The message from Democrat Attorney General Jay Jones, who jokes about killing Republican lawmakers, may overturn the old Dominion race for the governor.
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A series of controversial text messages threaten Virginia’s holding statewide elections. There, Democrats wanted to make up for the lost ground more than they did in the middle of 2026.
Democrat Attorney General Jay Jones faces intense scrutiny after joking in 2022 that “two bullets” should be “two heads” in a communication that was misdirected to a Republican colleague.
The revelation sparked a nationwide backlash led by President Donald Trump. President Donald Trump called for him to drop out of the race soon in his October 5th post on True Society.
“Jay Jones, the great Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyarez, is a radical left Lunatic, and if they were kidding, if it wasn’t funny, he made a sick and demented joke,” Trump said. “Even Democrats say it’s the territory of “resignation from the campaign.”
Other Republicans are also struggling with scandals, particularly after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on September 10th.
The reverberation is heading into the contest to see Jones face Republican Jason Miyarez and take over GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin – potentially reaching beyond the race of the Attorney General. The Offsieur election in Virginia is often seen as a pioneer in the following year’s national mid-term legislative elections.
The Virginia Governor’s Contest is considered a high stakes race where the National Democrats hope to rebrand the brand and boost the party in the battle for Congress next year.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger is currently heading Republican twin Earl Shears, lieutenant governor, but the GOP hopes Jones’ confusion will hurt Spanberger’s chances.
“Abigail Spanberger will be standing with Jay Jones,” 61-year-old Earl Sears also tagged her democratic opponents in an October 6 post in X.
Who is Jay Jones and what did he do?
Jones is a former state legislator who represented the Norfolk area before resigning in 2022. He won the Democratic attorney general against Henrico County federal lawyer Shannon Taylor earlier this year with a razor margin of about 2%.
Conservative media outlet National Review was the first to break the news that Jones texted Republican leader Carrie Coiner on October 3rd.
“Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, Hitler, and Polpot. Gilbert gets two bullets in his head,” Text Jones repackages a classic joke among the Brooklyns about Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, referring to Gilbert, the founder of Nazi Germany and leader of the Cambodian murderous Khmer Rouge.
Jones also denounced political centrism before he realized he accidentally sent a text message to Coiner, adding that he would then “piss” on the graves of other GOP colleagues.
“Worst Worst” GOP piles up at Jones
In the aftermath, Jones has been hit with a lot of criticism from the president and national figures, including his political allies, and says the comments emphasize that he is not suited to office.
“Jay Jones is the worst and worst. Democrats have to stop calling Republican fascists, which is exactly the kind of rhetoric that the left is using to tear this country apart.”
“Conservatives are executed for their beliefs, and texting like this is part of the problem. Virginia is much better.”
Jones reportedly reached out to former speaker Gilbert and his family with an apology. However, he refused the Attorney General’s appeal to abandon the race.
“I can’t get back what I said. I can only take full accountability and offer a sincere apology,” Jones said in a statement.
“Virginians deserve an honest leader who admits they are wrong and have their own mistakes. This is a serious mistake and I work to prove to the people of Virginia that I will fight for them every day as the Attorney General.”
According to a poll adopted before the revelation about Jones, Democrats led between 51% and 45% of Myrares among voters in a post-Washington school survey.
Spanberger is under pressure
Virginia Republicans are now trying to use Jones’ message on the entire Democrat ticket, but expressed her “disgust” in the comments, particularly to direct voters’ attention to governor’s candidate Spanberger, but did not appeal to Jones to step aside.
For example, Cook’s political report at the University of Virginia Political Center and Sabato’s Crystal Ball both rated the Virginia Governor’s Race as a “possible” democratic benefit this fall. A Washington Postshire School survey released on October 3 shows the 46-year-old former lawmaker led the Earl Sears 12 points among voters.
But Republicans are hoping for new concerns about political violence, and the type of public language used by elected officials will warn Dominion voters old enough to change the racial trajectory.
For example, just a few weeks before Jones’ text was discovered, Trump and the GOP had linked Kirk’s murder to a broader message casting Democrats as radical, hateful and violent. In Virginia, Republicans were already looking for ways to invigorate young conservatives who were already furious over Kirk’s death. Text messages may give the Earl Thurs campaign a new launch pad in the final weeks of the election.
The Earle-Sears campaign has also released an online attack ad featuring Spanberger, who praised Jones in the past.
Gov. Governor Glenn Youngkin, a popular Republican who is limited to one term, has beaten Jones’ text message as “violent and disgusting rhetoric.” He described the entire democratic slate of the Spanburger and candidates as Jones’ “running mates” in an October 4 post for X.
The Spanberger campaign did not immediately respond to USA’s request for comment today on the comment that Jones had called for him to drop out, but in her previous statement, the former CIA operations officer told Jones that he had “clearly made it” to Jones that he “must be held fully responsible for his words.”
Spanberger’s campaign was already facing criticism from conservative opponents for telling supporters to “fuel your anger” during the September 19 rally.
Republican state lawmakers argued that this was the reason for the death threats via text on September 25, but said the Spanberger campaign was unrelated and the lawmaker’s comments were out of context.
In a YouTube video, Spanberger praised her mother for creating the phrase.
“And my mother just said, ‘Let your wrath fuel you.’ And mommy, I love you, I appreciate your clever advice,” Spanburger says in the video. “And the rest of us have fueled us every time we hear new stories. Every time we turn on the news, we have fueled us. Every time something bad is happening, they say, ‘Oh, that’s the motivation.’ ”
Contributed by Karissa Waddick, Bill Atkinson
