Democratic state House candidate Susanna Gibson is on track to narrowly lose her race against Republican David Owen following revelations that Gibson performed sex acts online with her husband in exchange for tips.
As of Wednesday morning, Owen held a 966-vote lead (or just under 3%) over Gibson, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.
The Associated Press has not yet called the race for Owen, though some other publications and groups, including the Virginia Public Access Project, have.
Gibson’s scandal, first reported on by the Washington Post in September, drew national attention and was used against her by her Republican opponents.
In late October, the Republican Party of Virginia sent explicit mailers to voters in her district detailing her past.
While the mailers did not include any censored images of Gibson from her livestream (just one image that cut off below her shoulders), some conservatives—including the right-leaning publication Washington Free Beacon—circulated uncensored images of Gibson.
Gibson in September called the promotion of the videos against her as “the worst gutter politics” and refused to drop out, saying “it won’t intimidate me and it won’t silence me.”
“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,” she said in a statement. Her lawyer additionally suggested the usage of the footage amounted to revenge porn under Virginia law.
Gibson has not yet issued any statements about the outcome of the race.
While Gibson may be on track to lose her individual race, Democrats overall fared well in Virginia and succeeded at winning full control of the state legislature by flipping the state House.
Don Scott, the minority leader of House Democrats, told NPR that the results had positive implications for Democrats heading into the 2024 presidential election.
“I think this is a message that President Biden can take forward,” he said. “He’s won Virginia before. He’ll win Virginia again.”
