Virginia Republicans Send Voters 'Explicit' Fliers On Democratic Candidate

Republicans are attacking a Democratic candidate for Virginia's House of Delegates by mailing voters fliers about her past participation in sexually explicit livestreams.

An article published by The Washington Post last month revealed that candidate Susanna Gibson, a nurse practitioner with two young children who says that she is running for office to fight for "families" and "community," had a history of performing sex acts with her husband on the porn live-streaming website Chaturbate. The newspaper said that it was alerted to the explicit content by "a Republican operative."

Weeks before Gibson was set to face off against Republican candidate David Owen on November 7, the Virginia Republican Party upped the ante by directly mailing voters fliers on the scandal, according to a report published by Richmond NBC affiliate WWBT on Tuesday. Envelopes inform voters that there is "explicit material enclosed" and warn, "Do not open if you are under the age of 18."

Inside the fliers, voters are shown censored images and quotes taken from Gibson's past livestreams, alongside snippets from The Washington Post article and an article from right-wing news website The Daily Wire. Censored images of the livestreams were first published by conservative news website The Washington Free Beacon.

It is not clear exactly when the livestream videos were made, although the Washington Post report says that two streams were most recently archived on a different site in September 2022.

Gibson's campaign quickly denounced the fliers in a statement, accusing Republicans of launching "desperate attacks" designed to "distract" voters from issues relevant to the election.

"David Owen and the Virginia GOP are trying to distract voters from their extreme agenda to ban abortion, defund schools, and allow violent criminals to access weapons of war," the statement says. "Voters are tired of these desperate attacks, and they will not be fooled by them."

"From day one, Susanna has been focused on protecting reproductive freedom, fully funding our schools, and keeping our communities safe," it continues. "Nothing will ever deter her commitment to our community."

Newsweek reached out for additional comment to the Gibson campaign via email on Tuesday.

A Virginia House Democratic Caucus spokesperson echoed the Gibson campaign's sentiment in comments to WWBT, arguing that the fliers were "a desperate attempt to distract and deflect from how many of [Republican] candidates are on the record wanting to ban abortion."

Meanwhile, Virginia Republican Party Chairman Rich Anderson defended the mailers in a statement, arguing that Gibson's campaign had "falsely alleged that the videos of her publicly engaging in sexual activity on publicly accessible pornography websites were 'leaked' by Republicans" and "the mail piece corrects her false statements."

Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin reportedly said that he had not seen the fliers but that Gibson's "personal life is something that that candidate needs to explain to people," before praising Owen, a businessman, as "a great candidate."

Days before Gibson's explicit livestreams were revealed, the Democratic candidate shared an article to X, formerly Twitter, concerning video footage that purportedly showed Owen getting "caught talking about outlawing abortion."

Gibson's livestream revelation immediately shook up the state of her race against Owen. A Cygnal poll published by The New York Post last month found that Gibson was losing to Owen by over 10 points, a 6-point drop from a poll taken before the scandal broke.

Regardless, Gibson remains in the race and has defended herself, calling news about the videos "an illegal invasion of my privacy designed to humiliate me and my family" last month.

Some supporters of Gibson have argued that criticism concerning the livestreams is based on misogyny while maintaining that her personal life should have no bearing on her as a political candidate.