RICHMOND, VA. A Virginia congressional candidate says her opponent is unfit for office because he is a “devotee of Bigfoot erotica.”

Democrat Leslie Cockburn said on Twitter that Republican opponent Denver Riggleman fetishizes the mythical apelike giant. “This is not what we need on Capitol Hill,” Cockburn said in a tweet Sunday. Her posts included pictures from Riggleman’s Instagram account showing nude drawings of Bigfoot with his genitalia covered with a black rectangle.

“These images are very disturbing,” Cockburn said.

But Riggleman said allegations that he’s into Sasquatch’s sex life are big hairy lies from a failing candidate.

“When people are desperate they do desperate things,” he said.

Riggleman, an Air Force veteran, said he and his military friends have been interested in people who believe Bigfoot is real for years.

The drawings on his Instagram account are jokes, he said. One is from a birthday card from a friend, the other is a mock cover art for a satirical book he’s writing called The Mating Habits of Bigfoot and Why Women Want Him.