The Saturday event, dubbed ‘Rally to Protect Our Elections’, included speeches from candidates running for various positions, such as state senate seats or secretary of state, a position Ugenti-Rita is currently vying for. 

The state senator was booed before she even began her speech. After several false starts, Ugenti-Rita gave up and said, "I’m running to be your next secretary of state. I’m going to win the primary,” before she exited the stage. 

Ugenti-Rita has been a target of Republicans recently, mainly thanks to her shooting down an elections bill from fellow state Senator Kelly Townsend. She joined Democrats in voting against the bill. 

Ugenti-Rita’s frosty reception at the TPUSA event was not the end of her controversy. She has since been accused by conservative outlet the Gateway Pundit of having one of their reporters kicked out of the event and later arrested. 

According to the Pundit’s report, their journalist, Jordan Conradson, confronted the state senator after her disastrous speech and asked her if her vote against Townsend’s election integrity bill was why she was booed. She would only say it was because the bill was "bad,” and when continuing to be questioned, event staff removed Conradson from the event for "harassing” the lawmaker.