ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — Democrat Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones is facing mounting pressure from Republicans to end his candidacy due to violent text messages he sent.
On Oct. 3, it was revealed that Jones sent text messages about how former Republican Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert should be shot in the head. They are messages Jones admits to sending to Republican Del. Carrie Coyner a few years ago.
Jones texted, “Three people, two bullets, Gilbert, Hitler, and Pol Pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head.”
After a phone call, Coyner texted Jones, “You were talking about hoping Jennifer Gilbert’s children would die.”
Jones answered, “Yes, I’ve told you this before. Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”
On Wednesday, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin renewed his call for Jones to exit the race.
“These demented texts that called for two bullets in Todd Gilbert, our former speaker’s head and wished his children would die, a two-year-old and a five-year-old, this is beyond crazy,” Youngkin told 7News. “And, therefore, this guy is not only disqualified from running, but I actually think there may be real, real calls for a legal investigation. And what that means to me is he’s got to drop out. He has got to drop out of this race in disgrace. And his running mate, Abigail Spanberger should show some courage and step up and tell him to do so. The law enforcement community has said this. Now, the Fraternal Order of Police, the Law Enforcement Sheriffs Association has come out and said he must drop out, he is unfit. And yet Abigail Spanberger can’t bring herself to acknowledge the fact that he is unfit for office as Attorney General, top cop, the people’s protector.”
Youngkin said he is shocked that no Democratic elected official has publicly called on Jones to drop out of the race.
“Listen, this is really, really clear,” Youngkin told 7News. “This is one of those morality tests. Are you going to support someone who wants young children to die, to put bullets in somebody’s head, and wants police officers to die or not? And she [Spanberger] is saying that she does. And the problem we’ve got here, which is well beyond just the ethics and the morality here, is that law enforcement will not trust him. And when law enforcement doesn’t trust their senior leaders, their elected leaders who are supposed to have their back, then our entire law enforcement infrastructure falls down. This is why this is so important. Abigail Spanberger has got to come out. She has got to not just condemn what he said, but she has to ask him to step out of this race in disgrace. And she needs every other Democratic leader across this state, in this country, to do the exact same thing. And it is just shocking to me that they have not done this yet. It’s time for them to show some backbone and do what’s right.”
New polling from the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), released exclusively to 7News, shows Jones’ support among likely Virginia voters has dropped since news broke of Jones’ violent texts.
The RAGA’s polling on Sept. 7, before the violent text story, showed Jones leading Miyares 46.4% to 42.5%. On October 7th, after the Jones text story broke, Miyares led Jones 45.8% to 43.7%, according to the RAGA polling.
The RAGA’s polling also shows Jones’ image suffering among likely Virginia voters. The RAGA’s polling had Jones’ favorable rating at 24% and his unfavorable rating at 19% on September 7th among likely Virginia voters. On October 7th, the RAGA’s polling had Jones’ favorable rating at 27% and his unfavorable rating at 43.5%.
“I’ve never seen a statewide candidate crater this rapidly, especially based mostly on negative publicity. Jay Jones is in such a bad spot with his disgusting, violent beliefs that the initial call center we contracted with had to stop working the project because the phone agents couldn’t stomach even reading the text messages to voters taking the survey,” said Cygnal Pollster & President Brent Buchanan.
The polling, released by the RAGA, shows 54% of voters recall recently seeing news about Jones on TV and 44% online or on social media, and out of all places voters have seen, read, or heard about Jones, 51% recall seeing only negative information and 28% a mix of negative and positive.
The polling results indicate Jones only leads in the Washington, D.C. market by 8 points. For comparison, Donald Trump lost the Washington, D.C. media market by 21 points, according to the RAGA polling memo.
In that time, Attorney General Jason Miyares’ image has maintained a +6 net favorability.
The polls were conducted by Cygnal. The October 6 – 7 survey included 600 likely general election voters and has a margin of 3.98%
“The bottom line is that Jay Jones should drop out of the race. In the past month, the head-to-head has flipped. Jason Miyares is still on track to win reelection regardless of political winds. RAGA remains all in for Jason Miyares. We look forward to ensuring that Virginia has an Attorney General who keeps families safe, not one who puts them in harm’s way,” said RAGA Executive Director Adam Piper.
After voters were presented in the poll with what Jones said in the text messages, Miyares’ lead increased to +6 and Jones’ “definite” vote dropped to a 28%.
RELATED | Many Virginia residents have faced jail time for reckless driving, Jay Jones did not
Jones released a statement the day the texts were made public:
“I take full responsibility for my actions, and I want to issue my deepest apology to Speaker Gilbert and his family. Reading back those words made me sick to my stomach. I am embarrassed, ashamed, and sorry.
I have reached out to Speaker Gilbert to apologize directly to him, his wife Jennifer, and their children. I cannot take back what I said; I can only take full accountability and offer my sincere apology.
Virginians deserve honest leaders who admit when they are wrong and own up to their mistakes. This was a grave mistake and I will work every day to prove to the people of Virginia that I will fight for them as Attorney General.”
What would happen if Jones withdrew from the race for Virginia attorney general?
With early voting well underway, 7News asked the Virginia Department of Elections Is there a deadline to remove a name from the ballot for attorney general?
The Virginia Department of Elections told 7News that pursuant to Va. Code 24.2-612.2, there is no express deadline prior to an election for a candidate to withdraw. But state law doesn’t allow a candidate to be replaced on the ballot under 60 days from the general election after ballots have been printed.
“For a candidate withdrawal occurring 59 days or less before an election for the office in question, while the withdrawal has legal effect, the withdrawn candidate cannot be replaced on the ballot,” a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Elections told 7News.
That means any candidate would have had to drop out by Sept. 4 for the party to be able to nominate their replacement. Virginia laws state that once ballots are printed, the nominee’s name will remain on the ballot. Ballots already cast will be counted.
The Virginia Department of Elections added that if a nominee withdraws after ballots have been printed, “notices would be placed at every polling place and early voting location notifying of the withdrawal. Slips of paper stating which candidate has withdrawn would also be given to every in-person voter and included with mailed absentee ballots. Further, any votes received by the withdrawn candidate would still be reported with election results but would not count toward the results of the election, since the person would no longer be a qualified candidate.”
“The Democratic State Central Committee could nominate a replacement, but he [the replacement nominee] wouldn’t be on the ballots,” Larry Sabato told 7News. “If he drops out, it would be conceding the race. There would essentially be no opposition.”
Sabato, the Director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told 7News that’s why Democrats he’s spoken to haven’t called on Jones to drop out.
“That’s why they’ve decided to stick with Jay Jones,” said Sabato. “They’re going to say publicly, ‘well, he’s much better than the Republican incumbent, and he said he’s sorry, blah, blah, blah’. The truth is, behind the scenes, with some exceptions, they’re deeply angry at him.”
Sabato says Jones’ image has been damaged, potentially severely damaged.
“This has introduced a question mark into the entire election,” said Sabato. “It’s a giant gift that has been ribboned and wrapped by Jay Jones and presented to the Republicans. Now, I’ve gotten plenty communications from people saying, ‘oh, I want to find out who leaked this’ and ‘why they held on to this for years’ and ‘this is dirty politics’. My answer to that is 99% of the blame goes to Jay Jones. He knew that he had that reckless driving conviction on his record, 116 miles an hour on an interstate. He knew about all the texts that he had sent, and obviously he sent them to a Republican. Whatever the background was is almost irrelevant at this point, but he knew all those things were there, and he decided to run anyway. It’s called egotism. So I can tell you, just from talking with Democrats, they are white hot angry at Jay Jones, and he’s kidding himself if he doesn’t think otherwise. Now, does that mean he’ll lose? Not necessarily, but this has been a big boost to Jason Miyares.”
Virginia law enforcement groups have called on Jones to drop out of the race for attorney general, and so has Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, Attorney General Jason Miyares, President Donald Trump, and Vice President JD Vance.
After Jones’ text messages were made public last Friday, Jones canceled events and has been calling Democratic elected officials, asking them to continue to support his campaign.
Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee for Virginia governor, condemned the texts as “abhorrent” but has not called on Jones to withdraw from the race, nor has Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor Ghazala Hashmi. 7News reached out to both nominees today to see if they will make such a call.
Democratic Virginia Senator Tim Kaine on Wednesday said that the texts are indefensible, but that he’s known Jones for 25 years and the texts, “don’t land heavier on the scale heavier” than his knowledge about Jones’ character. Kaine said he called Jones to make sure his apology was sincere and said he wished more “people in public life would apologize” like Jones.
Early voting ends Nov. 1. Election Day is Nov. 4.
See how the Virginia Attorney General candidates stack up on the issues: