Nate Boulton Ends Gov. Candidacy Amid Sex Misconduct Accusations

DES MOINES, IA — Iowa gubernatorial candidate Nate Boulton has suspended his campaign amid multiple sexual misconduct allegations. Three women came forward Wednesday to the Des Moines Register with sexual misconduct allegations against Boulton.

One of the women said Boulton, 38, grabbed her buttocks multiple times at a bar three years ago. Two others said he rubbed his crotch against their thighs while he had an erection.

On Thursday morning, Boulton released a statement to media outlets saying he was ending his campaign this year.

"I am so proud of the campaign that my staff, my supporters, and I ran in the past year," he said. "I was and still am inspired every day by the people who have chosen to fight alongside me in the Senate and on the campaign trail to share a positive vision forward for this incredible state of Iowa."

Boulton said that past two days have been "trying." He offered up a broad apology Thursday to "those whom [he] had harmed in any way."

Read Boulton's full statement below.

Today, I am suspending my campaign for governor. I want to thank all my supporters for their hard work this past year. My full statement is below. - NB pic.twitter.com/QsslCGUup6
— Nate Boulton (@NateBoulton) May 24, 2018

When the Register asked Boulton about the allegations, he apologized, but noted he remembered the incidents very differently.

"I don't have the same recollection," he said. "But I am not going to offer any additional context to this, other than to say if someone's perspective is that it was inappropriate and I crossed a line and I misread a situation in a social setting, I do apologize."

He also refused to comment about or discuss the specific incidents.

"I think if I add context it quickly becomes victim-blaming, and I don't want to go down that path," he told the newspaper.

Boulton is currently state senator for the 16th District, located in southern Iowa, which is currently composed of Polk County.

Boulton is just the latest powerful man to fall from grace over sexual misconduct allegations. A nationwide #MeToo movement has felled numerous men in politics, Hollywood and newsrooms over the past year, including Oscar-winning director Harvey Weinstein, former co-anchor of NBC's "Today" Matt Lauer and former U.S. Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota.

The cultural shift prompted TIME magazine to name "The Silence Breakers" and others behind the movement as its 2017 Person of the Year.

In Iowa, Dave Jamison, former interim director of the state Finance Authority, was fired in March over sexual harassment accusations. He was accused of routinely subjecting female colleagues to sexually inappropriate behavior.

That same month, Republican state Senate Majority Leader Bill Dix of Shell Rock resigned when a video surfaced of him kissing a female lobbyist at a bar.

And the following month, state Senate legislative clerk Jake Dagel was sacked over sexual harassment allegations.

This is a developing story. Hit refresh for updates.

Photo credit: Iowa Senate