A Democratic candidate in an important race for the Virginia General Assembly denounced studies on Monday that she and her husband had carried out dwell on a sexually express streaming web site.

Susanna Gibson, a nurse practitioner working in her first election cycle, mentioned in an announcement that the leaks concerning the on-line exercise have been “an illegal invasion of my privacy designed to humiliate me and my family.”

The Washington Post and The Associated Press reported on Monday that tapes of live-streamed sexual exercise had been recorded from a pornographic web site and archived on one other web site. The New York Times has not independently verified the content material of the movies. The Democratic Party of Virginia didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Ms. Gibson, 40, who seems on her marketing campaign website in hospital scrubs in addition to at residence together with her husband and two younger youngsters, is working for the House of Delegates in one in every of solely a handful of aggressive races that can decide management of the General Assembly. Republicans maintain a slim majority within the House, and Democrats narrowly management the State Senate, however each chambers are up for grabs in November.

Ms. Gibson’s district, which is exterior Richmond and primarily in Henrico County, is one in every of seven tossup seats within the 100-member House, based on the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.

Releasing damaging details about candidates of the opposing social gathering into the warmth of a marketing campaign is an age-old political apply, however the sensational nature of the disclosure of intercourse tapes — reportedly that includes Ms. Gibson and her husband, a lawyer — is very uncommon. Ms. Gibson referred to as the discharge of the tapes “the worst gutter politics.” The Post mentioned it realized of the fabric from a “Republican operative” who denied a connection to Ms. Gibson’s opponent, David Owen, or to different political teams in Virginia.

Daniel P. Watkins, a lawyer for Ms. Gibson, mentioned it was illegal within the state to document somebody in a state of undress and distribute it to a 3rd social gathering with out that individual’s consent.

“It’s illegal and it’s disgusting to disseminate this kind of material, and we’re working closely with the F.B.I. and local prosecutors to bring the wrongdoers to justice,” Mr. Watkins mentioned.

Ms. Gibson gave no indication she was contemplating dropping out of the race.

“It won’t intimidate me and it won’t silence me,” she mentioned in her assertion. “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.”

Virginia’s governor, Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, has raised document sums for his social gathering in an effort to take full control of the Legislature, which, if profitable, would cap a exceptional swing from two years in the past when Democrats absolutely managed state authorities.