{"id":15270,"date":"2025-11-05T03:16:40","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T03:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/jay-jones-overcomes-texting-scandal-to-win-virginia-ag\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T03:16:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T03:16:40","slug":"jay-jones-overcomes-texting-scandal-to-win-virginia-ag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/jay-jones-overcomes-texting-scandal-to-win-virginia-ag\/","title":{"rendered":"Jay Jones overcomes texting scandal to win Virginia AG"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Jay Jones, the Democrats\u2019 scandal-plagued attorney general nominee who sparked a Republican-led backlash over violent text messages<\/a>, secured victory in what turned into a high-profile race in Virginia\u2019s statewide electoral contests Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Spurred largely by anti-Donald Trump sentiments among voters, Jones defeated Republican Jason Miyares, the incumbent in the race who the GOP put much of its political capital in protecting. Republicans hoped the public outrage over Jones\u2019 2022 texts \u2014 where he detailed the hypothetical killing of a GOP lawmaker \u2014 would be enough to all but disqualify him from winning the post.<\/p>\n

Jones had been leading Miyares in polling as the final month of campaigning approached. But the contest took a dramatic turn after the National Review<\/u><\/a> reported that Jones sent to a colleague three years ago a series of texts that included \u201cGilbert gets two bullets to the head<\/u><\/a>\u201d \u2014 a reference to then-Virginia GOP House Speaker Todd Gilbert. The comments were quickly condemned by the party, but the scandal broke after Virginia\u2019s 45-day early voting period began, leaving the party little recourse but to keep him on the ticket rather than ask him to step aside.<\/p>\n

Republicans used Jones to attack Spanberger and openly questioned whether she could effectively lead the state if she was unwilling to speak out forcefully and call for a down-ballot candidate to end his bid. She condemned Jones\u2019 text messages as \u201cabhorrent\u201d but refused to rescind her endorsement. Jones later expressed regret for sending the texts.<\/p>\n

That left Jones, who makes history as Virginia\u2019s first Black attorney general, to fend for himself. While some Democrats embraced him in the final days of the campaign including both Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine at a get-out-the-vote rally in Norfolk \u2014 the event\u2019s headliners, Spanberger and former President Barack Obama, made no mention of him at all<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Miyares, who has ties to Trump\u2019s former co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita, took advantage of his incumbency and lapped Jones in fundraising<\/u><\/a>. He gave Republicans hope, even before the scandal, that he could be the party\u2019s best chance at blocking Democrats attempts at a clean sweep of the top statewide offices.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as I love Abigail, the most important position this year is the attorney general’s race,\u201d said Del. Joshua Cole, a Democrat in Virginia\u2019s General Assembly. \u201cIn Trump’s America, we need a Democratic attorney general, and the Republicans know that. That\u2019s why they [pulled] out all the stops\u201d for Miyares.<\/p>\n

But the text messages weren\u2019t the only issue Republicans hit Jones with. He also faced renewed criticism over a years-old reckless driving charge where he was caught driving 116 mph in a 70 mph zone<\/u><\/a> and struck a deal to forgo jail time by paying a fine and performing community service. Jones reportedly completed some of those community service hours while working at his own political action committee, giving Miyares and his Republican allies more material to paint Jones as being \u201cabove the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019 texting scandal had the potential to drag down other Democrats. During an interview on \u201cNext Question with Katie Couric<\/u><\/a>\u201d last month Spanberger lamented having to repeatedly answer questions about Jones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that I have to spend even a moment’s time talking about somebody else’s text messages from years ago, rather than what I want to do as governor, is something that I am deeply unhappy about,\u201d Spanberger said on the podcast. Weeks prior during the lone gubernatorial debate, Spanberger said about Jones texts: \u201cThe voters now have the information, and it is up to voters to make an individual choice based on this information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also sought to tie Spanberger to Jones.<\/p>\n

\u201cRadical Left Lunatic, Jay Jones, who is running against Jason Miyares, the GREAT Attorney General in Virginia, made SICK and DEMENTED jokes\u2026\u201d the president wrote in a Truth Social post<\/u><\/a>, giving his full endorsement to Miyares. \u201cAbigail Spanberger, who is running for Governor, is weak and ineffective, and refuses to acknowledge what this Lunatic has done,\u201d he wrote in early October.<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019 texting scandal, along with Maine Senate Democratic candidate Graham Platner coming under attack for previous social media posts , provides fresh challenges to DNC Chair Ken Martin.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged in an interview with Blue Light News Sunday evening that improving vetting of candidates in the future is something the party will have to evaluate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not up to the DNC and to the party a chair to decide what’s disqualifying or not,\u201d Martin said. \u201cWe all are gonna have to do a much better job of vetting our candidates as we move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay Jones, the Democrats\u2019 scandal-plagued attorney general nominee who sparked a Republican-led backlash over violent text messages, secured victory in what turned into a high-profile race in Virginia\u2019s statewide electoral contests Tuesday. Spurred largely by anti-Donald Trump sentiments among voters, Jones defeated Republican Jason Miyares, the incumbent in the race who the GOP put much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}