(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) With a week to go before the high-stakes election that will likely determine whether Virginia goes red or blue in the 2024 presidential election, a desperate Democrat candidate for the state legislature posted a TikTok video of herself peeing in the snow.
“Yeah, I’m peeing,” whispers Jessica Anderson to the camera while the sound of flowing urine can be heard in the background.
“Avoid the yellow snow,” she continues, while staring into the camera.
Anderson, who is challenging GOP incumbent Del. Amanda Batten for the District 71 seat, finds herself trailing badly in the final stretch, with Batten, having raised nearly twice as much money as her.
Although the video she posted to her personal account, @crazymotherrunner, while having a squat in the woods may have helped put Anderson on the public radar, it was not the attention she was hoping for.
Anderson has since made her TikTok private. However, the Virginia Project, a state Republican political-action committee, tweeted the video on Halloween morning and had collected at least 80,000 views as of Friday afternoon, with the well-trafficked news aggregator Citizen Free Press also promoting the shocking “pee tape” to its mostly conservative audience.
The public urination may not be entirely off-brand for Anderson, whose campaign website explains she is heavily involved with Williamsburg’s local running community and, in 2022, participated in a 50-mile marathon in western Maryland. Although 14 aid stations interspersed throughout the dirt-and-gravel course offered drinks, snacks and medical supplies, the race website made no mention of restroom facilities.
Excusable or not, the salacious-sounding storyline was likely to draw unfavorable comparisons with Susanna Gibson, another Democrat running for the Virginia House of Delegates, who drew national headlines in September after she was exposed for posting pornographic videos of herself on Chaturbate.
In one such video, Gibson asked viewers to give her money in order to perform certain sex acts with her husband, John David Gibson. It is unclear whether the funds went toward her campaign expenditures.
Gibson, who rejected calls from within her own party to step aside, now finds herself down more than 10 percentage points in the otherwise competitive District 57, according to a New York Post report.
Prior to the sex scandal, she was down by a mere four points to her Republican opponent, David Owen.
“It’s no surprise that Ms. Gibson’s polling poorly,” said Aaron Evans, a spokesman for Owen’s campaign, noting that while Gibson films porn videos, Owen focuses on solving problems.
“David Owen is remaining focused on his common-sense agenda of renewing the economy, lowering crime, and improving our schools for the future of Virginia families.”
As often is the case, the outcome of Virginia’s off-year state election, coming a year before the presidential election, is being watched closely as one of the leading bellwethers of the national mood. This time around, however, it could also have more direct political implications.
Democrats control the state Senate by a four-vote margin, and Republicans control the House of Delegates by the same margin, with four seats currently vacant.
The parties are waging intense legislative battles as GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin—who won a stunning political upset two years ago—looks to bolster his conservative agenda with full control of state government.
If Youngkin’s party prevails, it could swing the Old Dominion back into the red column—thereby changing the political calculus on Electoral College maps next year—after years of Democrat control under former Clinton surrogate Terry McAuliffe nearly flipped it permanently blue.
A sweeping victory also also would raise Youngkin’s own political stock considerably—either as a potential challenger or backup to former President Donald Trump should the Left succeed in its unrelenting efforts to neutralize the GOP frontrunner—or as an early favorite for the 2028 race if he so chooses to wait it out, given the brand damage that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has done by taking on Trump head-to-head.
Meanwhile, in order to avert such a political catatrophe for their party, Democrats have funneled tremendous resources into the state election and recently dispatched former President Barack Obama to rally voters with a prerecorded robocall.
“The people we elect in the State Senate and House of Delegates will make decisions that affect your everyday life,” says the Obama-bot.
