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Three women have accused Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Nate Boulton of inappropriate sexual conduct.

One woman told the Des Moines Register that Boulton, now 38, repeatedly grabbed her buttocks at a bar in 2015. Two others told the Register that when Boulton was in law school more than a decade ago, he rubbed his clothed crotch against them, pressing his erect penis into their thighs.

More:Nate Boulton suspends governor campaign after accusations of sexual misconduct

Boulton, who announced in May 2017 he would seek the Democratic nomination for governor, did not deny the allegations.

More: Rival says sexual misconduct allegations disqualify Nate Boulton from leadership

“I don’t have the same recollection,” he told the Register. “But I am not going to offer any additional context to this, other than to say if someone’s perspective is that it was inappropriate and I crossed a line and I misread a situation in a social setting, I do apologize.”

He declined to comment on or discuss the specific incidents, saying, “I think if I add context it quickly becomes victim-blaming, and I don’t want to go down that path.”

The woman who has accused Boulton of grabbing her buttocks three years ago is lawyer Sharon Wegner of Des Moines. Her account was corroborated by a friend, Ash Bruxvoort, who said she witnessed the incident. Both are Democrats.

Jessica Millage, now an attorney from the Des Moines area, said Boulton repeatedly rubbed his erection against her without her consent during social gatherings while the two attended Drake University Law School.

The third accuser, who described an incident similar to Millage’s from about the same time frame, declined to be named for fear of professional repercussions. She and Millage are both Republicans.

Sexual misconduct and the state’s handling of such situations have become issues in the governor’s race and at the Iowa Capitol following high-profile allegations of harassment.

Nationally, those same issues dominate headlines as women come forward with allegations of harassment, assault and other sexual impropriety under the banner of the “Me Too” movement.

Boulton faces five other Democrats in a June 5 primary, and the winner will take on incumbent Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds. Boulton said Wednesday morning he does not anticipate making changes to his campaign.

“I think I owe it to those people who have supported me to have that vision tested at the ballot box,” he said.

A May 20 Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll showed Boulton in second place, trailing 11 percentage points behind businessman Fred Hubbell.

More:‘I apologize publicly,’ governor candidate Nate Boulton says of accusations of sexual misconduct

Woman: Boulton ‘pursued’ me in 2015 at a bar

Wegner remembers backing up against the wall of an East Village bar in 2015, hoping that physically barricading half her body might stop Boulton from grabbing her buttocks again.

“I don’t want to say it was constant, but it felt like every time he was near me his hand somehow found its way to my rear end,” said Wegner, who is now 33.

Wegner was about a year-and-a-half out of Drake Law School at the time and Boulton already was gaining prominence in the Des Moines legal, political and social circles she was starting to navigate. Wegner said she was hesitant to make a scene that night, Nov. 20, and hoped Boulton would pick up on her nonverbal signals.

“I turned. I stepped back. I stepped away,” Wegner said. “I moved to the other side of the group of people that we were with. But Nate pursued me the entire rest of the night.”

The night began at The Continental on East Locust Street, where Wegner met up with her friend, Bruxvoort.

It was relatively warm for November, Wegner said, and it seemed that all of Des Moines had flooded the East Village for its annual Holiday Promenade. The Continental was crowded with people, and Boulton — whom Wegner knew but not well — was there with his wife, she said.

Wegner and Bruxvoort — inviting others to join them as they left — walked the short distance to Wooly’s, a bar and concert venue, later that night for an annual drag show event called “Drag King.”

“We watched the performances there, and at some point in the evening, Nate put his hand on my butt,” Wegner said.

She said it was “shocking” to feel his hand there, because her conversation up until that point had not been flirtatious.

“It felt very flagrant,” Wegner said, particularly because Boulton’s wife was nearby.

Wegner said Boulton appeared very intoxicated.

Bruxvoort, now a 28-year-old nonprofit worker, said she saw Boulton’s hand move to Wegner’s buttocks. Bruxvoort said she made eye contact with Wegner from a short distance away.

“We were standing and talking and up kind of by the bar area,” Bruxvoort said. “And Nate was standing kind of like next to Sharon and I saw him like touch her back and touch her ass. And I looked at Sharon like, ‘What the hell just happened?’ … It was definitely not like an accidental thing.”

The two told the Register they discussed the situation immediately after it happened, voicing surprise and confusion at Boulton’s actions. Neither said she confronted him about his conduct.

A photo Wegner originally posted to Facebook on Nov. 22, 2015, shows her, Bruxvoort and Boulton among a small group of other people at a bar that appears to be Wooly’s. The photo has since been deleted from Facebook but was shared with the Register.

About six months after that night at Wooly’s, Wegner said she emailed Boulton seeking guidance on a pair of workers’ compensation cases she had picked up. Boulton specializes in that area of the law, and he was the only experienced workers’ compensation attorney she knew, she said.

“I do remember being scared to go to his office and like silently praying in my head, ‘Please don’t close the door,’” Wegner said. “And he didn’t, and it was very professional and above board. But walking in I felt uneasy, and it was one of those, ‘Why did you put yourself in that situation, Sharon?’”

Wegner said she considered coming forward for months but hoped the allegations would come out without her participation. She said she was swayed, in part, by news that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman — a professed champion of women’s rights — resigned after four women with whom he was romantically involved accused him of physically assaulting them.

“You don’t get to stand there and be lauded as a champion for women’s rights,” she said, “when you do these sorts of things.”

She said of Boulton: “I think it’s been hard because I want him to be the person who he says he is.”

Both Wegner and Bruxvoort say they are Democrats and could have supported Boulton’s candidacy had the unwanted interaction not taken place. Bruxvoort said she is active with the Democratic Socialists of America and has volunteered with Democrat Cathy Glasson’s campaign, but she said she considers Boulton to be a viable, progressive candidate.

“I would be probably really strongly considering voting for Nate if I didn’t know this,” Bruxvoort said.

Woman from law school: ‘This isn’t just some weird accident’

Earlier allegations against Boulton date back to his time at Drake Law School, from which he graduated in 2005.

Millage, who attended Drake Law School from 2001 to 2004, said she remembers seeing him regularly at the law school’s weekly “bar review” night — an open event for law students to gather at area bars once a week.

One night, she said, Boulton approached her in a loud, crowded bar. She said she does not remember the bar or the date, but believes it was in 2002.

As she sat on a tall bar stool, she said he pressed his erect penis against her upper thigh.

“I guess I thought that he couldn’t have known that that happened,” she said.

Millage said dismissing the incident “felt reasonable at the time. The first time.”

But it happened again, she said.

“It was probably three or four times total before I completely registered that this is a thing that he’s doing,” Millage said. “This isn’t just some weird accident or something.”

She said the incidents occurred over the course of about a year, all in bars.

Millage said the interactions were difficult to process, in part because she said they were not accompanied by inappropriate remarks, come-ons or other lewd actions.

“He’d just be talking about some mundane contracts class or something like that, and he’s blatantly doing this and looking at you right in the face as he’s doing it,” Millage said.

Millage said Boulton was not noticeably intoxicated.

A friend of Millage’s, who is now a 41-year-old Des Moines-area resident, said she joined Millage out for drinks one night and experienced the same thing.

She said she was sitting on a bar stool, making her thigh about waist-height. She said Boulton, whom she had not met before, approached her and, without speaking, put his erect penis against her upper thigh. She said he made direct eye contact.

“I just kind of moved away from him,” said the woman, who asked not to be named. “I would like to think if that happened to me now at 41, I would have yelled at him or something. But in my early 20s, I just kind of walked away from him to make it stop.”

The woman said she told Millage about what happened and realized their stories were remarkably similar. But neither woman said she reported the situation.

“What was I going to do, go to the dean of the law school and be like, ‘This guy is rubbing his erection on me?’” Millage said. “That just wasn’t ever on my radar as a conversation I was going to have. And I have no idea — if I could go back in time I still don’t know that I would have had any idea what to do then, either.”

Millage and her friend, both Republicans, said they felt compelled to share their stories as the “Me Too” movement gained traction and as Boulton spoke publicly about issues of harassment and sexual misconduct.

“I’m sure lots of Democrats are speaking out about (issues of sexual misconduct), and rightfully so,” Millage said. “But obviously when he does, it definitely triggers something in me and it just makes me really angry, because it’s so hypocritical of him to frankly have anything to say about that after the way he’s behaved.”

Boulton: ‘I hope this is a teachable moment for young men’

Though Boulton did not address the allegations specifically, he stressed the difference between the workplace conduct of people in positions of authority and interactions that occur in social situations.

He said he does not believe he would have had “authority or undue influence over” the women who came forward.

“In a social setting, as it has been identified to me, I think there is a definite difference,” he told the Register. “I think there is room for a conversation to be had here. I think we all very clearly understand the bright line that exists in, again, those positions of power and influence. Those employment settings. I think in the social setting, there is room for a conversation to be had, and I hope this is a teachable moment for young men as this comes forward.”

He called for nuance as part of that conversation, saying, “I also hope that there’s room for something between victim-blaming and life-ruining on both sides.”

On the campaign trail, Boulton has spoken out about issues of harassment and sexual misconduct.

At a May 13 debate hosted by KWQC and the Quad City Times, the Democrats running for governor were asked what they would have done differently and how they have been affected by the “Me Too” movement.

“It’s one of the reasons why I became a workers’ rights attorney, to stand up for people who have been discriminated against, who have been assaulted or harassed,” Boulton responded. “And I’ve been proud to see so many women step up and show that it does take courage but also that people in the community are going to be there to be supportive.”

In that debate, he also criticized Iowa Senate Republicans for their handling of a case in which former staffer Kirsten Anderson alleged she was harassed and then fired when she raised her concerns.

“I’ve worked with Republicans and Democrats to make sure we never see a headline like that again,” he said at the time.

Boulton on Wednesday defended his record of working to counteract sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation in the workplace.

“I’m proud to have stood against that in the courtroom. I’m proud to have stood against that in the Senate,” he said. “In terms of what this has added is, I think, the next layer of the conversation that needs to be had of social boundaries, and I think there is a discussion that we can and should have on that.”

Boulton said there is “no other threat of this happening” in the future.

“I take my role in the Senate very seriously, and I would take the role of governor very seriously,” he said.

Boulton said he and others have learned from the “Me Too” movement.

“I think we all now understand more than last year, three years ago, 10 years ago, that absolute permission, absolute consent is important and is a requirement for physical contact,” he said. “And I think that’s hopefully a lesson that can be learned from this. And I think hopefully another lesson to be learned is that by having this conversation, by understanding deeper, overall conduct will improve across the board.”