WASHINGTON (AP) For Republicans eager to regain the Senate majority this year, Ohio offers a prime opportunity to pick up a critical seat.

But ahead of Tuesdays primary election, theres mounting anxiety inside the GOP that Bernie Moreno may emerge with the nomination. After vaulting into the top tier of contenders with a coveted endorsement from Donald Trump , Moreno who has shifted from a public supporter of LGBTQ rights to a hardline opponent is confronting questions about the existence of a 2008 profile seeking Men for 1-on-1 sex on a casual sexual encounters website called Adult Friend Finder.

Hi, looking for young guys to have fun with while traveling, reads a caption on a photo-less profile under the username nardo19672, according to an Associated Press review of records made public through a massive and well-publicized data breach of the website. Records also show the profile was last accessed about six hours after it was created.

The AP review confirmed that someone with access to Morenos email account created the profile, though the AP could not definitively confirm whether it was created by Moreno himself. Questions about the profile have circulated in GOP circles for the past month. On Thursday evening, two days after the AP first asked Morenos campaign about the account, the candidates lawyer said a former intern created the account as a prank. The lawyer provided a statement from the intern, Dan Ricci, who said he created the account as part of a juvenile prank.

I am thoroughly embarrassed by an aborted prank I pulled on my friend, and former boss, Bernie Moreno, nearly two decades ago, Ricci said. The AP couldnt independently confirm Riccis statement and he didnt immediately respond to messages left for him on multiple phone numbers listed to him. He donated $6,599 to Morenos campaign last year, according to campaign finance records.

Morenos lawyer, Charles Harder, insisted Moreno had nothing to do with the AFF account.

Once a premier swing state , Ohio has moved sharply to the right in recent years. Trump easily won the state in 2016 and 2020 and the GOP controls top statewide offices along with both chambers of the legislature. That has raised hopes among Republicans that Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown wont be able to overcome the headwinds that have largely swept his party out of power in Ohio.