Is it me, or are political candidates just getting weirder and weirder? It seems that far more often than in days past, people who run for office are often revealed to have some rather interesting hobbies.

Take, for example, Oregon Democratic congressional candidate Courtney Casgraux, who was exposed for having been a dominatrix in Manhattan before she decided to run for a seat in Congress. The candidate, a 41-year-old self-described international businesswoman, spoke to reporters after a video leaked showing her involvement in the BDSM industry. Now, she is not only seeking to represent her state’s 1st District, but she also wants to “reclaim her sexuality.”

Courtney Casgraux, who wants to represent Portland’s western suburbs, was horrified when a clip of her working at a Midtown BDSM dungeon was anonymously posted to Reddit on Aug. 31.

“[I was] just panicking … Then I was like, ‘Who did this?’ and I just started calling every single person that I pretty much knew from my past … I was like hyperventilating, crying,” the Huntington Beach, Calif., native recalled.

Casgraux, 41, worked as a dominatrix in her 20s and 30s, charging clients $500 per hour.

Now, the candidate has created a profile on Playboy's website to support her campaign efforts by selling sexual photos of herself for $150 a pop.

Casgraux, who isn’t compensated by Playboy, also posts more weighty content on her account, such as an explanation of how Article 2 of the Constitution grants presidential powers and impeachment, and her views on challenges faced by small American farms.

Her campaign has raised just $757 from 13 donors so far, but Casgraux plans to forge ahead.

Casgraux was never able to identify the individual who revealed her past life as a dominatrix. She explained that it angered her when it happened “because it felt like an attack on women, not just an attack on me.”

Casgraux is only the latest candidate who doesn’t mind getting a little freaky. Susanna Gibson, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Virginia’s 57^th district became the subject of a scandal when it was revealed that she had performed online pornographic shows for money.

But she's getting a lot of exposure on Tuesday not for her political positions but because of what she did on the adult streaming website Chaturbate. She had sex with her husband in live videos and asked for people for "tokens" (money) for performing various sex acts with him.

The 40-year-old nurse practitioner hosted more than a dozen of the live romps with her husband on the platform, which was then posted to a publicly accessible archive on the website Recurbate in September 2022 after she declared her candidacy, the Washington Post first reported.

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 — adding that she was “raising money for a good cause.”

So what’s happening here? Do these stories reflect a changing political landscape in which voters are no longer concerned about electing “normal” folks? Gibson’s loss might suggest the nation hasn’t quite gone that far just yet. But the fact that there appears to be more of this going on seems to indicate that a change is coming. Perhaps we might not be far from the days when a former dominatrix or porn star could become a member of Congress – or even the president.