Democrat Susanna Gibson, who was revealed to have performed in livestream online sex shows with her husband, narrowly lost a race for the Virginia House of Delegates to Republican David Owen.
Mrs. Gibson, a 40-year-old nurse practitioner, lost the 57th District race to Mr. Owen, a businessman, 48.40% to 51.16%.
“It’s my honor to be elected Delegate in HD-57 last night. I will begin work immediately to provide the unity, common-sense leadership, and responsive service that I promised,” Mr. Owen wrote Wednesday on social media. “Thank you to the voters for this honor. Now, I’m ready to get to work!”
Mr. Owen’s win was a rare bright spot for Virginia Republicans on Tuesday when Democrats retained control of the state Senate and took over the House.
All eyes turned to the 57th District race when it was revealed in September that Mrs. Gibson had livestreamed sexual acts with her husband. The videos were streamed on the website Chaturbate, where viewers made requests and paid her “tips.” The videos were broadcast before she launched her campaign.
Her campaign denounced the sharing of the videos as “the worst gutter politics.” She said it violated the law and her privacy.
“It won’t intimidate me and it won’t silence me,” she 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.”
A week before the election, the Republican Party of Virginia sent out thousands of sexually explicit mailers, which said, “Do not open if you are under the age of 18” on the envelope. It contained papers with censored quotes and screenshots from Mrs. Gibson’s sex videos.
Her campaign told NBC News that the mailers were an attempt by Mr. Owen and the state GOP to “distract voters from their extreme agenda to ban abortion, defund schools, and allow violent criminals to access weapons of war.”
Republican Party of Virginia Chair Rich Anderson said that the “mail piece corrects her false statements” that Republicans were the ones who shared her sex videos.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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