State Sen. Nate Blouin has apologized for inflammatory and derogatory internet posts from more than a decade ago on things like sexual assault and the Latter-day Saint faith.
Washington D.C.-based Punchbowl News first reported the comments that Blouin made when he was in his 20s. The story details a series of online posts on various internet forums between 2011 and 2015.
In them, Blouin, who used a screen name, mocked members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and repeatedly used vulgar language, appearing to joke about sexual battery and child sexual exploitation.
Blouin conceded the authenticity of the comments and said there was “no excuse.”
“They're vulgar, stupid, and reflect a version of me in my early twenties that I’m ashamed of and have thankfully evolved past,” he wrote in a social media statement. “When a reporter sent me these posts, I was horrified to see my use of language toward women and about a faith that my family, friends, and millions of Utahns practice.”
Blouin said he will not “minimize what I wrote” and believes every candidate running for office should take “full accountability” for things they may have said online in the past.
“To the people I hurt with my words, I sincerely apologize,” he said.
Now, some of his primary opponents have called on him to leave the race. His Democratic colleagues in the Legislature stopped short of calling for him to suspend his campaign, but issued a joint statement calling the posts “beyond unacceptable.”
“There are no excuses for so-called jokes that target people’s identity or beliefs, or that make light of or appear to endorse sexual assault,” said minority leadership in both the Utah House and Senate. “These statements are offensive and personally hurtful to us and to the people we represent.”
Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson went further, calling on Blouin to drop out of the race and the statehouse. Wilson said she was “appalled” and hopes his apology “reflects genuine growth,” but that, for her, was not enough.
“I do not believe he should continue to serve in public office or seek election to Congress,” she said. “Public service requires judgment and conduct that meet a high standard, and in my view, his past actions fall short of that expectation.”
Blouin took office in 2023 after defeating longtime Democratic state Sen. Gene Davis, who was accused of sexual harassment in the lead-up to the primary.
For the director of the Walker Institute of Politics and Public Service at Weber State University, Leah Murray, the Blouin scandal shows how the Democratic primary has taken a “mean” turn. It exposes Utah Democrats' willingness to go after their own.
“[Punchbowl founder] Jake Sherman must have gotten a tip from somebody,” she said. “Because I just can't imagine Punchbowl had that in their back pocket.”
The Democratic primary for the new left-leaning 1st Congressional District is crowded and has largely been characterized as a contest between the party’s younger, more progressive wing — represented by Blouin and others like Liban Mohamed and Salt Lake City Councilor Eva Lopez Chavez — and the more traditional set with former congressman Ben McAdams as the standardbearer.
Blouin enjoyed early endorsements from national progressive figures like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic activist David Hogg.
A poll released by Blouin’s campaign in March showed McAdams leading the primary field among likely voters with 36% support, followed by Blouin with 23%. According to the poll, 25% of those surveyed were undecided.
Even before the revelations about Blouin’s online past, Murray said she noticed a tone shift from Democrats in the primary.
“There's not a lot of [policy] difference between these people,” she said. “So the answer is, I have to show some difference between me and the other people in my party, right? So that's going to require me to be mean if I have to.”
Candidates in the race and those closely following it have increasingly traded online barbs ahead of the April 25 Utah Democratic State Convention, particularly over who really is a “progressive” in the race.
For independent observers like Murray, it’s another example of candidates trying to find any daylight between each other.
“I don't think the labels have any meaning because it totally is relative to where you are standing,” Murray said. “It's clearly signaling to who they think are going to be the primary voters, who they expect to be more left-leaning.”
With overlapping policy positions, Murray said there’s an atmosphere where mudslinging thrives.
“I would kind of argue, like that has the potential for being meaner,” she said. “Families go after each other the worst.”
Theo Gardner-Puschak, a former Utah Democratic operative, said that with how close the partisan split is in the U.S. House, there is more national attention on Utah from left-leaning organizations. He characterized a negative campaign environment as the product of a “unique combination of attention and resources that are being funneled into the state.”
“When you have money that's pouring into campaigns, into independent expenditure committees that's focused on an intra-party primary like this, there's money for opposition research,” he said. “There's money for candidates to both elevate themselves, but in a crowded primary field, comment on their opponents as well. And I think that's something that in Utah, Democrats are not used to.”
Gardner-Puschak agreed with Murray that in a field where most candidates stake out similar policy stances, there is increased attention to the smaller nuances.
“I do want to say that in Utah, the party as a whole is, in my opinion, a lot more united than [Democrats] nationally,” he said. “There's not a ton of distance between the candidates running in this primary on their policy positions. It might seem like it with some of the news coverage that we're seeing, but I think if voters dig into their platforms, they'll find they're far more similar than some of the platforms on the right, which span anywhere from Mitt Romney style Republican to someone who's on the far MAGA edge of the party.”
However, Murray thinks this moment represents a major shake-up in the race.
“I would have said before this morning that it was absolutely a Ben McAdams, Nate Blouin race and not a lot of confounding variables,” she said. “But women in that district might have feelings that they didn't have yesterday.”
