A Democratic candidate for the US Congress claims she was raped while repairing a campaign sign.

A Democratic candidate for the US Congress claims she was raped while repairing a damaged campaign sign, in an attack that is now the subject of a police investigation.

Bernadette Greene-Placentia, running in Arizona, recounted her experience to the Phoenix New Times in an article published this week, explaining that she lost consciousness after receiving blows to the head.

When she woke up, she said a man was lying on top of her and finishing raping her. A second man was also present, she said.

She explained to the newspaper that shame had prevented her from immediately reporting the assault. She isolated herself and missed a campaign event.

Two weeks later, she reported the assault to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.

A representative of the service confirmed to AFP that an investigation was underway, and declined to comment further.

Ms. Greene-Placentia explained that her campaign promise to fight for all Arizona voters prompted her to report this trauma.

"I didn't feel I could continue to make that statement if I wasn't also fighting for women who are victims of sexual assault," she told the Phoenix New Times.

The candidate also told the New York Times that her memories of the incident were fragmentary, but that she remembered kicking the men until they ran away.

This former truck driver stressed that she did not want the details of her alleged assault to overshadow her election platform, which focused on health care and affordability.

She also feared that denouncing this episode would be perceived by some voters as a political maneuver, as she tries to unseat incumbent Republican congressman Abraham Hamadeh in the November midterm elections.

"I don't want my campaign to revolve around that," she told the New York newspaper. "But women need to know they can speak out without fear."