute or so,’ he said.
Day has known Abby Crosby since about 2021 and Brad ‘a long time.’ He said he voted for Edmonds before the pandemic and is ‘still undecided’ in the race. ‘I’ve never heard her do this to anybody else or anything like that,’ he said of Crosby.
A photo from the Texas Club shows Edmonds posing with a group that includes Miguez, now his rival
Crosby, a longtime Republican volunteer, had previously been introduced to Edmonds (left, with his wife), then a state representative, by her pastor, a mutual friend
A second witness the campaign put forward, former Edmonds aide Mason Batts, said he never left the senator’s side. Shown a photo of Edmonds at the event without him, Batts said there was ‘a good chance’ he had taken the picture.
Ventrella has said she has three more witnesses who will refute Crosby’s claims, but has not identified them.
Edmonds doubled down in a statement to Our News Outlet. ‘The allegations made by Mrs Crosby are categorically false,’ he said.
‘We’re not playing this game where weeks before an election you lie and say someone grabbed you inappropriately at an event without any evidence and no prior police reports or complaints,’ he added.
Crosby said she told her pastor, his wife and friends at the time but made no official complaint.
Edmonds added that he does not drink alcohol. Crosby has not alleged he was drinking. ‘No, no, I don’t think he was drinking,’ she said.
Edmonds has threatened to sue. ‘My wife and I are consulting our attorneys and considering whether to file suit against her,’ he said. ‘If she wants to lie and smear my character, fine, but she should have to do it in front of a judge.’
‘We are going to find out exactly who was involved in planning this blatant lie,’ he added.
‘There are real victims out there and every time someone fabricates nonsense like this it hurts them,’ he said.
‘This type of desperate attack is evidence that our campaign is winning as we are connecting with voters on real issues impacting our district.
‘Cindy and I have faith in the voters of the 6th Congressional District that these lies are not going to work.’
Edmonds has cast the allegation as a political attack and pointed the finger at Miguez, his main rival for the seat.
‘Her allegation is a fabrication. I am not that kind of person, but Mrs Crosby and her friend Blake Miguez want you to think that I am,’ he said.
Photos on Crosby’s Facebook show her with Miguez at events. Brad said the couple were friends with Miguez and backed him in his last race.
They now support another Republican in the field, Larry Davis III, and Brad said he has donated to his campaign.
Crosby denied anyone put her up to it. ‘I’m not working for nobody. I’ve never worked for anybody,’ she said.
Miguez spokesman Chris Pack said: ‘Senator Miguez refuses to dignify his opponent reducing this to some sort of political stunt with any sort of a response.’
Ventrella also sent Our News Outlet a screenshot showing Crosby wrote ‘Happy Anniversary’ under a February 2025 post on Edmonds’ Facebook page marking his anniversary with Cindy.
Ventrella said it was ‘difficult to reconcile with the account she is now providing.’
Crosby said that the post was from more than a year ago and she doesn’t remember commenting on it.
She told Our News Outlet the confrontation last month ‘wasn’t rehearsed. I didn’t have it written down.’
Crosby is a Republican activist who has volunteered for different campaigns over the years. She says she is not being paid or working for any campaign in the 6th district race
‘We’ve been shunned from people that we’ve been friends with for years and years because of this,’ Brad (pictured with Abby) said. He added: ‘I know quite a few of them support Rick Edmonds, and that’s one of the reasons why’
One friend told Crosby (pictured with Brad) she should ‘wear a cage’ when she went out so nobody would touch her, she said
She and her husband said they have been ostracized since she made the allegation.
‘We’ve been shunned from people that we’ve been friends with for years and years because of this,’ Brad said. He added: ‘I know quite a few of them support Rick Edmonds, and that’s one of the reasons why.’
One friend told Crosby she should ‘wear a cage’ when she went out so nobody would touch her, she said.
GOP lawmakers redrew the 6th District at Governor Landry’s direction after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v Callais in April.
The redraw turned a majority-black seat held by Democrat Cleo Fields into a Republican stronghold. Fields is not seeking re-election.
A crowded field of about ten candidates appears on one ballot in the November 3 open primary. If no one wins a majority, the top two go to a December 12 runoff.
Edmonds, a former pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Shreveport, campaigns as a ‘Proven Trump Conservative.’
Trump backed Miguez for the 5th District before the redraw, but that endorsement did not carry over to the 6th.
Miguez faces an allegation of his own. A former girlfriend told police in 2007 that he raped her, according to a police report obtained by The Atlantic.
Miguez was questioned but not arrested, and the woman declined to press charges. His campaign says the allegation is false. Her mother and brother have since dismissed her account, and her father called her claims ‘lies’ in an email to Miguez.
Crosby, a mother of five and grandmother of six, said she expects to pay a price for speaking out.
‘We’ll take a hit to our business. But you know what? It doesn’t matter,’ she said.
