VA House Candidate Streamed Sex Acts With Husband Online: Reports

RICHMOND, VA — A Democrat running for the Virginia House of Delegates livestreamed her and her husband having sex on a pornographic website and asked viewers to pay them to perform different sex acts, according to multiple reports.

Susanna Gibson, a nurse practitioner with two children, streamed the videos on the legal website Chaturbate, the Washington Post first reported Monday. According to the Post, more than a dozen videos featuring the couple were archived on another site in September 2022, after Gibson entered the legislative race.

Screenshots of the videos featuring Gibson were also shared with the Associated Press.

Gibson, 40, is running against Republican businessman David Owen in one of a handful of highly competitive races that could determine the balance of power in Virginia's General Assembly. The race in the 57th District — a suburban area located outside Richmond — has attracted large amounts of spending and interest for an off-year legislative race.

Democrats control the Senate by a four-vote margin, and Republicans control the House of Delegates by the same margin, with four seats currently vacant. The parties are waging intense legislative battles as GOP rising national political star Gov. Glenn Youngkin looks to bolster his conservative agenda with full control of state government.

The Post was alerted to the videos by a "Republican operative" who denied any connection to Owen's campaign, according to the newspaper.

"Me and my team found out about this story today like everyone else," Owen said in a written statement to the Post. "I'm sure this is a difficult time for Susanna and her family, and I'm remaining focused on my campaign."

Gibson, meanwhile, called the release of the videos "an illegal invasion of my privacy designed to humiliate me and my family," according to the Post.

"It won't intimidate me, and it won't silence me," she said in a statement to the newspaper. "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 attorney, Daniel P. Watkins, said that disseminating the videos is a violation of Virginia's revenge porn law, which makes it a crime to "maliciously" give or sell nude or sexual images of another person with the intent to "coerce, harass, or intimidate."

"We are working closely with law enforcement to bring accountability to the wrongdoers," Watkins told CNN in an email.

Watkins cited a 2021 Virginia Court of Appeals ruling that found it was unlawful for a man to secretly record his girlfriend during a consensual sexual encounter, even if he did not show the video to other people. The court found that consent to being seen is not the same as consent to being recorded.

State Sen. L. Louise Lucas, a leading Democratic lawmaker in Virginia, quickly came to Gibson's defense, calling on voters to "make this the biggest fundraising day of (Gibson's) campaign." Many women voters retweeted Lucas with a link to donate to Gibson's campaign.

"Anybody who looks at this knows it's a hit job," said Amanda Linton, a 45-year-old defense contractor who donated $25 to Gibson's campaign after reading about the videos. Linton said she plans to donate another $100 to Gibson's campaign, even though she can't vote for her because she lives outside her district.

"It's just nobody's business. She didn't break any laws by doing this. She had sex with her husband. I mean, my God," Linton said.

Still, some observers of Virginia politics said it seems unlikely Gibson will entirely avoid backlash.

Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington, said that even in a more open-minded era for personal indiscretions, it's doubtful Gibson will win.

"Donald Trump has defined downward what is acceptable in public life, but this doesn't seem like the kind of conduct that Democrats will be able to sell in a suburban Richmond district," Farnsworth said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.