Wyoming Republican congressional candidate Steve Friess is asking voters to see him as a defender of traditional values, a husband and father, and, in the words of his own campaign, a “devoted family man.”
His campaign website goes even further, describing Friess as “100% pro-gun, pro-life, and pro-family” and declaring that he has “lived conservative values, not just campaigned on them.”
But records obtained by this publication show Friess was registered with an online dating service while married.
The first indication came from an Intelius background report on Stephen Albert Friess from Aug. 13. Intelius is a commercially available people-search service that aggregates information such as public records, addresses, contact information and online profiles into reports. Independent reviewers describe Intelius as a people-search and background-information service built around broad public-record aggregation.
The Intelius report associates Friess with the email address friess90858@hotmail.com. On page 9, under “Social Profiles,” the report identifies an EliteMate.com account with the username friess90858 and the same friess90858@hotmail.com email address.
Intelius itself cautions that aggregated information can sometimes be incomplete or inaccurate, so the finding did not end with the Intelius report.
It was independently corroborated by EliteMate itself.
Populist Sentinel received proof of correspondence from individual purporting to be Friess who contacted EliteMate about the old account. In a July 22, 2026 response addressed to “Steve,” EliteMate representative Tanya wrote that the company’s technical team had provided information about the account.
“You originally opted into EliteMate March 26, 2013, that’s over 13 years ago,” the representative wrote.
EliteMate also said it no longer retains chat history beyond 90 days because of storage limitations and recommended creating an entirely new profile because the site’s technical configuration had changed substantially over the preceding 13 years.
In other words, the Intelius report tied Friess’s email address and username to EliteMate, and EliteMate subsequently confirmed that the account had opted into the service on March 26, 2013.
What is EliteMate?
EliteMate is not a professional networking service or some ambiguous social-media website.
It is an online dating service.
Its homepage calls itself “EliteMate.com – Where Singles Meet” and invites users to choose from millions of single men and women. The site advertises private email, instant messaging, live chat rooms, video profiles, personality matching and compatibility tools.
EliteMate’s own FAQ is even more explicit, stating that the service welcomes single adults looking for one-to-one relationships ranging from companionship and friendship to romance and marriage.
Its “About Us” page describes EliteMate as an online matchmaking service where users create profiles describing themselves and what kind of person and relationship they are seeking. The company tells visitors they can use the service to exchange messages, make a connection or establish a long-term romance. EliteMate is available for those seeking both heterosexual and homosexual relationships
The current EliteMate homepage also markets categories ranging from people “Seeking Marriage” to “Casual Encounters,” “One Night Stands,” “Adult Swingers” and “Threesomes.”
There is little ambiguity about the purpose of the service.
Friess Was Already Married
The March 26, 2013 signup also came years after Friess and Polly Friess were publicly identified as husband and wife.
A published 2011 profile of the Friess family specifically referred to Polly as “Steve’s wife.”
The Intelius report provides additional contemporaneous evidence of the relationship. Property records contained in the report show Stephen A. Friess and Polly J. Friess jointly associated with Wyoming real estate years before the EliteMate signup, including a 2009 transaction naming “Friess Stephen A & Polly J.”
Today, Friess’s own campaign says that after moving to Wyoming he “met and married his wife, Polly” and that they raised four children together. His biography repeatedly emphasizes his family, Christianity and commitment to traditional conservative values.
That makes the EliteMate account more than an odd piece of ancient internet history.
Friess is campaigning for Congress on his character and family values while records show that, as a married man, he opted into a website expressly designed to help singles meet other singles.
The confirmation raises questions Friess has yet to answer.
Why did Friess join EliteMate while married?
What was he looking for on the dating service?
Did Friess communicate with women through EliteMate’s private email, instant messaging or chat features?
Did Friess communicate with men through EliteMate’s private email, instant messaging or chat features?
Did he exchange photographs with other members?
Did he meet anyone through the service?
How long did he use the account?
And if Friess believes Republican voters should consider his record as a “devoted family man” and someone who has “lived conservative values,” what does he say about being registered with a singles dating service during his marriage?
EliteMate says the old chat history is gone.
Friess, however, can still answer the questions.
