A married Iowa Republican campaigning for state lieutenant governor on a “traditional family values” platform has denied setting up a 2016 account linked to his email address on Adult Friend Finder, a hookup service for people seeking casual relationships.
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Derek Wulf was last month named running mate to Iowa GOP gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn. Both candidates have been vocal critics of non-traditional relationships.
Wulf is a third-generation cattle farmer and lives on a farm in Hudson, Iowa, with his wife, Dresden, and two children. They married in 2006.
An email address tied to him was exposed during a security breach on the website in 2016, according to LeakCheck.io, a respected cybersecurity platform that lets users check if their details are exposed in cyberattacks.
The data was highlighted by American Bridge 21st Century, a progressive research group and political action committee.
It is not known if Wulf signed up for the Adult Friend Finder account, or if somebody else used his email address. Multiple phone calls and emails to the candidate from Raw Story went unanswered.
But Luke Thompson, a strategist with the Lahn campaign, told Raw Story that Wulf denies setting up the account with the email that is associated with his phone service, and has said that he has not used the site.
“Anyone can set up an account for anyone,” Thompson said.
“This is a database that has routinely been used by identity thieves to set up accounts,” he added, referencing an Associated Press story involving Bernie Moreno and Adult Friend Finder.
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Moreno, now a GOP senator representing Ohio, was linked to an Adult Friend Finder account set up in 2008 and seeking “Men for 1-on-1 sex.”
Moreno’s lawyer later told AP it had been set up by a former intern, Dan Ricci, as “part of a juvenile prank.”
Thompson warned Raw Story, “Pursuing this in the face of this knowledge will change the nature of our relationship considerably.”
Adult Friend Finder promotes itself as a platform for adults seeking casual and non-traditional relationships.
The site and its parent company, FriendFinder Networks, were hit by two massive data breaches in 2015 and 2016. The most recent was one of the largest breaches in history and exposed more than 412 million accounts.
It’s unknown if the account linked to Wulf is still active.
On June 12, gubernatorial candidate Lahn announced his choice of running mate.
“Today, I am proud to announce Representative Derek Wulf as my pick for Lieutenant Governor. Derek has been an Iowa First fighter for years in the legislature. Whether it was leading on Right to Repair, defending private property rights, or stopping corporate overreach – Derek has been there for Iowans and I am very proud to have him partner with me on this campaign and look forward to serving with him at the Capitol,” Lahn wrote on X.
Wulf has campaigned on restoring “Iowa’s values and way of life” and claimed the “foundation of our country is based on the person of Jesus Christ.” Lahn has shared similar messages, and in 2009 he called the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage as “judicial tyranny.”
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