An alum resigned from the Arizona State House of Representatives on Tuesday after his 2015 sexual violence and sexual misconduct acts at GW came to light.
Democrat Jevin Hodge, who graduated from the University in 2016 with a degree in public policy and represented Arizona’s eighth district in the state’s lower chamber, resigned after the Arizona Republic reported on Monday a 2015 allegation of unwelcome sexual assault perpetrated by Hodge when he was 21. The victim reported Hodge to the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities in early 2016, and officials suspended and barred Hodge from campus months later after the board found him “in violation” of the allegations, according to the Monday article.
Hodge did not face civil or criminal charges. Hodge said in a release that he had a consensual romantic encounter when he was 21.
“I take responsibility for my actions and have used this experience to grow as an adult, but I must be clear: I unequivocally deny the allegations made against me,” Hodge said Monday in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “In 2016, I requested that the police fully investigate these claims so the truth could come out. My request was denied by the University.”
The Arizona Republic published the report after the survivor shared SRR documents from the incident with the publication. Those documents reportedly state a three-member hearing board recommended Hodge’s expulsion after a November 2016 hearing. He earned his bachelor’s degree a month after SRR received the victim’s complaint.
He was suspended from GW for one semester while working toward a master’s degree online, according to the Arizona Republic report. Hodge told the newspaper that he did not appeal the ruling because there was no opportunity to do so.
“When she said ‘stop,’ I stopped,” Hodge told the publication. “There was zero aggression.”
In 2022, Hodge ran for Congress in Arizona’s first district, which he lost by less than 1 percent to Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ). Hodge canceled a scheduled appearance for Monday at Arizona State University after the Arizona Republic’s article was published.
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors appointed Hodge to the Arizona House in late January to fill a vacancy. During his time at GW, he ran as a write-in candidate for the Advisory Neighborhood Commission encompassing the Mount Vernon Campus in 2012 and for an undergraduate seat for the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences in the Student Government Association Senate in 2013.
