Susanna Gibson, a Democratic candidate for the Virginia state legislature, has dropped 10% in polling after videos of her online sex shows became public, the New York Post reports.
The poll also found “more than 80% of voters have already heard about Susanna Gibson’s online business and behaviors.”
Axios: “The state is home to more than 140,000 federal workers — half of them in Northern Virginia, just outside D.C. — plus thousands more who do business with the government.”
“Virginia Republicans are fretting about voters taking out their anger on the GOP in November’s state elections if there’s a shutdown.”
“For nearly two years, poll after poll has found Americans in a sour mood about President Biden, uneasy about the economy and eager for younger leaders of the country,” the New York Times reports.
“And yet when voters have actually cast ballots, Democrats have delivered strong results in special elections — the sort of contests that attract little attention but can serve as a useful gauge for voter enthusiasm.”
Earlier for members: Democrats Are Still Outperforming This Year
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“John Odom, a major Republican donor, has been a top backer of Louisiana gubernatorial candidate Jeff Landry… In all, he’s given $100,000 to his political operation,” Politico reports.
“But now Landry, the state’s attorney general and frontrunner in the race, has done something that, for Odom, is unforgivable. He hired former Donald Trump 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as a political adviser.”
“And now, in response, Odom is demanding that Landry give him his money back and is ‘urging the voters of Louisiana to reject Landry at the polls.'”
A year after Los Angeles City Council Member Kevin de León’s (D) “political career was upended following the leak of a recorded conversation featuring racist and derogatory remarks,” the embattled politician has announced he is seeking reelection, the Los Angeles Times reports.
“History may be repeating itself in Virginia as the federal government careens toward a shutdown in early October, just weeks before a key election in the Commonwealth,” The Messenger reports.
“With Republicans in Congress unable to agree on a spending deal, Democrats in Virginia – home to one of the largest shares of federal government workers and contractors – are preparing to use the seemingly inevitable shutdown as a cautionary tale against handing Republicans total control of state government… The goal is to tie Republicans in the commonwealth to ‘extremism’ in Washington.”
“It’s a familiar argument for Democrats in the Commonwealth: When the federal government shuttered for over two weeks in October 2013, the slate of statewide Democrats set to face voters that November made the shutdown a central part of their campaign, hopscotching between federal contractors in the closing weeks of the campaign to highlight the impact the shutdown – which they blamed on Republicans in Congress – was having on Virginia.”
Associated Press: “For those on either side of the debate, Virginia — where all state House and Senate seats are up for election and early voting begins Friday — is among the biggest fights this year over abortion rights. The Commonwealth’s odd-year elections are often an indicator of the national mood heading into major election years and offer both parties a chance to test campaign strategies, messaging and policy ahead of 2024 contests for president, Congress and other offices.”
“Democrats are banking on abortion rights to be a winning issue, just as it was in the 2022 midterms and in earlier contests this year in Virginia and elsewhere.”
Former Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) — who retired less than a year ago — “plans to run for the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, a position she last held 37 years ago,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
“Since then, she served 18 years in the California Legislature and 15 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, a position she only retired from nine months ago.”
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) is up on a new television ad with a young woman who was raped by her stepfather: “This is to you, Daniel Cameron. To tell a 12-year-old girl she must have the baby of her stepfather who raped her is unthinkable.”
In what cannot be a coincidence, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports Cameron said “that he would sign legislation to provide abortion-ban exceptions for rape and incest, flip-flopping from his previous stance on Kentucky’s near-total ban.”
Nathaniel Rakich: “On its own, no — any single special election can be influenced by any number of factors, including candidate quality or parochial issues. But Democrats have been posting special-election overperformances of that magnitude all year long, in all kinds of districts. And on average, they have won by margins 11 points higher than the weighted relative partisanship of their districts.”
“That’s more than just an impressive streak — it’s a potential sign of a Democratic wave election in 2024. In each of the past three election cycles, a party’s average overperformance in all special elections in a given cycle has been a close match for the eventual House popular vote in the eventual general election — albeit a couple of points better for Democrats.”
Hal Rafter (D) flipped a swing seat in a special election for the New Hampshire state House, WMUR reports.
The upset puts Democrats just one seat away from erasing the GOP’s majority in the chamber.
“Democrats kept control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Tuesday after winning an open seat in a special election in the Pittsburgh area,” the New York Times reports.
“The state’s lower chamber had been split 101-101 between Democrats and Republicans since July, when former Representative Sara Innamorato, a Democrat, stepped down from her seat representing the 21st House District to run for Allegheny County executive.”
Voters in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, will head to the polls Tuesday in a special election that will determine which party controls the Pennsylvania state House, The Hill reports.
Semafor: “Virginia’s Nov. 7 elections, known colloquially as the commonwealth’s ‘off-off-off year’ races, will determine whether Youngkin has a majority that can pass conservative bills. His Spirit of Virginia PAC has raised more than $16 million to make that happen; he’s recruited and campaigned with candidates to demolish what Democrats call the ‘blue wall,’ a four-seat Senate majority that’s stymied him.”
“Republicans are running on what worked in 2021, much of it under the ‘parental rights’ umbrella, when the Loudoun controversy and a cash-flush campaign delivered the biggest GOP victory of the Biden era.”
“But Democrats say that the Dobbs decision changed everything. In 2022, they defended two of the three House seats that Youngkin’s GOP was targeting thanks to their resilience in the suburbs; in January, they flipped a state senate seat in Virginia Beach after warning that Youngkin could pass a 15-week abortion limit if the ‘blue wall’ fell. Zooming out to the national landscape, Republicans have not been able to replicate Youngkin’s formula in battleground races in the midterms or subsequent elections either.”
Gov. Andy Beshear (D) has seized a commanding fundraising lead over challenger Daniel Cameron (R) in their marquee matchup in Kentucky, the AP reports.
“Beshear — who is seeking a second term in a state that otherwise has become a GOP stronghold — accumulated about $15 million for the November election, while Cameron has taken in $2.8 million. Heading into the campaign’s stretch, Beshear had about three times more money in the bank.”
“While AIPAC has indicated that it is weighing a more aggressive approach to challenging anti-Israel incumbents this election cycle, the pro-Israel group is facing some early complications as several of its favored House recruits remain undecided about running,” Jewish Insider reports.
“Meanwhile, in a couple of pivotal races involving Squad members, the field of challengers is growing, potentially reducing the chances for an upset.”
Susanna Gibson (D), who is running for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates and had sex with her husband in live videos posted on a pornographic website, called the exposure of the videos “the worst gutter politics,” CBS News reports.
Said Gibson: “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.”
Gibson’s attorney said that disseminating the videos is a violation of Virginia’s revenge porn law, which makes it a crime to “maliciously” disseminate or sell nude or sexual images of another person with the intent to “coerce, harass, or intimidate.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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