Last week, I popped over to Richmond to visit my parents for a few days, and in between spoonfuls of my dad’s shrimp and grits, I asked them what the word around town was about the wildest political sex scandal I can remember. Not just in Virginia, but anywhere. My dad’s response pretty much summed it up: “People really don’t know how to talk about it.”
You can say that again. This is the tale of the exhibitionist Democratic state house candidate, Susanna Gibson, who, along with her horny husband, repeatedly live-streamed their sexual escapades on a camming website called Chaturbate, sometimes for tips. The story has left the commonwealth’s Democrats tongue-tied and embarrassed. The press doesn’t really know how to handle the story either, partly because of the deep kink involved, but also because the person at the center of the scandal is not a predatory conservative man, but a young female progressive, usually the hero figure in stories about politics and sex these days. Meanwhile, Republicans in Virginia are thrilled to talk about it, because it plays to their advantage… but only off the record, thanks.
Normally, a provincial sex scandal like this one would follow a predictable national trajectory: sorrowful public apologies from the candidate involved, Twitter jokes for a few days, maybe a titillating Daily Mail story (with pictures of course). And then it would fade from the national interest. But not this one! After all, control of the Virginia legislature is at stake in November. Both chambers are up for grabs, and just one or two seats could determine whether Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin will have full, unchecked control—power that the Republican plans to use to enact a 15-week abortion ban, and that Youngkin might use to launch a last-minute Anyone-But-Trump dark horse presidential campaign. The whole spectacle is a test case for whether abortion rights, post-Dobbs, are still enough of a motivating factor for Democrats to turn out like they did in last year’s midterms—or if Republicans have found a sweet spot on the abortion issue heading into 2024.
