VA Democrat featured in streamed sex acts online says she’s the victim: ‘My entire life was rocked

 Rarely does a state legislative campaign capture national attention during an off-year election. That is, however, what transpired in September when the Washington Post made public the information that Susanna Gibson, a promising Virginia Democrat, had previously been caught on camera engaging in sexual practices with her husband via the internet.

The contest for a Richmond-area House of Delegate seat was one of the most contested in the state, and Gibson, a 40-year-old nurse practitioner, was vying for a position that might decide whether Democrats or Republicans would control the house. Because Republican governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin had bet his reputation as a national political figure partly on his ability to seize total authority, there was significant national interest in the elections

The Post reported that a Republican political operative had disseminated the footage, which was a clip of an obscene livestream that had been released online, elsewhere. Gibson's life was turned upside down by the Post's article, not to mention her candidacy

Having gone through something like that, I'm profoundly transformed as a human," she remarked in an interview.

The episode also sparked a discussion on digital and sexual privacy in 21st-century politics in Virginia and abroad. Gibson almost won the election despite the changing social norms; she lost by less than 1,000 votes and hasn't ruled out going back to political politics in the future. (Even after Gibson lost his race, Democrats seized total authority of the Virginia State