Congressional candidate state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Cheyenne, has announced he impregnated and married a teenage girl when he was also a teen living in Florida.
In a 13-minute video posted to Facebook on Thursday, Bouchard discussed the pregnancy and marriage, although he did not specify how old he and the girl were at the time.
“So bottom line…two teenagers, girl gets pregnant, you’ve heard this story before,” Bouchard said. “She was younger than me. So it’s like the Romeo and Juliet story.”
The two were pressured to have the girl under go an abortion, but neither was willing to do so.
“There was pressure to have her banished from their family and just pressure to go hide somewhere,” Bouchard said. “The only thing I could see was the right thing, which was to get married and take care of them.”
Neither had the best home lives, Bouchard noted in the video. He was living on his own by the age of 15, but ultimately obtained his GED and vocational training.
According to the Casper Star-Tribune, Bouchard was 18 and the girl was 14 when she became pregnant. They married when they were 19 and 15, respectively.
At the time, the two were able to marry because Florida law allowed marriage at any age if a pregnancy was involved and a parent consented. They were divorced about three years later, and the woman ultimately committed suicide in 1990, the Star-Tribune reported.
Bouchard took care of the couple’s son following his ex-wife’s death, but the two are now almost estranged.
“Sadly, he’s made some wrong choices in his life,” the senator said. “I certainly don’t approve of them, but I’m not going to abandon him. I still love him.”
Bouchard’s son, Tony Raymond Bouchard, is currently imprisoned at the Bob Wiley Detention Facility in Visalia, California, on multiple convictions, including sodomy by use of force, sexual penetration by foreign object and false imprisonment by violence. He has been incarcerated since 2018.
The senator said he posted the information about the pregnancy and marriage because the relationship was being investigated by a U.K. news outlet which he did not name.
He also said the fact people were digging into something that happened nearly 40 years ago was indicative of “dirty politics” and an example of why good people don’t run for office.
Bouchard said he was frustrated that people were digging into his background, but also said he wasn’t going to drop out of the congressional race.
“This tells you I’m in the lead, because if I wasn’t, they wouldn’t be doing this,” he said. “I’m not intimidated. Bring it on. I’m going to stay in this race and we’re going to continue to raise money.”
Bouchard does not believe that incumbent U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney was involved in digging up this information.
Bouchard announced his run for Congress in January, not long after Cheney voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for the role he allegedly played in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
The senator has touted his support of Trump and conservative values and politics as why he is the best choice to represent Wyoming in its lone House seat.
