California Trans Woman Cancels Historic State Congressional Run

After announcing that she’d seek to be California’s first transgender assemblywoman, Ashlee Marie Preston has decided to drop out of the race, The Daily Beast reports.

Preston told the Beast that she lacked sufficient time to “mount the type of campaign needed” for her candidacy.

“I cried the entire night,” Preston, the first editor-in-chief of Wear Your Voice, told the Beast. Preston was scheduled to attend a meet and greet at Yale University but cancelled after realizing her candidacy was over. Preston was running on a platform of addressing immigration, rape culture, and police brutality, according to the Beast.

Preston also blamed her campaign’s end on “dirty tricks” from her opposition, but chose not to elaborate.

“We have to be mindful of who we let into our spaces,” Preston told the Beast. “When given the opportunity to raise up other voices, some people who make a big show of being supporters actually oppress and resort to dirty tricks. But there were so many people who did stand up and support me, and those are the people I want to acknowledge. And I will be doing that.”

Before her congressional run, Preston garnered headlines when she confronted Caitlyn Jenner at a public event and called her a “fucking fraud” for her support of Donald Trump.

“It’s really fuckeded up that you continue to support somebody … that’s erasing our fucking community. And you support it!” Preston said in the video. “You are directly responsible for what has happened with transgender soldiers and the military. I am not afraid to say it to you.”

Preston told the Beast that some of her collected funds would be used to pay staff and cannot be refunded.

“But I will reverse and refund what was given after a certain date,” Preston said, without offering a definite timetable.