The leaked text messages from Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones are as disturbing as they are disqualifying, revealing violent fantasies and explicit threats toward a fellow lawmaker. In messages from 2022, Jones wrote that former House Speaker Todd Gilbert would get “two bullets to the head,” language that crosses every line of decency and public responsibility. This isn’t rough-and-tumble politics — it’s a picture of someone who entertained political violence in private correspondence.
The reaction has been swift and bipartisan, with voices across the spectrum calling the texts unacceptable and demanding action. Republicans and independents smelled hypocrisy and danger, while even some on the left expressed shock that a major-party nominee would so casually fantasize about murder. When the left can’t even defend this behavior, ordinary Virginians should be asking what else their leaders are hiding.
Jones publicly apologized, saying he “takes full responsibility,” but then chose to stay in the race, apparently believing a mea culpa will be enough to brush this aside. That response rings hollow when words that suggest violence against political opponents are at the center of the controversy; actions and accountability matter more than PR statements. Virginians deserve candidates who respect the rule of law and the sanctity of human life, not someone who once joked about assassinating a political rival.
Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat running for governor, condemned Jones’s language and said she spoke with him about her “disgust,” but she stopped short of demanding his withdrawal from the ticket. That tepid rebuke is telling: it demonstrates a party leadership more interested in damage control than in confronting a dangerous rhetoric problem inside its own ranks. Voters shouldn’t accept half-measures from leaders who owe their first duty to the safety and unity of the commonwealth.
Republicans aren’t wasting this opening, rolling out ads and a significant ad buy to make sure voters remember these words when they walk into the voting booth. The GOP quickly framed the texts as evidence of a broader culture of extremism and used a multi-million dollar strategy to keep the story in front of Virginians through the final stretch. This is politics at its sharpest — and it’s proof that when Democrats tolerate violent rhetoric, Republicans will run hard and unrelenting to expose it.
Let’s be frank: this is the predictable result of a political class that increasingly shrugs at heated, violent talk from its members when it suits electoral convenience. Conservatives have been warning for years that normalizing hostile rhetoric corrodes civic norms and makes the space for actual violence wider. If Democrats want to be taken seriously about unity and safety, they should stop reflexively shielding their own and start demanding real accountability. No more excuses. No more soft words. No more “we’ll handle it internally.”
This scandal arrives while early voting is already underway, and Virginians have the power this November to choose character and common-sense leadership over dangerous rhetoric and convenient apologies. Don’t let a last-minute PR fix erase what these messages reveal about judgment and temperament. Vote, hold candidates accountable, and make it clear that political violence — even in private texts — disqualifies someone from high public office.
