A New York congressional candidate Mike Itkis has released a tape of him having sex on PornHub to promote his 'sex positive' agenda, including the legalization of prostitution.
Mike Itkis, a third-party liberal candidate in New York's 12th District and current major in the US Army Reserve, is running to unseat Jerry Nadler in November, having achieved ballot access in September.
One of Itkis' key campaign issues is decriminalizing sex work, so to promote it, he participated in an adult film which he posted to the sex site PornHub on his own account.
The 53-year-old Itkis - whose bio describes himself as 'Not married. No kids. Not celibate. Atheist.' - stars with adult actress Nicole Sage in the X-rated clip, which features the pair having sex on camera twice over the course of the past year.
The video, which is about 13 minutes long opens with the performer Sage, clarifying that she consents to the scene and is 'not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.'
Itkis then walks into the scene and clarifies that the two have been tested for STDs and established a safe word ('Stop').
After the initial scene ends, a video cuts to the pair again, fully clothed, subtitled 'Los Angeles, CA, October 2021' before establishing consent again and going back to performing.
Sage has an OnlyFans account and posts regularly on Instagram and Snapchat, describing herself as 'Your naughty, online girlfriend.'
Itkis told City & State that he made the video in an attempt to walk the walk, a 'conversation piece' backing up his campaign promises regarding sex work.
He said: 'If I would just talk about it, it wouldn’t demonstrate my commitment to the issue. And the fact I actually did it was a huge learning experience, and it actually influenced items on my platform.'
The progressive independent's key issues include legalizing sex work, ending the war in Ukraine (Itkis was born in Odessa before moving to New York City in 1979) and keeping men from being forced to pay child support without 'prior agreement.'
The video, titled 'Bucket List Bonanza', was his first time the Cornell graduate has ever performed on film.
Itkis said: 'I’m very much an introvert. I’m kind of a nerd who doesn’t like to be the center of attention if I can avoid it. But I thought the issues I’m trying to address are so important… I wanted to have my issues talked about in some way.'
The registered Democrat is running as an independent because he says that despite having 'uncompromising opposition' to the Republican agenda, 'he has significant disagreements with establishment Democrats and wanted to provide the voters a choice on November 8.'
Despite the lurid nature of the video, his Republican opponent isn't knocking it.
Mike Zubluskas said: 'You gotta do what you gotta do. The media ignores everybody that's not a Democrat in the city.'
Itkis isn't even the first Manhattan politician to attempt to drum up attention using a sex tape.
Zack Weiner, 26, a screenwriter and actor and 2021 candidate for New York's City Council has had a video of himself enjoying a sadomasochism session posted to Twitter.
Weiner quickly fessed up to participating in the BDSM ritual and did not make any moves to dispel that notion that it wasn't him who featured in the footage which was said to have been filmed 18 months ago.
Nadler defeated fellow veteran lawmaker Rep. Carolyn Maloney in one of the most significant elections Empire State Democrats have seen in years.
Both left-wing legislators are in their 70s, joined Congress in 1993 and both hold valuable committee chairmanships - Nadler leads the House Judiciary Committee while Maloney chairs the House Oversight panel.
Also in the running was 38-year-old progressive attorney Suraj Patel, whose calls for a new generation of leadership nearly saw Maloney unseated in the old bounds of New York's 12th district in 2020.
Patel again came within roughly a few thousands votes of Maloney - though their combined total gains would still be slightly less than ballots cast for Nadler.
New York's new Congressional map saw one seat in the House of Representatives thrown out based on the latest census. Among the shakeups it has caused for the blue stronghold is pitting Nadler and Maloney against each other.
