Fluke Hopes to Boost Women, Says Limbaugh's 'Slut' Insult Helped

Sandra Fluke, who is now running for state Senate in California’s 26th district rather than for the congressional seat being vacated by Democrat Henry Waxman after forty years, says that while people should not vote for her because she’s a woman, increasing the number of women in the state legislature is something she hopes to do.

“It’s something that I’m really passionate about working on. And it’s absolutely the same concern I have about why need more people of color in elected office, why we need more LGBTQ folks, why we need to have folks at lower economic levels represented,” Fluke told Katie Orr of Capital Public Radio on Thursday.

It is not clear what other issues Fluke stands for, although she describes herself as an advocate of the kinds of “progressive” change that, she says, people in the district want to see. She also says that conservative radio talk host Rush Limbaugh boosted her profile by calling her a “slut” for demanding guaranteed birth control.

Fluke was asked about the incident by MSNBC host Ed Schultz–who, ironically, called conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham a “slut” in 2011. He agreed that the incident had boosted her exposure, which was useful to the progressive cause “because it lets us shine a light on important issues we need to be talking about.”