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OHIO is the real swing state regardless of how voters sway, as recent data revealed the high amount of infidelity in the heart-shaped state.
And the American city with the most nonmonogamy is in a former battleground region, according to notorious married dating site Ashley Madison.
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Columbus, Ohio, is the top-rated hot spot for infidelity — and Ashley Madison’s chief strategy officer Paul Keable says it’s because the midwestern state recognizes the true desires of the country.
“I think it is a representation of all things being America,” Keable told The U.S. Sun.
“Ohio is often been actually a battleground state from a political standpoint, because it goes back and forth between leaning left and leaning right, but never a full-blown red state or a full-blown blue state.”
Ohio was considered a swing state from 1980 until 2020 when the state swung red towards Donald Trump, who won the state by an eight-point margin.
READ MORE ON ASHLEY MADISON
Joe Biden beat out Trump for the commander-in-chief spot — breaking Ohio’s 52-year streak of voting for the winner, according to NPR.
Swing states are typically those where the previous presidential winner won the state by fewer than three points.
Because of past close results, forecasters think either candidate could win any swing state again in November.
This year, the swing states playing a key role in the election include Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Washington.
HEART-SHAPED STATE
Both Trump and Kamala Harris’ campaigns have spent less time and money focusing on Ohio as a battleground state ahead of November.
While Ohio residents are swinging less at the polls, they appear to be swinging in their relationships more, according to sign-up data from Ashley Madison.
Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland all placed on Ashley Madison’s study via YouGov exploring America’s hot spots for nonmonogamy.
“I think it’s not the high life of New York City or LA,” Keable explained.
“And I think people are recognizing that monogamy has certain constraints.
“And through our platform, with a bit of discretion, they can explore it. So I think people are discovering that there’s more to life than happily ever after.”
What is the Electoral College?
And why swing states are important.
- The Electoral College is the body of 538 electors divided among the states who select the next president of the United States
- To become president, a candidate must win a majority of 270 electoral votes
- Every state is assigned one elector for each of its representatives in the House, plus an additional two reflecting the state’s senators
- In most cases, a presidential candidate will be awarded all the electors in a state if they win the state’s popular vote. Electors who vote against the state’s popular vote winner are called faithless electors
- Many states will be virtual shoe-ins for the Democratic candidate (such as New York and California) or the Republican candidate (such as Texas and Missouri), while a minority are genuinely up for grabs by either candidate
- These states, known as purple or swing states, are the main targets for presidential candidates
- The parties’ candidates are chosen in primary elections throughout the first half of the election year, including Super Tuesday, and officially nominated at party conventions in the summer
Ashley Madison, which launched in 2001 and marketed to married people looking for affairs, now promises its users discretion and anonymity after a data breach in 2015 leaked the identities of millions of users who were cheating on their partners.
The Netflix documentary Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal, released in May, explored the cyberattack and featured the celebrities who were outed during the scandal.
Keable, who joined the company two years before the infamous leak, said that users seek out honesty and privacy on the site, which boasts the tagline, “Life is short. Have an affair.”
Ashley Madison Scandal
The 2024 Netflix documentary Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal is based on the 2015 hack that outed users on the affair-seeking website
The Canadian dating service was launched in 2001 and marketed toward married individuals looking to engage in extramarital affairs.
Users were prompted to create profiles and communicate with each other within the platform.
In 2015, a group of hackers called the Impact Team accessed the site’s database and threatened to leak information if it didn’t shut down.
After the company refused, the hackers revealed users’ personal information, including names, addresses, and emails.
Several celebrities’ names were linked to the site, including Josh Duggar, Jionni LaValle, Josh Taekman, Sam Rader, Hunter Biden, and Jeff Ashton.
CENTRALIST CHEATERS
The dating site now has over 85 million users – and another recent study by Ashley Madison via YouGov revealed that the majority of members politically identify as centralists.
However, the survey also noted that the majority of women members on the married dating site identify as liberal.
While 67% of member respondents said they’ve already decided who they’re voting for, 71% of respondents also noted that they don’t care about aligning politically with the person they’re having an affair with.
“Within a primary relationship, I think it’s very important,” Keable explained.
“If I’m going to live a life with you and raise children, we certainly need to have a similar viewpoint on how we’re going to live our life and raise our children, and politics is going to have a function within that.
“But when it comes to a secondary relationship or an affair, that becomes less important because I’m not going to be building a life with you.
“This might be for the weekend, it might be for a few months, but it’s not forever,” he continued.
“So the needs of the political realm don’t bleed into your affair as much as they might bleed into your primary relationship.”
THE HONEST TRUTH
While Keable insists that affairs are a normal part of life, another study emphasized his point by proving that some people would rather cheat on their partner than be unfaithful in other aspects of their lives.
A full 86% of Ashley Madison respondents said that they would rather cheat on their partner than on their political party.
Keable said that the survey of Ashley Madison users likely accurately represents America because members have nothing to lose by answering truthfully on the site’s survey.
“In a really ironic way, the data shows that Ashley Madison users are probably more honest in their profiles and their conversations than on a more traditional dating app,” he said.
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