NORFOLK, Virginia — Jay Jones, the embattled Democratic nominee for attorney general in Virginia, made a surprise appearance at a major Democratic campaign rally Saturday aimed at revving up the party faithful ahead of the high-stakes statewide elections Tuesday.

Jones — whose years-old violent text messages triggered a nationwide GOP backlash and a steady drumbeat of calls for Democrats to push him off the ticket — opened the event, where headliner former President Barack Obama energized voters in support of Abigail Spanberger, the party’s gubernatorial nominee.

Speaking before Spanberger and Obama took the stage, Jones made no mention of the scandal that prompted Spanberger to distance herself from him. He instead focused his brief remarks on Jason Miyares, seeking to cast the incumbent GOP attorney general as a puppet for President Donald Trump.

“Trump has endorsed Jason. … He said ‘Jason will never let us down,’ and what that means is that he’ll never let Donald Trump down,” Jones said, with the crowd at the Chartway Arena erupting in boos in response to the mention of the current president.

He cast his opponent as being a “willing enabler” of the president, who has wreaked havoc on Virginia residents, and claimed Trump “illegally fires workers [and] levies tariffs that destroy our regional economies, including the Port of Virginia.”

The overwhelmingly Democratic crowd received Jones warmly, with cheers and applause. He reminded them he grew up in this region, which he said will help Virginia send a message to Trump on Election Day.

Republicans, including Trump, have seized on the text messages from Jones, who in 2022 sent to a colleague messages fantasizing about shooting then-House Speaker of Virginia Todd Gilbert, a Republican. Jones has apologized but refused calls, including from his opponent Miyares, to end his bid for attorney general.

Spanberger criticized those text messages, but like most other prominent Democrats in the state and nationally, did not call on him to drop out.

Speakers who appeared after Jones, including Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott, state Sen. Lamont Bagby and Sen. Tim Kaine all urged voters to vote for Jones on Tuesday.

“I met Jay Jones when he was 11 years old. I have known him for 25 years,” Kaine said, before laying into Trump, blaming him for the ongoing federal government shutdown and allowing funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to lapse. He pointed out that several states filed lawsuits against the administration — but not Virginia.

“Virginia didn’t participate,” he said, “because Jay’s opponent wouldn’t stand up and say ‘hungry people deserve the money in the contingency fund that was set for them.’ Jay would never do that.”