Watch Video: Churchgoer Accuses Pastor Running for Congress

For any political candidate, a single question can carry enormous consequences.

It may not come from a television anchor or an opponent on a debate stage. Sometimes, it comes from a voter at a local party meeting—someone with a microphone and a long memory.

‘Is that why you chose to grope me at an event for Jeff Landry at the Texas Club?’

The accusation, made at a Republican gathering last month and recorded in video obtained by the Daily Mail, has triggered denials, allegations of political sabotage and a rupture between former friends.

The question came from a woman attending a meeting at a Louisiana golf club, shortly after a married Baptist minister seeking a congressional seat said he had ‘voted for every protection act’ supporting women.

The woman was Republican activist Abby Crosby, 55. The candidate was state Senator Rick Edmonds, 70, who immediately denied the allegation and told her it was ‘not even remotely close to any truth.’

Crosby alleges that Edmonds grabbed her hips from behind during the 2023 event for Landry and whispered: ‘I want to thank you, for myself and all these men in here, for wearing this pink dress.’

Edmonds has described the allegation as ‘a fabrication’ and linked Crosby to his rival, Blake Miguez. The two candidates are competing for Donald Trump’s endorsement in a deeply conservative district, where the president’s backing could prove decisive.

Republicans are expected to view the seat as a rare pickup opportunity in a difficult election year. Louisiana redrew its congressional map this spring, transforming what had been a Democratic stronghold into a district favorable to Trump. Democrats need a net gain of only three seats to win control of the House, while the Cook Political Report forecasts Republican losses of between five and 15 seats.

Crosby told Edmonds at the meeting: ‘You ran from me after you did it and I chased you down.’

She added: ‘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 at a September 14 endorsement meeting of the Livingston Parish Republican Executive Committee, held at Carter Plantation golf course in Springfield.

Crosby says the alleged encounter took place on August 9, 2023, at the Texas Club, a legendary country music venue in Baton Rouge. 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 Western-style short-sleeved shirt. A separate photograph shows Crosby in a pink dress.

Crosby, a longtime Republican volunteer, had met Edmonds previously after her pastor, who was a mutual friend, introduced them. At the time, Edmonds was serving as a state representative.

She told the Daily Mail that she was standing on steps beside the stage with her husband and friends when Edmonds approached from behind, took hold of 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 the Daily Mail 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.’

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 the Daily Mail 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 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 the Daily Mail. ‘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 the Daily Mail 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 the Daily Mail the confrontation last month ‘wasn’t rehearsed. I didn’t have it written down.’

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.