A married Iowa Republican running for lieutenant governor has denied any involvement with an alleged Adult Friend Finder account tied to his email address following a reported data breach disclosure.

Derek Wulf, a state legislator and running mate of gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn, was identified by a cybersecurity database as having an email address that appeared in data exposed during a 2016 breach of the adult-oriented hookup website.The report was highlighted by a progressive research group and later covered by media outlets.

The Adult Friend Finder platform, which facilitates casual relationships among adults, experienced two major data breaches in 2015 and 2016, exposing hundreds of millions of user records.

In this case, it is unclear whether Wulf personally created or used the account, or whether his email address was used by another individual without authorization.Campaign representatives stated that Wulf denies creating the account and has not used the service.

They also suggested that email addresses can be misused by third parties and referenced prior incidents in which individuals were falsely linked to similar accounts.Wulf’s campaign emphasized his public platform centered on traditional values and his long-standing political messaging.The candidate has campaigned on issues related to family values and cultural conservatism.

The report also drew comparisons to other political figures previously linked to similar data breach findings, though in those cases explanations such as identity misuse or prank accounts were later cited.

As of the reporting, there is no confirmed evidence that Wulf personally registered or accessed the account, and the matter remains based on leaked historical data from a compromised database.