This is certainly awkward and I would think disqualifying but these days who knows. A Virginia House of Delegates candidate named Susanna Gibson streamed video of herself and her husband having sex while asking viewers to send them money.

Susanna Gibson, a nurse practitioner and mother of two young children running in a highly competitive suburban Richmond district, streamed sex acts on Chaturbate, a platform that says it takes its name from “the act of masturbating while chatting online.”

Chaturbate videos are streamed live on that site and are often archived on other publicly available sites. More than a dozen videos of the couple captured from the Chaturbate streamwere archived on one of those sites — Recurbate — in September 2022, after she entered the race. The most recent were two videos archived on Sept. 30, 2022. It is unclear when the live stream occurred.

The videos have apparently been pulled down but the Washington Post found several of them on another site where they are still posted. The Post doesn’t identify that site by name.

In multiple videos, Gibson interrupts sex acts to type into a bedside computer. Speaking directly into the screen, she urges viewers to provide tips, which are paid through “tokens” purchased through the site. In at least two videos, she agrees to perform certain acts only in a “private room,” an arrangement that requires the viewer to pay more.

“I need, like, more tokens before I let him do that,” she responds to a request that they perform a certain act. “One token, no. More. Raising money for a good cause.”

Almost immediately, as tips apparently arrive, she says “thank you” five times and tells her husband she will agree to that act.

Was the good cause her campaign? It may have been but she hasn’t said. The Post has done its best to strip (excuse the pun) all of the details out of this and make it as anodyne as possible. The Daily Wire report is a lot more blunt:

Gibson said she has had sex with three men in one day, and “don’t tell my husband he was the third. I would say ethnically nonmonogamous but I guess that three in one day was not.”…

She filmed the videos with her husband, lawyer John David Gibson, who ensured that the raunchiest acts were reserved for the biggest spendings, saying “no anal outside of private.”

She said that “he doesn’t like sharing,” with Gibson saying “Sometimes I have to though. She makes me.”

Granted there’s nothing illegal going on here since everyone involved is a consenting adult. The question is whether or not Democratic voters will decide a candidate making porn movies at home is disqualifying. Ten years ago I don’t think this would have even been a question. These days I’m not sure. Gibson’s approach so far appears to be to cast herself as the victim of revenge porn:

“It won’t intimidate me and it won’t silence me,” Gibson added. “My political opponents and their Republican allies have proven they’re willing to commit a sex crime to attack me and my family because there’s no line they won’t cross to silence women when they speak up.”

Gibson’s lawyer, Daniel P. Watkins, told the outlet that spreading the videos could be a violation of the state’s revenge porn law, a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Regular readers will know that I’m on record as saying anyone engaged in revenge porn is a dirtbag. However, I’m not sure that applies in this case since the porn in question was apparently posted by Susanna Gibson. According to the Post: “Gibson originally live-streamed these sexual acts on a site that was not password-protected. The couple had more than 5,700 followers there.”

She is claiming she didn’t authorize the archiving of the video on other sites. But what I’m not hearing is that a GOP operative was behind that. It sounds like there are entire sites that exist to archive these types of videos. So if all the GOP operative did was find out about it and send a link to the Washington Post, I don’t see how that’s revenge porn.

The Virginia House of Delegates has 100 seats and after the 2022 election the balance was 52 GOP seats and 48 Dem seats. However, since then there have been a number of vacancies so the balance as of this week is 50-46 in favor of the GOP. The next election for 2 year terms for all 100 seats takes place on November 7. Gibson is running in the 57th district against GOP candidate David Owen. There is no incumbent in this seat because it’s an open seat created by redistricting. This is apparently a tight race in a (ahem) swing district.

As expected, this is being downplayed as a nothing burger by folks on the left.

BREAKING: MARRIED COUPLE HAS SEX.

I thought that's what Republicans *wanted*. Sheesh. https://t.co/aLIZ0xarmc

— Charles Gaba isn't paying for this account. (@charles_gaba) September 11, 2023

I think the audience of thousands of strangers is what makes this a bit different.