Campaign
In October, a month before the election, a 2022 text conversation that Jay Jones had with Republican delegate Carrie Coyner following the death of former delegate Democrat Joe Johnson Jr. was made public by National Review . In the texts, Jones made disparaging remarks toward Republican members of the House, stating, "If those guys die before me I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves." Jones then followed up the remark by targeting then-Speaker of the House of Delegates Republican Todd Gilbert, giving a scenario in which Gilbert would be shot twice in the head. Jones said, "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." Jones would then take his remarks further, targeting Gilbert's children, wishing death upon them, and stating that Gilbert and his wife were "evil" and "breeding little fascists." [32] [33] [34] [35]
Jones has received bipartisan condemnation for his texts. His running mates Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee in the 2025 Virginia gubernatorial election, and Ghazala Hashmi, the Democratic nominee in the 2025 Virginia lieutenant gubernatorial election, both issued statements condemning Jones. Spanberger stated that she had spoken with Jones regarding her "disgust". Meanwhile, Hashmi stated, "I condemn it at every turn, Jay must take accountability for the pain that his words have caused", along with U.S. Senator Mark Warner writing that Jones's comments are "appalling, unacceptable, and inconsistent with the person [he's] known." [36] Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell called the texts "a serious lapse in judgment that cannot be defended," while current Virginia House Speaker Don Scott condemned the remarks but stated that "we can't get distracted, because they want us to get distracted by the text message here or something else. Stay focused." [35] Republicans, including Governor Glenn Youngkin, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Vice President JD Vance, have called for Jones to withdraw from the race. [37] [38]
In Jones's initial statement following the publication, he accused his opponent of "dropping smears through Trump-controlled media organizations to assault my character and rescue his desperate campaign" and stated that his opponent "will continue to be accountable to Donald Trump, not the people of Virginia." [39] Prior to the article, it had come out that in the same year, Jones was charged with reckless driving after driving 116 miles per hour on Interstate 64 in New Kent County. Despite Virginia's mandatory one-year jail sentence for reckless driving, Jones was sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service, half of which he served working for his own PAC, Meet Our Moment, along with a $1,500 fine. [40] Jones would later issue a statement taking responsibility for the text messages and apologized to Gilbert and his family. [41]
A criminal investigation was opened against Jones by the New Kent County Commonwealth's Attorney on October 9, stating that the documentation did not clearly indicate that Meet Our Moment was a political action committee and that community service must be performed at nonpolitical nonprofit organizations. [42] On October 21, a judge signed an order recusing the New Kent County Commonwealth's Attorney and appointing the Williamsburg-James City County Commonwealth's Attorney as a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation. [43]
