WASHINGTON - In public, Wesley Goodman was an up-and-coming conservative who championed pro-family and anti-LGBT causes and aspired to someday run for Congress.

In private, he exchanged salacious texts and emails with gay men he met on Capitol Hill, and sent sexually suggestive messages to young men he met through conservative circles who were too intimidated to publicly complain, according to three people who knew him when he worked in Washington.

Goodman's double life ended this week when he resigned from the Ohio legislature after House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger was alerted to Goodman's involvement in "inappropriate behavior" with a man in his state office in Columbus.

The married, 33-year-old was elected to the 87th district seat in 2016 after working for the Conservative Action Project, a network of economic, social and national security conservatives. He previously worked for conservative U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, a Champaign County Republican.

Former state legislator Wesley Goodwin posted this photograph of himself at the Bucyrus Bratwurst festival on a public social media account that has since been made private (Screenshot from Instagram)

Johnny Hadlock, then a staffer for another GOP congressman in Washington, said he met Goodman in 2010. Hadlock said he confided in Goodman that he was a closeted gay man and the two began exchanging text messages.

In an interview with cleveland.com, Hadlock described the messages as sexting and gay banter, and said he engaged in phone sex with Goodman.

"Wes never sexually harassed me -- we both knew what we were doing and we were both fine doing it," Hadlock said.

Hadlock went on to work for Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign and now works at a D.C. non-profit. He said he last talked with Goodman in 2014. In private Facebook messages shared with cleveland.com, Goodman initiated conversation with Hadlock several times, once when he said his wife was out of town and another when he said she was asleep.

In one conversation, Goodman told Hadlock he was in his underwear. In another, he asked if Hadlock was sexually aroused. Hadlock said the two never engaged in physical sexual acts.

Another conservative with Ohio ties told cleveland.com that Goodman engaged in predatory behavior toward younger men after leaving Jordan's office, sending inappropriate material and propositioning them via text message and Facebook messenger.

The conservative operative said he'd target college kids who wanted to have him as a mentor and were scared to report his sexual advances because they didn't want to damage their own careers. A former co-worker shared screenshots of messages Goodman sent him that the operative likened to the lewd texts that derailed the congressional career of New York's Anthony Weiner.

"It was suggestive 'I am here in my underwear' kinds of stuff," the longtime GOP operative recalled.

Former Ohio legislator Wesley Goodman poses with former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint in this screenshot of photograph posted on an Instagram account that Goodman has since made private.

Goodman was seen as a rising conservative star and a good networker who could help young people get jobs in conservative organizations, the Republican activist said.

"People never really wanted to come forward against someone in power," the operative added.

On Friday, The Washington Post published an account that described a 2015 incident where Goodman was accused of inviting the teenaged son of a Republican donor to his bedroom in a Ritz Carlton hotel. The young man awoke in the middle of the night to find Goodman pulling down the zipper of his pants, and ran from the room in a panic at around 4 a.m., according to the account in the Post.

According to the Post, the incident triggered Goodman's departure from a conservative group called the Council for National Policy, whose president, Family Research Council head Tony Perkins, urged Goodman not to run for public office and severed ties with him upon learning of his state legislative campaign.

Goodman had served as managing director of an offshoot of Perkins' group that was formed to counter President Obama's agenda, such as the Affordable Care Act.

Another former GOP congressional staffer, Chris Donnelly, told cleveland.com that Goodman replied to a Craigslist post on a board for men seeking men, and the two had a sexual encounter in 2008. In a response shown to cleveland.com, an email account using the name Brady Murphey described himself as a "straight/curious" guy who needed to be discreet.

"Maybe we can hang and see what's up, no expectations really," the response said. "But your post seemed cool so let me know bro."

Donnelly said Goodman was "all over Craigslist" and responded to several ads posted by Donnelly and other gay men.

"It became a running joke between me and my gay friends on Capitol Hill," Donnelly said. "It's not like it was some one-off thing."

Hadlock and Donnelly reached out to cleveland.com because they were disappointed Goodman would push anti-LGBT policies while secretly seeking out and being intimate with other men.

Donnelly said the last time he saw Goodman was at a conservative event in 2009. Goodman was there with Jordan to urge support for the congressman's D.C. Defense of Marriage Act, which would have overturned a local law allowing recognition of same-sex marriages. Goodman was handling the issue for Jordan, Donnelly said.

Donnelly said he warned Ohio Republicans that Goodman's behavior in D.C. didn't match his socially conservative platform. Emails show Donnelly shared this information with Kenny Street, political director for the Ohio Republican House Republican Caucus, after Goodman won his district primary in May 2016.

Donnelly said Street told him he would take the matter to Speaker Cliff Rosenberger and later that the caucus planned to confront Goodman.

Rosenberger spokesman Brad Miller said the speaker had not heard the allegations published by the Post until Friday and had not heard allegations about Goodman sending inappropriate messages to younger men. When asked whether Rosenberger had heard the rumors of Goodman's past, Miller said they can't chase down every rumor.

"Until someone comes forward with a substantial allegation -- and when that occurs there is immediate action to make sure the proper protocols are followed," Miller said.

Miller said Rosenberger first heard of the incident that occurred in Goodman's Ohio office on Tuesday, and the two agreed his resignation was appropriate.

Former Ohio legislator Wesley Goodman poses with former House Freedom Caucus member Tim Huelskamp of Kansas - an ally of Champaign County GOP Rep. Jim Jordan - in this screenshot of a Tweet that was subsequently deleted from Heulskamp's Twitter profile.

Goodman apologized and asked for privacy for himself and his family in a statement released Wednesday morning.

"We all bring our own struggles and our own trials into public life," Goodman said in the statement. "That has been true for me, and I sincerely regret that my actions and choices have kept me from serving my constituents and our state in a way that reflects the best ideals of public service."

Hadlock said Goodman doesn't deserve privacy given his history of supporting anti-LGBT causes, but he always liked Goodman and hopes the situation brings him some relief.

"My hope for Wes is that he can now pursue an authentic life and be happy, whatever that means," Hadlock said.

This story was reported with Washington Bureau reporter Sabrina Eaton.