As Iowa Democratic State Sen. Zach Wahls prepares to launch a U.S. Senate bid against Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), his potential campaign is already facing headwinds from a resurfacing trove of explicit online comments.

The posts include detailed discussions of pornography habits, lewd jokes, and eyebrow-raising social media posts that could complicate his path in a high-stakes Senate race.

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Wahls, who previously served as his party’s leader in the state senate, intends to kick off a U.S. Senate campaign on Wednesday, according to Semafor. 

“What can we do in this upcoming election cycle that will make the biggest impact in this crucial moment for our state and for our country? After a lot of discussion, encouragement, reflection, and prayer, we have decided to launch a campaign for the U.S. Senate against Joni Ernst in 2026,” Wahls wrote in an email sent to supporters, noting months of deliberation with his wife.

Wahls’s expected entrance into the race adds a high-profile name to the Democratic primary, which already includes state Rep. J.D. Scholten, a former minor league baseball player and congressional candidate, and Nathan Sage, a military veteran and sports radio host.

But even before formally launching his campaign, he’s facing scrutiny over a trove of resurfaced Reddit and Twitter posts over the past decade, which show him openly discussing his pornography preferences, joking about sex acts, and engaging in sexually suggestive commentary that critics say raises questions about his judgment and public persona.

The bulk of the explicit material stems from a 2011 Reddit “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session that Wahls participated in while he was an undergraduate student at the University of Iowa. The Washington Examiner has evaluated the authenticity of the Reddit account and confirmed it does belong to Wahls, who commented on a completely separate Reddit post regarding a bill in the state legislature as recently as a month ago.

In 2011, shortly after gaining national attention for a viral speech defending marriage equality and his upbringing by two mothers, Wahls participated in the Reddit session. At the time, the student was emerging as a prominent advocate for LGBTQ+ families.

During the AMA, he answered questions about his personal life, including candid discussions of his pornography preferences. Wahls said his early interests “were all about the Asians” before shifting to “tall brunettes” and noted that the adult site Amateur Allure was the first he followed regularly. At 19 years old, he acknowledged watching lesbian pornography but dismissed any suggestion that his viewing habits were influenced by being raised by lesbian parents. 

He also revealed that his parents had bought him a Playboy subscription at age 16. While identifying as straight, Wahls admitted he is “capable of appreciating a good-looking guy.” He even shared his goal of meeting actress Emma Watson, responding to a lewd joke about putting his tongue in Watson’s cheek with the comment, “A guy can dream.” 

Wahls did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Washington Examiner.

“I think it’s a little funny that some folks are worried about Democrats’ ability to connect with American men, while others think that old Reddit posts by me as a college kid, talking about Playboy and porn like a normal guy would do, would scare me off from running,” he said in an interview with the New York Times.

“I don’t care if they push around old Reddit posts from college,” he added. “The next generation of leaders have a bigger digital footprint than older leaders, because we grew up online.”

These remarks, once overlooked as part of an unfiltered online persona, have resurfaced as Democrats look to find the best candidate for the difficult task of flipping a U.S. Senate seat in America’s heartland.

Wahls has long been viewed as a rising star within Iowa Democratic circles, gaining early national recognition and becoming one of the youngest people ever to serve as Senate minority leader in the state legislature. In recent years, he’s focused on issues like public education, health care access, and defending LGBTQ+ rights, while building a profile as a sharp communicator and frequent critic of Republican leadership in Des Moines.

Democrats see an opening to unseat the two-term Republican senator, especially after her controversial remark, “we are all going to die,” in response to voter concerns about Trump’s proposed Medicaid cuts. 

Earlier this year, her decision to vote for Pete Hegseth’s confirmation as Secretary of Defense, despite initial reservations about allegations of sexual assault and his views on women in combat, had already raised questions about her willingness to stand firm, deepening perceptions of weakness that Democrats are now eager to exploit.

JONI ERNST CHALLENGER JD SCHOLTEN MOTIVATED TO RUN FOLLOWING TOWN HALL COMMENTS

While Democrats have faced challenges in previous races against Ernst, and Iowa has trended more Republican since her 2014 victory and Trump’s 2016 win, the state remains a key battleground. With Democrats aiming to flip four Senate seats to regain control, Iowa could prove pivotal in their effort to reclaim the majority. 

This follows a broader effort by Democrats to erode Iowa’s longtime prominence in the presidential nominating process. In 2023, the party stripped the state of its first-in-the-nation status, held since 1972, after allies of President Joe Biden successfully pushed to elevate South Carolina to the top of the calendar. The Hawkeye State recently lost its single seat on the powerful Rules and Bylaws Committee that oversees setting the presidential nominating calendar.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee delighted in reports that Wahls intends to launch a Senate run.

“Iowa Democrats have a messy three-way on their hands — no pun intended. Now Wahls and the other radicals will fight to see who supports males in women’s sports and opposes the deportation of violent illegal immigrants the most,” said Nick Puglia, NRSC Regional Press Secretary.