A married Democrat in a tight congressional race in Michigan is in trouble after it was discovered that his email was used to sign up for an account on an adult dating and casual sex website.
Curtis Hertel, a Democratic candidate for Michigan's 7th Congressional District, signed up for the hot Adult Friend Finder while married, DailyMail.com has learned.
Records show that his email was discovered among those used to register on the dating and sex site. The email came to light as a result of a data breach in 2016, in which the information of more than 400 million users was compromised.
Despite his involvement with the sex site during his marriage, he claims in a recent ad that “I'm just a normal guy,” although the scandalous revelation may indicate otherwise.
However, DailyMail.com similarly reviewed evidence that shows Hertel deleted her account in 2007, long before her marriage.
Still, the conflicting reports do not deny Hertel’s involvement in “the world’s largest swinger and dating community.”
Curtis Hertel and his wife Elizabeth Hertel. The couple married in 2010, four years before the Democrat last logged into his AdultFriendFinders.com account.
“The candidates are very presumptuous,” says Hertel in a commercial promoting his campaign. 'I'm just a normal guy.'
'I coach my son's basketball team. I cut my own grass and like to drink beer and smoke meat,” he says.
However, his 'regular guy' persona may not completely portray the candidate who has, in the past, taken steps to open an account for an extramarital affair.
Hertel, records show, used his personal email to sign up for the account and last accessed it in 2014, years after his 2010 marriage to his wife Elizabeth Hertel.
Surprisingly, his email was linked to an account with the dirty username 'Skumdogs'.
Hertel's campaign did not return a request for comment.
Curtis and Elizabeth at a local campaign event in Lansing, Michigan
'[email protected]', an account linked to Hertel, was found among the emails used to register with AdultFriendFinder.com
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The email associated with Hertel, '[email protected]', was linked to the Democrat on several websites.
Obviously he has this email listed as his contact on a Democratic website called BlueVoterGuide.org.
The scandal comes as Hertel is in a tight race to replace Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who is currently running for U.S. Senate in Michigan.
His GOP opponent, Tom Barrett, ran against Slotkin in 2022 and lost by eight points.
But this round of the race is much tighter.
The AdultFriendFinder.com home page where an account connected to Hertel's email was created
The race for Michigan's 7th District has been identified as one of the most promising races to turn into a crisis this cycle by the National Republican Congressional Committee.
As a result, Barrett is one of a select few Republicans who receives campaign funding from the organization.
Other candidates have also come under scrutiny this election cycle because of their accounts on adult websites.
Democratic candidate-turned-independent candidate for Nebraska's U.S. Senate seat, Dan Osborn, 49, has denied allegations that he was reported for being on Ashley Madison, despite being married to his wife of 22 years, Megan, whom he shares three children.
An email directly connected to Osborn was used to sign up to the infamous Ashley Madison affair website, DailyMail.com has learned.
Married Nebraska Senate candidate Dan Osborn has been involved in several scandals, DailyMail.com has learned
The dating site is known for facilitating extramarital affairs. It was created in 2001 with the slogan “life is short, have an affair”, with over 37 million unfaithful spouses taking the bait.
His campaign denied that Osborn ever “used Ashley Madison.” But the candidate had access to the email – a “shared corporate account” used by “several people”.
Osborn, a Catholic, is also facing other scandal rumors.
He had access to a Twitter account that was previously caught liking explicit gay porn and photos of naked girls on X, screenshots obtained by DailyMail.com show.
Osborn's campaign also denied that he “liked” gay pornography on Twitter, now X, between 2020 and 2021.
But they confirmed that Osborn had access to the 'President of the BCTGM 50G Union' account along with 'several people'.
A screenshot of what appears to be Dan Osborn's Twitter account reveals he may have liked sexualized content
Similarly, North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson made a series of crude and troubling comments on the pornographic forum Nude Africa, where he called himself a “pervert” and “black Nazi,” a condemned CNN report revealed in September. .
Robinson, who is still on the ballot in North Carolina, denied the reports and claimed they are all “outright lies” or just “half-truths.”
CNN's investigation found that Robinson posted several troubling comments on the pornography website Nude Africa.
This included expressing support for the reestablishment of slavery and, unprovoked, writing: 'I'm a black NAZI!'
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is running for governor of the swing state
The Robinson forum post also revealed unfiltered thoughts on issues such as race, gender and abortion.
In October 2010, Robinson wrote: “Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it (slavery) back. I would definitely buy some.
Many called for Robinson to drop out of the race following the report.
