U.S. Rep. Reed Apologizes, Says Won’t Run for Any Office in 2022

A U.S.. Congressman whose district encompasses much of the Southern Tier, including Tioga and part of Broome County, says he is abandoning any plans for future political office after being accused of unhooking a woman’s bra and touching her thigh three years ago.

Republican Tom Reed was accused last week of intimately touching a female lobbyist without her consent in 2017.  He apologized to Nicholette Davis on Sunday and announced that he will not run for reelection next year, nor would he run for Governor of New York, something Reed mentioned as he criticized Governor Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the reporting of nursing home deaths during the pandemic and amidst Cuomo’s own on-going sexual harassment scandal.

Reed said in a statement that the incident involving then-lobbyist Nicolette Davis occurred “at a time in my life in which I was struggling.” He said he entered treatment that year and realized he was “powerless over alcohol.”

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He said, however that he takes full responsibility although he states he was “only hearing of this matter as stated by Ms. Davis in the article now.”  Reed says he will not dismiss her and “his personal depiction of the event is irrelevant.”

Reed was first elected to represent the 23^rd District in Congress in 2010. The district spreads from Lake Erie to Apalachin, Newark Valley and just north of Interstate 90 in Senaca Falls.

Reed said he would not seek any elective office in 2022.