Susanna Gibson is a nurse practitioner who's married with two children. She's also a Democrat running for a hotly contested seat in the Virginia House of Delegates for District 57 in Richmond. 

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.”

The Washington Post said they had been tipped off by a "GOP operative." 

Now you might think that her reaction would be embarrassment over this coming out. But instead, she's calling this an “illegal invasion of my privacy designed to humiliate me and my family." She's blaming her opponents and Republicans. 

“It won’t intimidate me and it won’t silence me,” Gibson said. “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.”

Her attorney is claiming that the release of the videos might have been a violation of the state's revenge porn laws. 

Her Republican opponent indicated he had nothing to do with it, saying he found out about this "like everyone else."

“I’m sure this is a difficult time for Susanna and her family, and I’m remaining focused on my campaign,” he said. The operative who tipped off the post denied any connection to Owen or GOP groups involved in the election. 

I get that Gibson has to dig her way out from under this scandal and blame people for noticing, but she was reportedly engaging in this activity. Whatever she wants to say about her opponents now doesn't change that fact. This defense is a little bit like the "Republicans pounce" thing we see in the media all the time, which is to deflect from the bigger story. It isn't about the "pouncing," it's about the underlying story. 

Although of course, you did have folks like the NY Times happy to oblige with a "pouncing" angle. 

Susanna Gibson, a Democratic candidate in a race for the Virginia General Assembly, denounced reports that she and her husband had performed on a sexually explicit site, calling the leaks about the online activity “an illegal invasion of my privacy.” https://t.co/SxXA48W50U

— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 12, 2023

Democrats however are trying to use it to fundraise, which takes some nerve. 

Today Glenn Youngkin’s team leaked videos of @SusannaSGibson to try to embarrass and humiliate her and they failed completely.

Now we are going to make this the biggest fundraising day of her campaign.

Retweet and donate here:https://t.co/LrP5VhDsb1

— L. Louise Lucas (@SenLouiseLucas) September 11, 2023

We've already seen that Democrats are in trouble in Virginia. over issues like parental rights in schools That led to the rise of Glenn Youngkin who is now the governor there. We saw who he stood for parents and pardoned the dad who the Loudon County School Board got arrested. But while Republicans are standing up for parents, Gibson's behavior seems to be just cool with Democrats. I think it's not likely to go over very well in Virginia.