The Virginia Democratic General Assembly candidate, who starred as a cam-girl with her husband, performing sex acts and soliciting viewers to send her money, was a religious studies major at the University of Virginia.
Susanna Gibson, who uses her maiden name professionally, is described here as a member of Glen Allen’s Virginia Weight & Wellness:
Susanna Payne grew up in Charlottesville, VA, and attended the University of Virginia, where she completed her undergraduate degree in Religious Studies. She then went on to complete her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree at Columbia University in New York, before receiving her Master’s Degree in Nursing from the University of Virginia.
Gibson (pictured above) is running to represent the 57th House District against Republican Dave Owen. When The Washington Post broke the story, they included a statement from Owen:
“Me and my team found out about this story today like everyone else,” Owen said in a written statement Monday afternoon, soon after The Post published an article about Gibson. “I’m sure this is a difficult time for Susanna and her family, and I’m remaining focused on my campaign.”
The Post said it was alerted to the videos of her and her husband at a site not password-protected by a Republican operative.
The nurse practitioner also gave a statement to the paper:
“It won’t intimidate me and it won’t silence me,” she said in the statement. “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.”
Questions about how the story broke
The Associated Press said it was also given screenshots from the online videos of the Gibsons. What is curious is that the “Republican operative” shared the story with The Post, which famously suppressed a woman’s claim that she was sexually assaulted by Justin Fairfax, at the same time it was putting accusations against Republican Alabama Senate hopeful Roy Moore on its front page.
It would be more natural for a Republican operative to feed opposition research to a conservative outlet. A Republican operative worth his salt would know that approaching The Post or the AP, both heavily leftist, with dirt on a pro-abortion Democratic woman, would risk having the operation blowback on them—badly.
When the story broke, instead of hiding from the media, Gibson gave statements to the press and went on CNN to accuse Republicans of gutter politics for hyping the videos. Yet, no Republican, let alone her opponent, seemed ready to pounce.
On the other hand, Democrats have quickly defended Gibson, and her attorney has accused the leakers of violating Virginia law—which he had on the ready for reporters, along with relevant case precedence.
There is no direct evidence that Gibson or someone in her camp are the ones who really leaked the videos, but as it has played so far, it could not have played out better for Gibson.
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Neil W. McCabe is a staff reporter for The Virginia Star.
Photo “Susanna Gibson” by Susanna Gibson. Background Photo “Virginia Capitol” by Martin Kraft. CC BY-SA 3.0.
