Wyoming state senator and congressional candidate Anthony Bouchard said he impregnated a 14-year-old when he was 18 and living in Florida.
Bouchard told the Casper Star Tribune that he and the girl rejected pressure to have an abortion and married when he was 19 and she was 15. He said on social media that it was like a Romeo and Juliet story. They remained married for three years. He said she later committed suicide.
Bouchard is hoping to defeat Liz Cheney in next year's Republican primary for the U.S. House. He said on social media that he went public when he heard that someone was looking into the story for political reasons.
"People are sick of politics like this where they're going to use something (from) almost 40 years ago. Something that I did, but more importantly they can't see that I did the right thing," Bouchard said.
He added that he has no intention of dropping out of the race now that the issue has gone public.
"Everybody has something in their life that they did, or they lived through, or they have a family member that's going through a problem. Everybody has this, this is America, we've all had this kind of problem, said Bouchard. "Why is this a big deal? It's a damn shame that they'll stop good people from running for office and I'm not going to let them do it to me," he added.
While such cases are currently considered statutory rape, it's unclear if that was Florida law at the time. As a state senator, Bouchard represents Laramie and Goshen counties.
