Democrats continue to support Jay Jones, the party’s nominee for Virginia Attorney General, despite the release of disturbing text messages in which Jones expressed violent sentiments toward Republican state House Speaker Todd Gilbert, the New York Post reports. Virginia Beach Democrats insist that Jones will serve with “integrity and accountability,” while gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger has declined to distance herself from him, even after the texts revealed Jones imagining Gilbert being shot and referring to his children as “little fascists.”
The contentious messages, dating back to 2022 and first reported by National Review, included alarming language such as “Gilbert gets two bullets to the head” and references comparing Gilbert to notorious historical figures. These texts were sent to Republican Delegate Carrie Coyner, who expressed her concern and asked Jones to “please stop.”
According to The Post, “Jones had begun the text exchange, whining about the ‘glowing tributes’ from Republicans that centrist Democrat Joe Johnson Jr. — a former state legislator who died days earlier — was receiving.”
“If those guys die before me,” Jones declared, “I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves,” adding, “Send them out awash in something.”
“It really bothers me when you talk about hurting people or wishing death on them,” Coyner replied in the text exchange.
Jones went even further, reportedly holding a call with Coyner in which he cruelly imagined that the former state House Speaker’s wife might “have to watch her children die” as a way to influence Gilbert’s opinions, according to the National Review.
After allegedly ending the call, Coyner texted him back: “You weren’t trying to understand. You were talking about [hoping] Jennifer Gilbert’s children would die.”
Jones, who served in the Virginia House of Delegates until early 2022, initially refused to apologize, accusing his opponent of smearing him. Later, he claimed to have reached out to apologize to Gilbert and his wife and admitted full responsibility for his words, describing the texts as making him sick.
Despite the controversy and the wider context of political violence in the United States following incidents like the assassination of Charlie Kirk, many prominent Virginia Democrats have not called for Jones to drop out of the race. Spanberger expressed her disgust at the messages but stopped short of urging his withdrawal, emphasizing the importance of denouncing violent language in politics while calling on Jones to take responsibility for his words.
“After learning of these comments earlier today, I spoke frankly with Jay about my disgust with what he had said and texted,” Spanberger said in a statement. “I made clear to Jay that he must fully take responsibility for his words. What I have also made clear is that as a candidate — and the next Governor of our Commonwealth, I will always condemn violent language in our politics.”