South Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Andre Bauer on Monday released the results of a polygraph test, which he says prove he wasn't behind recent allegations that GOP primary opponent Nikki Haley had an extramarital affair.
"I'm not willing to have that kind of false accusation go unchallenged," Bauer said of his decision to take a lie detector test. "She made a false accusation about me, and I wanted to prove that I was telling the truth."
Last week, Haley suggested that Bauer was responsible for spreading charges she had an affair with lobbyist and now-resigned Bauer campaign consultant Larry Marchant; however, the state lieutenant governor immediately pushed back and insisted the accusation was untrue.
In an effort to vindicate himself, Bauer challenged the state lawmaker to take a polygraph test.
"What are you going to do, start strapping polygraph tests to everybody making an allegation?" Haley said in an interview with a South Carolina television station over the weekend. "I think we need to be practical here."
Though Haley would not agree to take a lie detector test, Bauer did. The test he took Sunday night was reportedly administered by an independent, FBI-certified polygrapher.
"This is about protecting my integrity, and about the people's right to know the truth," Bauer said of his decision to take the test. "The voters now know that I had absolutely nothing to do with the unfortunate revelations made about Ms. Haley in the last two weeks."
The final weeks of the South Carolina Republican primary race have been dominated by controversy and finger-pointing stemming from accusations that Haley had an affair with Marchant and before that with conservative blogger Will Folks.
Haley has adamantly denied anything inappropriate took place with either man, asserting she has been "100% faithful" to her husband of 13 years.
Haley still has a double-digit lead over her opponents ahead of South Carolina's Tuesday primary.