Updated 4:57pm 5/23/18
A Democratic state senator running for Governor of Iowa has been accused of sexual misconduct by three women that includes inappropriate touching.
The women told The Des Moines Register that Senator Nate Boulton of Des Moines touched them inappropriately during separate incidents.
One woman told the newspaper that Boulton grabbed her buttocks at a bar in 2015.
Two other women told the Register he rubbed himself against them more than a decade ago.
Boulton released a statement apologizing to the women and adding he would not “disqualify what these women felt at the time or in hindsight.”
He says he has no plans to drop out of the race.
Jeff Kauffmann, chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, says Boulton should step down as both a gubernatorial candidate and as a state senator.
Boulton last September said the statehouse should lead by example and not be, unfortunately, a bad example.
That was in the wake of sexual harassment accusations against Republican staff by a woman who was a former GOP senate aide.
Boulton is in a six-way race for the Democratic nomination for governor.
Early voting for the June 5th primary is underway.
