Daily US Times: Anthony Bouchard, Wyoming state senator and a Republican who is trying to unseat US congresswoman Liz Cheney next year, revealed that he impregnated a 14-year-old girl when he was 18 years old, describing the relationship as “like the Romeo and Juliet” story in a description that drew a rebuke from a sexual assault prevention group.

Bouchard, 55, vowed not to drop out of the election and blamed “dirty politics” for bringing the story to light.

Bouchard initially disclosed on Thursday what he described as a typical teenage relationship in a Facebook Live video to supporters. He later confirmed that the girl’s age to the Casper Star-Tribune.

He said in the video: “It’s a story when I was young, two teenagers, girl gets pregnant. You’ve heard those stories before. She was a little younger than me, so it’s like the Romeo and Juliet story.”

The Republican politician married the girl when she was 15 and he was 19, when both were living in Florida. They divorced three years later and she killed herself when she was 20, Bouchard said.

A spokesperson for Liz Cheney has said that her campaign did not have anything to do with trying to surface the story about Bouchard’s past.

Cheney has become a figurehead of resistance in the Republican party to President Donald Trump and was removed from the party’s leadership earlier this month over her criticism of his lies that the 2020 election was rigged.

Bouchard has become a frontrunner to run against her in a primary challenge next year.

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