House hopeful in New York releases sex tape to show his ‘sex positive approach’

A New York House candidate is putting some skin in his congressional campaign, releasing a sex tape reportedly to “demonstrate [his] commitment” to his “sex positive approach.”

Mike Itkis (I), who’s in a longshot campaign to unseat Rep. Jerry Nadler (D) in next month’s election in New York’s 12th Congressional District, recently released a video of himself having sex on camera that was posted to a porn site earlier this year.

The cyber security expert told ITK in a statement Friday that filming the X-rated video with porn star Nicole Sage was “one of the most meaningful experiences” in his life.

“Creating the video significantly influenced my political platform, leading me to create the principles of sex work legalization, to speak about the complexities of consent, and the pros and cons of privacy considerations,” Itkis said.

He told ITK that he hoped the video, which was posted to PornHub in June, would serve as a “starting point for conversations about the equal value of married people and those who are not, the expansion on sexual rights beyond abortion, and finally, the need to provide all citizens the tools necessary to protect themselves online.”

“If I would just talk about it, it wouldn’t demonstrate my commitment to the issue,” Itkis told New York’s City & State, which was first to report news of the NSFW footage on Friday.

Itkis said in his statement the one of his three primary goals is to “advance sex positivity, including several proposals for legislation designed to explicitly protect sexual rights by ending government involvement in marriage, the right to not become a parent in case of pregnancy, a right for women to terminate an abortion, decriminalization of sex between consenting adults, a nation-wide definition of consent, and legalization of sex work.”

Itkis’s campaign website described the candidate as “not married. No kids. Not celibate. Atheist.”

Despite starring in the now-public sex tape, Itkis said he’s “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,” he told City & State. 

“But I thought the issues I’m trying to address are so important,” he said. “I wanted to have my issues talked about in some way.”