A GOP candidate who was caught following a nonbinary adult performer online dropped out of the race for Wisconsin governor on Friday, about a week after a local paper reported on his online activity.

“As a result of our politics today, I cannot focus on the issues I know will turn Wisconsin around. I have come to the conclusion I do not have a path to the nomination,” business owner Bill Berrien said in a statement, which attacked the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel for reporting the story.

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“It was a major attack piece and we confirmed opposition research started in January of this year, if not earlier,” he said. “And for what? For reading! Nothing illegal, nothing unethical, and nothing immoral. Just reading. Wouldn’t you want your political and business leaders (and all of society, frankly) to be widely read and thoughtful and aware of different perspectives and ideas? Yet, when a supposedly major metropolitan newspaper condemns someone for reading, we have ourselves a problem.” 

The Journal-Sentinel reported earlier this month that Berrien followed nonbinary, queer adult performer Jiz Lee on the blogging platform Medium, as well as several other sex- and polyamory-positive accounts. Some of the articles that he “clapped for” – i.e., liked – on the platform included “My Husband Loves Watching Me Flirt with Another Man” and “‘Ethical Porn’ Starts When We Pay for It.”

But on the campaign trail, he attacked LGBTQ+ rights. 

“[Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony] Evers vetoed a bill to keep boys out of girls’ sports and calls Wisconsin moms ‘inseminated persons,’” Berrien says in one ad. “Enough!”

“Take it from a dad and a coach, I’ll keep boys out of our daughters’ sports and locker rooms.”

Another campaign ad showed him thanking the president for “stopping woke indoctrination and protecting our daughters’ sports.”

Lee, the nonbinary performer he followed, wrote about the matter in a post to Bluesky, where they called out Berrien’s “hypocrisy.”

“It’s okay to follow trans porn stars,” they wrote. “It’s okay to read articles about sex and relationships. What’s not okay is the hypocrisy of backing forceful legislation that restricts what people, trans and otherwise, can do with their own bodies. That is shameful.”

Berrien’s campaign didn’t deny that he owned the account that followed the posts and content creators in question. Instead, they said it’s “absurd” to say that Berrien knew about the authors’ “personal choices.” However, someone logged in to Berrien’s account and unfollowed 19 people and publications after the Journal-Sentinel inquired about Berrien’s online activities, but before their report was published.

“When you brought this up, he logged in on Tuesday and started messing around, which resulted in some folks being deleted,” a campaign spokesperson said. 

Two other Republicans are left in the GOP primary for Wisconsin governor: Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann. There are several Democrats running in their primary for the position, including Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez.

Berrien’s criticisms of Evers included that he “calls Wisconsin moms ‘inseminated persons.’” That is referring to a controversy from earlier this year about legal language used in the Wisconsin budget to refer to people who undergo IVF treatments, a reproductive technology where a person is literally inseminated.

His other criticism of Evers was that the governor “vetoed a bill to keep boys out of girls’ sports.” That is referring to a 2024 veto of a trans sports ban. Boys do not play in girls’ sports in Wisconsin, and the veto of that bill didn’t change that. Republicans wanted to ban certain girls – specifically, trans girls – from playing with other girls.