Denver Riggleman is an accused "devotee of Bigfoot erotica" and, now, a member-elect of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Riggleman, a Republican, won Virginia's 5th District. But he had to endure a nasty race in which Democratic challenger Leslie Cockburn attacked him on multiple fronts.
Virginia Election Results: Democrats score key wins in congressional races
"My opponent Denver Riggleman, running mate of Corey Stewart, was caught on camera campaigning with a white supremacist," Cockburn wrote on Twitter in July. "Now he has been exposed as a devotee of Bigfoot erotica. This is not what we need on Capitol Hill."
That tweet and a subsequent tweet included screenshots of Instagram posts that featured Bigfoot with "censored" bars.
"It has nothing to do with Bigfoot erotica," Riggleman told USA TODAY in response in July.
The military veteran and craft distillery owner said his opponent misinterpreted his book, "The Mating Habits of Bigfoot," which he called a "long-running prank" with friends and a parody of an anthropological study.
The gags included a sketch of a Sasquatch with a "CENSORED" label over its genitalia as well as a similar sketch with a photo of Riggleman superimposed onto the creature's head.
Cockburn called the Instagram posts very "disturbing" and "revealing." "I leave it to the people to make their judgments about this guy," she told USA TODAY in July. Cockburn is an award-winning journalist and the mother of actress Olivia Wilde.
The posts did not go unnoticed. Adult website Pornhub said searches for "Bigfoot" shot up 8,000 percent in the days immediately following Cockburn's tweets.
"We’re pretty open-minded here at Pornhub, but none of us were expecting that Bigfoot pornography would be at the center of a contentious race for a U.S. House of Representatives seat in Virginia," Pornhub said in a statement.
The two candidates were vying for Republican Rep. Tom Garrett's seat. Garrett decided to end his re-election bid in May and said he planned to seek treatment for alcoholism.
USA TODAY has reached out to both Riggleman and Cockburn for comment on the results of the race.
Contributing: Jessica Estepa and William Cummings. Follow Ryan Miller on Twitter @RyanW_Miller
