Does Spanberger Still Support Jay Jones After He Fantasized About Shooting a Republican?

Virginia Democrat gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger condemned her fellow Democrat, Jay Jones, for text messages fantasizing about shooting a Republican, but she has yet to clarify whether she still supports him in the attorney general race.

Spanberger’s campaign did not respond to The Daily Signal‘s multiple requests for comment Monday about whether she still supports Jones and whether she would call on him to drop out of the race. She cast her ballot on the first day of early in-person voting, Sept. 19.

She said Friday that she was “disgusted” by Jones’ remarks and had confronted him about them.

“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.”

Since Friday, her campaign has posted on a plethora of topics, including the government shutdown, inflation, and abortion—but nothing more on Jones.

Jay Jones’ Comments

As National Review’s Audrey Fahlberg first reported, Jones sent a text message to Republican House Delegate Carrie Coyner on Aug. 8, 2022, after Republicans had eulogized Joe Johnson Jr., a moderate Democrat. Jones expressed frustration about Todd Gilbert, then the speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates.

He suggested that, in a hypothetical situation in which he had two bullets and had the choice of shooting Gilbert, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, or Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, he would save the bullets for his Republican former colleague “every time.”

“Three people, two bullets,” Jones wrote. “Gilbert, hitler, and pol pot.”

“Gilbert gets two bullets to the head,” he added. “Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time.”

According to National Review, Jones called Coyner to explain himself. On the call, he reportedly wished Gilbert’s wife could watch her own child die in her arms so that Gilbert might reconsider his political views.

“Like all people, I’ve sent text messages that I regret and I believe that violent rhetoric has no place in our politics,” Jones said in a statement on the news.

Jones later said he had issued 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.” 

However, he also pivoted to attacking his Republican opponent, current Attorney General Jason Miyares.

“Let’s be clear about what is happening in the Attorney General race right now: Jason Miyares is dropping smears through Trump-controlled media organizations to assault my character and rescue his desperate campaign,” he added.

Calls for Jones to Drop Out

Miyares has called for Jones to drop out of the race.

“Prior to this week, this race was about competing views on public safety,” the attorney general wrote on X. “Now it’s about basic fitness for public office. If you believe it is okay to wish death upon a political opponent—vote for my opponent. If you believe it is worth the death of children to advance your political goal—vote for my opponent.”

“This violent, disgusting rhetoric targeted at an elected official and his children is beyond disqualifying,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, wrote on X.

“Jay Jones said that ‘Gilbert gets two bullets to the head’ and then hoped his children would die,” the governor added. “Read those words again. There is no ‘gosh, I’m sorry’ here. Jones doesn’t have the morality or character to drop out of this race, and his running mates Abigail Spanberger, [lieutenant governor candidate] Ghazala Hashmi, and every elected Democrat in Virginia don’t have the courage to call on him to step away from this campaign in disgrace.”

Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican nominee for governor, tied the Jones comments to Spanberger’s repeated campaign trail exhortation—that her supporters should “let your rage fuel you.” (Spanberger says she is encouraging supporters to campaign for her, by making phone calls and going door-to-door, rather than encouraging any violence.)

“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, acording to the Virginia Mercury. “My opponent Abigail Spanberger urges her supporters to fill their hearts with violent hate. ‘Let your rage fuel you,’ she says. Words have meaning.”

President Donald Trump also called on Jones to drop out.

He noted the news that Jones “made SICK and DEMENTED jokes, if they were jokes at all… concerning the murdering of a Republican Legislator, his wife, and their children.”

He said Spanberger “refuses to acknowledge what this Lunatic has done,” and called on Jones to “drop out of the Race, IMMEDIATELY.”

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