House candidate Bouchard impregnated girl, 14, when he was 18
"It's like the Romeo and Juliet story."
Wyoming state Sen. Anthony Bouchard has revealed that he impregnated a 14-year-old girl he had a relationship with when he was 18.
The U.S. House candidate disclosed the relationship in a Facebook Live video to his supporters on Thursday. The senator said he decided to go public with his truth after learning that people opposed to his candidacy were investigating his past for a salacious news report.
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“So, bottom line, it’s a story when I was young, two teenagers, girl gets pregnant,” he said in the Facebook Live video. “You’ve heard those stories before. She was a little younger than me, so it’s like the Romeo and Juliet story.”
Bouchard later told the Star-Tribune that he married the girl when he was age 19 and she was 15. Both were living in Florida at a time when state law allowed pregnant teenagers to wed with a judge’s approval and parental consent. Bouchard and the unnamed woman divorced three years after tying the knot.
“A lot of pressure. Pressure to abort a baby. I got to tell you. I wasn’t going to do it, and neither was she,” he said. “And there was pressure to have her banished from their family. Just pressure. Pressure to go hide somewhere. And the only thing I could see as the right thing to do was to get married and take care of him.”
Bouchard’s ex-wife killed herself when she was 20, and he continued to raise their son.
“She had problems in another relationship. Her dad had committed suicide,” Bouchard said in the 13-minute video.
“Sadly, he’s made some wrong choices in his life,” he said of his son. “He’s almost become my estranged son. Some of the things that he’s got going on his life, I certainly don’t approve of them. But I’m not going to abandon him. I still love him. Just like when he was born.”
Bouchard urged his supporters to share the video because he wants “everyone to know” that he has nothing to hide.
“I don’t want to hide anything,” he told the Star-Tribune. “I don’t want people drug into this. This is just crazy over politics.”
Bouchard said a “political opposition research company” is planning to run a story about his previous marriage and he wanted to get ahead of it.
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“We know the company that started this investigation. It’s a political opposition research company. We know who they are and then it turned into a U.K. media reporter, is who’s called me,” he said, noting that he did not respond to the outlet.
“This is really a message about how dirty politics is,” said Bouchard. “They’ll stop at nothing, man, when you get in the lead and when you’re somebody that can’t be controlled, you’re somebody who works for the people. They’ll come after you. That’s why good people don’t run for office.”
Bouchard intends to challenge Rep. Liz Cheney in 2022 following her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump. He shared the link to his Facebook Live video on Twitter, along with the caption: ”I won’t back down, Swamp! @RepLizCheney Bring it!”
Bouchard said the haters digging through his past only “care about … helping people like Liz Cheney win.”
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