A Democrat exposed for filming sex acts online for tips, failed in her race for the commonwealth’s House of Delegates in Virginia,U.S., narrowly losing out to her Republican rival she accused of leaking her racy side hustle.
Nurse practitioner Susanna Gibson, 40, was beaten by businessman David Owen on Tuesday, November but by less than 1,000 votes.
It was one of the most-watched races in the commonwealth, where Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin tried to retain the House of Delegates and flip control in the state senate to enact a 15-week abortion ban.
Gibson became popular in September when it was revealed she hosted more than a dozen live sex acts with her husband on the adult streaming website, Chaturbate.
The videos were posted to a publicly accessible archive on the website Recurbate in September 2022 after she declared her candidacy, the Washington Post first revealed.
Gibson still kept her Chaturbate profile after having announced her campaign in July 2022, uploading at least one picture of herself on the sex-streaming site the following month, according to a screenshot obtained by The Post.
The unconventional candidate had more than 5,770 Chaturbate followers, whom she repeatedly pressed for more “tokens” in exchange for certain acts in “private” showings saying that she was “raising money for a good cause.”
She called the controversy “an illegal invasion of my privacy designed to humiliate me.”
“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 told CNN in a statement.
“My opponent and his allies know that the people of this district are on our side on the issues, so they’re stooping to the worst gutter politics,” she added
“There’s too much at stake in this election and I’ll never stop fighting for our community.”
In the aftermath of the sextape release, Gibson’s fundraising numbers surged, but her support plummeted amongst voters — with a Cygnal poll showing she trailed Owen by 49.5% to 38.9%.
