"Let’s play strip poker."

That's what Lindsey Boylan says Governor Andrew Cuomo said to her in October 2017 while flying home from an official event with a press aide and a state trooper standing nearby. Months later when Lindsey got up to leave the room at the end of a one-on-one meeting at his New York office on 3rd Avenue, she says he stepped in front of her and kissed her on the lips.

“He asked me if I believed if age made a difference in relationships and he also asked me in the same conversation if I had ever been with an older man.”

That’s just one of the many inappropriate conversations 25-year-old health policy advisor and executive assistant Charlotte Bennett detailed she had with the 61-year-old Governor to the New York Times.

“I understood that the governor wanted to sleep with me, and felt horribly uncomfortable and scared,” Ms. Bennett said. “And was wondering how I was going to get out of it and assumed it was the end of my job.”

I believe both women.

Governor Andrew Cuomo abused the position of power granted to him by the people of New York in an attempt to coerce women to have sex with him. Join me in calling on him to resign.

Let’s be clear, this is the definition of sexual harassment.

And it is very likely these two women are not alone in their experiences. After Ms. Boylan released her public statement describing what happened to her, she says two other women reached out to share their own.

One woman described living in constant fear, scared of what would happen to her if she rejected the Governor’s advances. The other woman said she was instructed by the Governor to warn staff members who upset him that their jobs could be at risk.

It seems highly likely more women will come forward in the days, weeks, and months ahead, expressing their own inappropriate experiences with the Governor, but that should not be needed for us to know what the Governor should do right now.

He has apologized, sort of, admitting to most of the allegations, but claiming Lindsey and Charlotte misunderstood him. Do you think they misunderstood him?

As a governor and a leader in the Democratic Party, we must demand better. Governor Cuomo has said he will not resign. He’s leaving it to us to create the public groundswell of accountability needed to force him to resign instead.

For the benefit of women everywhere, we will answer that call.

I am a survivor of sexual assault. I know the lasting damage and pain caused by men who use their power to manipulate and control women.

I know that without accountability, it will happen again. It probably already has.

For Governor Andrew Cuomo, accountability means he must resign. That’s the only way we can be sure he never abuses that power, and the women who serve with him, again.

Thank you for speaking up and taking action,

- Yvette

Yvette Simpson, CEO

Democracy for America