‘Beyond disqualifying’: Jay Jones controversy jolts Virginia’s pivotal 2025 elections

What began as a quiet October Friday in Virginia politics erupted into a full-blown national scandal when screenshots of private, three-year old text messages showing Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones fantasizing about shooting then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert and his children were made public.

The National Review story revealed an August 2022 exchange between Jones — a former Norfolk delegate and one-time assistant attorney general — and Del. Carrie Coyner, R-Chesterfield. In the texts, Jones described a scenario in which Gilbert “gets two bullets to the head,” followed by a wish that the Republican lawmaker’s children “die in their mother’s arms.”

The messages, sent shortly after Gilbert offered public condolences over the death of retired Democratic Del. Joe Johnson of Washington County, stunned political circles across Virginia and beyond. Coyner confirmed the authenticity of the exchange in a statement Friday evening, calling the remarks “disgusting and unbecoming of any public official.”

“On August 8, 2022 I had a text conversation with Jay Jones,” Coyner said. “What he said was not just disturbing but disqualifying for anyone who wants to seek public office. Jay Jones wished violence on the children of a colleague and joked about shooting Todd Gilbert.”

In a statement Friday evening, Jones admitted sending the messages and said he takes “full responsibility” for his actions. He apologized directly to Todd Gilbert and his family, and vowed to work to regain Virginians’ trust.

Republicans seize on the scandal

The revelation instantly reshaped a statewide race that had already been fiercely contested. After initially declining to comment, Attorney General Jason Miyares, the Republican incumbent, condemned his opponent during an impromptu news conference in Richmond Saturday afternoon.

“The attorney general is the chief law enforcement officer of Virginia,” Miyares said. “It must be done with character and integrity. Jay Jones has proven he is reckless, biased, and willing to trade away his integrity. This conduct is disqualifying.”

Miyares added that he had “sat with crying victims” of violent crime as a prosecutor and called Jones’s comments “the kind of darkness that disqualifies anyone from holding public office.”

Gov. Glenn Youngkin echoed that sentiment in a post on X, calling the messages “violent, disgusting rhetoric targeted at an elected official and his children.”

“Jay Jones said that ‘Gilbert gets two bullets to the head’ and then hoped his children would die,” Youngkin wrote. “There is no ‘gosh, I’m sorry’ here. Jones doesn’t have the morality or character to drop out of this race.”

Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, now the Republican nominee for governor, went further — attempting to tie the controversy to her Democratic opponent, former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger.

“Jay Jones is the poster child for the Democrat establishment and he fantasizes about murdered little children laying lifeless in their mother’s arms,” Earle-Sears said in a statement. “My opponent Abigail Spanberger urges her supporters to fill their hearts with violent hate. ‘Let your rage fuel you,’ she says. Words have meaning.”

Earle-Sears’s campaign released a new television ad Sunday morning repeating those claims, even though Spanberger’s 2024 “rage” quote came in the context of urging voter turnout, not violence.

From Richmond to Washington

The fallout quickly spilled beyond Virginia’s borders. 

On Saturday afternoon, Vice President JD Vance weighed in, using the controversy to accuse Democrats of hypocrisy.

“The Democrat candidate for AG in Virginia has been fantasizing about murdering his political opponents,” Vance wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I’m sure the people hyperventilating about sombrero memes will join me in calling for this very deranged person to drop out of the race.”

President Donald Trump entered the fray Sunday morning, posting on Truth Social that “the Radical Left Lunatic, Jay Jones,” who is running against “the GREAT Attorney General in Virginia, Jason Miyares,” had made “SICK and DEMENTED jokes, if they were jokes at all,” about “the murdering of a Republican Legislator, his wife, and their children.” 

Trump accused Jones of spreading “not funny” and “deranged” remarks, while blasting Spanberger as “weak and ineffective” for not condemning Jones more forcefully. 

“Even Democrats are saying it is ‘RESIGNATION FROM CAMPAIGN’ TERRITORY,” Trump wrote, calling on Jones to “drop out of the Race, IMMEDIATELY.” He closed the post by giving his “Complete and Total Endorsement” of Miyares — his first in Virginia’s statewide elections this year — saying “JASON WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN.”

Other Republicans quickly followed suit, with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson writing that “there is no conceivable justification for wishing violence against a political opponent and their children,” and urging Jones to “immediately withdraw his candidacy.”

And White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said the episode showed how “dangerously radicalized the Democrat Party has become.”

Republican Attorneys General Association chair Kris Kobach called the texts “abhorrent” and urged Jones to withdraw. The group also launched a website, displaying the messages in full.

U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said he was “very disturbed” by the idea that Jones would “fantasize about Mrs. Gilbert having to watch her children die in her arms.”

Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Scott, praised Coyner for “showing real courage by standing up to Jay Jones’ inappropriate and offensive comments.”

And John Reid, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor — who faced his own scandal earlier this year after reports that explicit Tumblr posts tied to an account with his name had surfaced — also joined the chorus. The revelation at the time prompted Youngkin to personally urge Reid to drop out of the race, a request he ultimately rejected.

“Democrats have a violence problem. Jay Jones just got caught saying it a little too clearly,” Reid wrote on X. “Killing your opponent and his kids? Disqualifying.”

Democrats condemn but don’t call for withdrawal

Democratic leaders across Virginia responded with near-universal disgust — but stopped short of demanding Jones end his campaign.

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., called the comments “appalling” and “inconsistent with the person I’ve known.”

Spanberger, the Democratic nominee for governor, said she was “disgusted” by Jones’s remarks and had spoken directly with him Friday afternoon.

“I made clear to Jay that he must fully take responsibility for his words,” Spanberger said in a statement. “As a candidate — and as the next governor of our commonwealth — I will always condemn violent language in our politics.”

State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, said Jones “must take accountability for the pain that his words have caused.”

Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, was among the most forceful in his response, calling the texts “a serious lapse in judgment that cannot be defended.”

“While we don’t share the same political views, I consider Todd Gilbert a friend and an honorable person,” Surovell said. “The comments directed at him and his family were completely out of bounds.”

Surovell added that the context of the exchange — apparently sparked by condolences after Johnson’s passing — made the remarks “even more inappropriate.”

After publicly condemning Jones’ texts, Virginia House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, spent Sunday campaigning in Coyner’s district. Speaking to parishioners at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Hopewell, Scott urged voters to keep their attention on the broader stakes of the election.

“We have to be mature in our thinking and how we vote,” Scott said. “We can’t get distracted, because they want us to get distracted by the text message here or something else. Stay focused.”

Jones calls texts “a grave mistake”

Jones issued what he called his “deepest apology to Speaker Gilbert and his family,” adding that “reading back those words made me sick to my stomach. I am embarrassed, ashamed, and sorry.” 

He said he had reached out “to apologize directly to (Gilbert), his wife Jennifer, and their children,” and admitted that while he “cannot take back what I said,” he could “only take full accountability and offer my sincere apology.” 

He added that Virginians “deserve honest leaders who admit when they are wrong and own up to their mistakes,” calling the texts “a grave mistake” and pledging to “work every day to prove to the people of Virginia that I will fight for them as attorney general.”

Appearing live on Richmond’s WRIC Friday night, Jones apologized once again. 

“I’m so deeply, deeply sorry for what I said,” he said during the interview. “I wish that it hadn’t happened, and I would take it back if I could.”

Jones’s campaign did not respond to additional requests for comment.

Some Democratic allies, particularly within Jones’s home base of Hampton Roads, stood by him even as they condemned the texts.

State Sens. Louise Lucas of Portsmouth and Mamie Locke of Hampton released a joint statement describing the comments as “deeply disturbing” but warned against allowing the controversy to overshadow the stakes of the November election.

“There is no place for political violence or violent rhetoric in our public discourse,” they wrote. “Jay must take accountability for his actions. But we will not allow this moment to distract from the urgent fight we are in for Virginia’s future.”

The senators credited Jones for his service as a legislator and assistant attorney general, calling him “a father raising two young boys” who “has demonstrated the character and compassion the Office of Attorney General deserves.”

A national October surprise

The scandal arrives just one month before Virginians elect a new governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, as well as all 100 seats in the House of Delegates — a cycle already under the microscope as a bellwether for 2026 and the next presidential election.

For Republicans, the Jones texts have become a rallying cry in their broader message about “Democratic extremism.” For Democrats, they pose a test of unity and discipline at the worst possible moment.

As of Sunday afternoon, Gilbert himself had not commented publicly. 

A longtime Shenandoah Valley Republican and former House speaker, Gilbert stepped down from his role as a lawmaker in June to accept his nomination as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia — a position he resigned after just one month.  

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