I still believe Hart did NOT want to run and made that ridiculous dare knowing the press would discover his affair...after only 1 week.
If he did it intentionally there had to be more than that to the story.
If you don’t want to run, just don’t run. You can announce you’re dropping out for personal reasons or health reasons or whatever.
You don’t soil your reputation intentionally, cause your family pain, just to drop out of a race. If it was intentional the only think I can think of was blackmail.