(CNN)The Nebraska Democratic Party on Tuesday asked its nominee for US Senate to withdraw from the race, citing a sexually inappropriate text message reported by a female former campaign staffer.

Chris Janicek, the party’s nominee running against Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, told CNN that in late May he sent a text message to a group including himself, the female former staffer and four other campaign staffers. He characterized the message as “simply repeating what she had said earlier in the week, that she needed to get laid.”

“I’m an openly gay man running for senate against Ben Sasse, so it was not sexual harassment, it was something that had been discussed between her and a girlfriend,” Janicek said, later adding that he had overheard the staffer’s phone conversation at campaign headquarters.

He declined to provide other details about or share copies of the text message, but stressed that he saw that sending the message was wrong.