A top candidate in the Republican primary for Oregon governor has admitted that he and his wife had explored a swinging lifestyle before deciding that swapping partners wasn’t for them, according to a report.
Stan Pulliam, 40, told the Williamett Week that he and his wife of 12 years, MacKensey, had “explored relationships, mutual relationships with other couples, for a brief period of time before ultimately deciding that it wasn’t for us.”
Pulliam, the mayor of his hometown of Sandy, fessed up to the outlet after a 2016 screenshot from a page titled “Swinger Facebook Group PDX” made its rounds across the state’s political circles.
“Hi Everyone! MacKensey and I are excited to be added to your little community. Some of you we have already had the pleasure to meet and we look forward to getting to know the rest of you!” he wrote in the group, which had 536 members at the time, the Williamett Week reported on Thursday.
In an interview last week with the newspaper, Pulliam declined to reveal when the “mutual relationships” began or ended, but said the couple’s participation ended well before he began running for the state’s top office.
“I think people can relate from all different parts of the state who have been involved in marriages,” he told Williamett Week. “There are different stages of marriage and different ebbs and flows. This is something that was for a brief period in our past and is in the past.”
The strong Trump supporter, who also questions the results of the 2020 presidential election, said in a Feb. 1 tweet: “I am the ONLY candidate who has the courage to say what needs to be said about the integrity of our elections.
“If you want an ACTUAL conservative as your next governor then we need your help!” he added.
Pulliam told the newspaper that his past sexual activity is consistent with his campaign values.
“In Oregon, we really cherish values of individuality and liberty,” Pulliam said.
“The decisions that we made were for MacKensey and I to make in the privacy of our own homes. 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,” he said.
“But we’re also certainly not ashamed of decisions that we’ve made in the past either, as they’ve made us stronger,” the candidate added.