Stan Pulliam, a top contender for the Republican nomination in Oregon’s gubernatorial race, acknowledged past membership in a Portland swingers group amid reports that screenshots from its gatherings were circulating online.
Pulliam, mayor of Sandy, Oregon, told Willamette Week that prior to launching his bid for governor, he and his wife, MacKensey, “explored relationships, mutual relationships with other couples, for a brief period of time before ultimately deciding that it wasn’t for us.”
The screenshot shows pictures of the couple and a post from Pulliam in the group “Swinger Facebook Group PDX” in 2016.
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Pulliam has cast himself as a conservative candidate seeking “to restore our pioneer glory,” according to one of his campaign ads. He has been a staunch critic of Democratic incumbent Gov. Kate Brown’s COVID-19 policies and has called into question the results of the 2020 presidential election, saying, “We will never truly know who won.”
Pulliam said his conduct is in keeping with his campaign values of “individuality and liberty.”
“The decisions that we made were for MacKensey and I to make in the privacy of our own homes,” he said. “We’re certainly not asking anybody to participate or practice or do any of the things that we have decided to do in the past. But we’re also certainly not ashamed of decisions that we’ve made in the past either, as they’ve made us stronger.”
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Pulliam’s campaign is far from a long shot for the nomination: Some early polls have found him in second place in the Republican primary. He told multiple Oregon publications he has no plans to drop out of the race.
Brown cannot run again due to the state’s term limits, setting the stage for an open Democratic primary. The heavily Democratic state has not elected a Republican governor since the 1980s.
