Democrat Nate Blouin said he has no plan to abandon his congressional race after a slew of crass and offensive comments resurfaced this week that Blouin posted online more than a decade ago and insinuated that Ben McAdams’ campaign may have been behind dredging them up.

“I think there are much bigger forces working against [my] campaign and we were getting a little too close for comfort to the establishment candidate in this race,” Blouin, who is currently a state senator, said in an interview Thursday.

Asked directly if he thought the work was done by McAdams or his allies, Blouin replied: “Something like that.”

On Wednesday, Punchbowl News revealed a string of posts Blouin, a current state senator, made on Reddit and online skiing and running forums between 2009 and 2015, when Blouin was in his early-to-mid-20s.

The posts included suggestions that a GoPro camera could be used “for filming porn with your underage sister,” using slurs for people with disabilities, disparaging members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and said that “slapping girl’s a----s as you run by … shouldn’t land you in jail or anything by any means.”

Blouin, 36, apologized Wednesday for the posts and reiterated his regret on Thursday. When the Punchbowl reporter contacted him about the story, Blouin said, “I was sad at what I had written in the past and had no recollection of writing those things. But that doesn’t excuse my behavior well over a decade ago.”

“It’s clear the establishment is worried and will do anything to talk about something other than Ben McAdams’ voting record, which has done real harm to reproductive freedom and the plight of American workers,” Blouin said.

A spokesperson for McAdams declined to comment on Blouin’s suggestion that the campaign had a hand in digging up the posts.

But the campaign did put out a statement Thursday acknowledging that “people can grow and people can learn,” but that Blouin has not changed the way he interacts with people.

“Growth means changing how you show up, not just apologizing when something comes to light,” the statement from McAdams read. “And in this case, the pattern of demeaning and disrespectful online language hasn’t been limited to the past. It is in the present.”

Blouin has, for years, been a presence on X, formerly Twitter, posting thousands of times a year and frequently engaging with political adversaries.

“We should all be judged by how we talk about and treat people when we think no one is watching,” McAdams said in the statement. “Showing respect for others, even people you disagree with, is a standard of basic human decency — and it matters, especially now, when we already have a president who treats sexual assault, domestic abuse, child sexual abuse, people with disabilities, and people of faith as punchlines.”

Blouin said he disagrees with McAdams’ characterization of how he interacts with people.

“I engage in a political climate that is charged,” he said. “I wish we were able to have these sorts of pointed conversations in more productive ways, but sometimes they happen online, and I think that is the 2026 world that we live in.”

In the aftermath of Wednesday’s bombshell revelation of Blouin’s old posts, there were widespread calls for him to drop out of the race and resign from the Legislature, including from Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson and all five of Blouin’s Democratic Senate colleagues and Democratic challengers in the race.

Blouin said he has no plan to quit the race and he has heard from numerous supporters who encouraged him to stay and fight. While Utah Democrats’ state nominating convention is next weekend, the state senator has already qualified for the June 23 primary ballot by collecting signatures.

Blouin and McAdams are two of the six Democrats vying for the party’s nomination in the Salt Lake County district that favors a Democrat. The others — Salt Lake City Council member Eva Lopez Chavez, Liban Mohamed, Michael Farrell and Luis Villareal — all condemned Blouin’s posts on Wednesday.

Farrell and Lopez Chavez called on Blouin to bow out of the race, while Mohamed and Villareal — both in their 20s — said youth was not a justification for Blouin making the crude remarks.