Virginia’s 2025 general election is on November 4, including the high-stakes gubernatorial race between Abigail Spanberger (D) and Winsome Earle-Sears (R)
But the focus now is on Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for Attorney General. Jones, a former state delegate and Norfolk native who once served as an assistant Attorney General under Mark Herring. But leaked text messages from 2022 paint a far darker picture—one of unrestrained rage and violent fantasy that has, weirdly, not ended his political career.
In exchanges with Republican Delegate Carrie Coyner, Jones mused about putting “two bullets to the head” of then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a fellow legislator and father. He fantasized about the deaths of Gilbert’s children, suggesting it might “change his views,” and boasted he’d “piss on the graves” of GOP opponents
Jones has issued a mealy-mouthed apology, calling it a “grave mistake” from a time when he wasn’t in office. But this rings hollow when the offender clings to the ballot.
Yet the bigger scandal is reaction of his own party. Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee and Jones’s running mate, issued a statement expressing “disgust” after a private chat with him. She condemned “threatening language in our politics,” as if that’s sufficient. Where’s her demand for him to withdraw? Spanberger, a former CIA officer who once prided herself on bipartisanship, now shields a candidate whose words echo the very extremism she claims to fight. Her tepid response isn’t leadership—it’s complicity
Virginia Senator Mark Warner, who called the texts “appalling,” has offered hand wringing but no action. Warner knows Jones personally, yet he stops short of demanding resignation.
All this comes at a perilous time when national Democrats are actively egging on violence against ICE agents and Republicans across the country. Just look at the wave of attacks on federal immigration facilities this year—deadly shootings, firebombings, and assaults, not to mention the open celebration of Charlie Kirk’s murder by the likes of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who is still in good standing in her party.
Spanberger is ahead in the polls. Should she win, her victory will be hailed by some as a bell weather of anti-Trump sentiment. But it will also signal something ominous and dark. When the acceptance of hate and violence is institutionalized by one of our two major political parties, our political system is in grave danger.
