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The legacy press is circling the wagons for Democratic Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones after the release of text messages that could derail his campaign.
Even CNN downplayed the scandal with a soft headline — “Virginia’s Democratic nominee for attorney general facing pressure over resurfaced text messages” — that omitted any reference to the messages’ contents.
Jay Jones' comments are the most violent I've seen from any candidate.
Here's the rest of the story.
Be informed, not misled.
The saga begins
In January 2022, a state trooper clocked Jones driving 116 mph in a 70 mph zone shortly after he left his seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. Court records show his attorney delayed the case four times before securing a “deferred disposition,” allowing Jones to dodge up to a year in jail by performing community service.
He ultimately paid a $1,500 fine and logged 1,000 hours of service in 2023 — roughly half credited to his political action committee, Meet Our Moment, which is registered with the Virginia Board of Elections but not a nonprofit, and the rest with the NAACP Virginia State Conference.
Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares blasted Jones in a Wednesday post on X, writing, “Instead of taking accountability for his actions, it appears that my opponent submitted a letter to the Court stating that he performed 500 hours of ‘community service’ for his own PAC, which isn’t a charitable organization under state code, to dodge potential jail time.”
Miyares added that Jones’s messages raise “serious, troubling questions about Jay Jones’ judgment, his ability to uphold the law, and, ultimately, his qualifications for Attorney General.”
Instead of taking accountability for his actions, it appears that my opponent submitted a letter to the Court stating that he performed 500 hours of ‘community service’ for his own PAC, which isn’t a charitable organization under state code, to dodge potential jail time.
The saga thickens
On August 8, 2022, a Republican state legislator received a disturbing string of early-morning text messages from a former colleague, Jay Jones, this year’s Democratic nominee for Virginia attorney general.
Jones, who at the time had recently resigned from the state house after a brief stint representing Norfolk, had strong feelings about how the political class was eulogizing recently deceased former state legislator Joe Johnson Jr., a moderate Democrat with a long tenure in Virginia politics. Republican legislators like House Speaker Todd Gilbert had begun making public statements honoring Johnson’s memory and political legacy, and some of those statements were making the rounds in state legislative group chats.
Around 8 a.m., Jones shared those feelings with his former state legislative colleague, Republican House Delegate Carrie Coyner. In a series of text messages obtained by National Review, Jones derided Johnson’s political centrism and scoffed at the “glowing” tributes that were being made in his honor by Republicans in the wake of his death.
“[expletive] that was for Mark,” he wrote to Coyner, suggesting he’d meant to send the texts to someone else. And yet that realization didn’t stop Jones from joking about what “that POS” Gilbert “would say about me if I died."
“If those guys die before me,” Jones wrote, referencing the Republican colleagues who were publicly honoring the deceased Johnson’s memory, “I will go to their funerals to [go to the bathroom] on their graves” to “send them out awash in something.”
Jones then suggested that, presented with a hypothetical situation in which he had only two bullets and was faced with the choice of murdering then-Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert or two dictators, he’d shoot Gilbert “every time,” prompting pushback from his former colleague:
Jones: Three people, two bullets
Gilbert, Hitler, and Pol Pot
Gilbert gets two bullets to the head
Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time
Coyner: Jay please stop
Jones: Lol
Ok, ok
Coyner: It really bothers me when you talk about hurting people or wishing death on them
It isn’t ok
No matter who they are
Here are screenshots of some of the texts that Democrats' nominee for VA AG Jay Jones sent in 2022 threatening the former House GOP speaker.
— National Review (@NRO) October 3, 2025
Read @AudreyFahlberg's full scoop in National Review for more context on the texts, which he doesn’t dispute sending.👇👇 pic.twitter.com/jBTF7EIVfD
The Democrat former legislator doubled down on the call, saying the only way public policy changes is when policymakers feel pain themselves, like the pain that parents feel when they watch their children die from gun violence. He asked her to provide counterexamples to disprove his claim.
Then at one point, the source said, he suggested he wished Gilbert’s wife could watch her own child die in her arms so that Gilbert might reconsider his political views, prompting Coyner to hang up the phone in disgust.
The private messages offer a disturbing glimpse into how Jones — who is looking to oust incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares this fall — describes his political adversaries in private conversations. The violent rhetoric complicates an already contentious and competitive race roughly a month out from Election Day in Virginia, where early voting began on September 19.
Takeaway
Faced with more pushback from his frazzled former colleague, Jones somehow took the conversation a step further: “I mean, do I think Todd and Jennifer are evil? And that they’re breeding little fascists? Yes,” he wrote, referring to Gilbert’s wife and two young children.
Show me any evidence of a Republican ever making these kinds of statements about a political opponent. And his wife and children.
And this man wants to be Attorney General of Virginia. And his Democrat Party is supporting him.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.
