Jay Jones Haunted by Text Message Scandal in Virginia Attorney General Debate

Richmond, Va. — Virginia Democrats’ embattled attorney general nominee walked onto the debate stage Thursday night knowing he’d need to address the elephant in the room head-on.

“Let me be very clear. I am ashamed. I am embarrassed. And I am sorry,” Jones said in his opening statement, in which he also apologized to former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert, his own family, and Virginia for the recently revealed texting scandal that has upended his campaign. He said that he cannot “take back” what he said in texts to a former colleague in 2022, but that moving forward, he will always take accountability for his mistakes.

Thursday’s debate, organized by the Virginia State Bar Association, came roughly two weeks after National Review revealed earlier this month that Jones sent a disturbing string of texts to his former state legislative colleague, Republican Carrie Coyner, in August 2022 fantasizing about shooting Virginia’s then–House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican, among other disturbing messages. He described a hypothetical scenario in which -- given the opportunity to shoot Gilbert, Adolf Hitler, or Pol Pot but given only two bullets – he’d shoot the Republican speaker twice “every time.” He also suggested that Gilbert's wife should watch her child die in her own arms to force Gilbert to rethink his political commitments.

Sparks flew here inside the University of Richmond’s performing arts center Thursday night as incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares and his Democratic opponent squared off on the debate stage for the first and only time a few weeks out from Election Day. With less than three weeks to go, the race has tightened significantly and is expected to be extremely close.

As expected, Miyares spent Thursday evening talking nonstop about the texting scandal, arguing that his opponent’s 2022 rhetoric disqualifies him from serving as Virginia’s top cop.

"He keeps saying that he is sorry. Jay, if you’re really sorry, you wouldn’t be running," Miyares said.

https://x.com/CurtisHouck/status/1978953627692658836

And as expected, Jones deflected those attacks by invoking President Donald Trump at every possible opportunity—criticizing Miyares for not suing the administration at every turn and insisting that his Republican opponent is not doing enough to protect “illegally” fired federal workers, abortion rights, and Virginians’ access to health care.

“Whatever Donald Trump says, Jason will do,” Jones said, highlighting that Miyares is the only statewide Republican candidate with Trump’s endorsement this cycle. “They hang out at MAGA rallies together. I will see Donald Trump in court to hold him accountable for Virginia.”

In his opening remarks, Miyares touted his record as Virginia’s top cop suing pharmaceutical companies, cracking down on fentanyl dealers, and pursuing a tough-on-crime agenda. Miyares also lambasted Jones about his progressive state legislative record during his time in the Virginia House of Delegates, such as his votes to end mandatory reporting requirements for misdemeanors that are committed on public school grounds, including sexual assault.

Throughout the evening, he highlighted Jones’s lack of prosecutorial experience and said his opponent’s voting record is indicative of a “criminal first, victim last” approach to enforcing the law. And he also spoke about a recent report in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which revealed that years ago Jones was convicted for driving 116 miles per hour on a Virginia highway—or 46 miles above the speed limit. His punishment: a $1,500 fine and 1,000 hours of community service, 500 of which he served for his own political action committee.

“How could Jay Jones ever be trusted to comfort a grieving mother who has lost a child to violence knowing that he had hoped that a child as young as two years old would die in Jennifer’s [Gilbert’s] arms?” Miyares said in his closing statement. “He may seek forgiveness now, but the reality is, he’s seeking a promotion.”

For the past two weeks, Virginia Democrats have largely adopted a condemn-and-move-on strategy, whereby they criticize his 2022 rhetoric as “indefensible” while insisting that he’s still fit to serve and is preferable to Miyares.

“Obviously, those text messages are indefensible, but I've known Jay Jones for a long period of time,” former Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said in a recent interview with National Review. “He's a friend. He made a mistake, he apologized, he's been accountable for that.”

“There are those on the right, particularly Donald Trump, who say wild, outlandish things and take no responsibility or accountability for what they say,” added Stoney, who ran unsuccessfully against Spanberger and then lieutenant governor nominee Ghazala Hashmi this cycle. “Jay, at least, has done that, and I think he still deserves to be the next attorney general.”

But behind closed doors, Virginia Democrats are in a panic. Jones’s donors and fundraisers are furious with Jones and have been inundated with text messages from friends asking whether they knew about the attorney general nominee's skeletons before they agreed to help his 2025 campaign. Democratic operatives are in a tizzy over how to respond to the scandal. In private conversations, they’ve held out hope that early voting — which began on September 19 — will get Jones across the finish line and that he’d use the October 16 debate to convince voters that the 2022 text scandal does not reflect his character.

But the scandal is flooding the Virginia media and advertising market, forcing Democratic candidates up and down the ballot to address it in interviews — throwing a wrench into Virginia Democratic candidates’ closing pitch to voters as a result. Further complicating matters, Jones has been hit with bar complaints in Virginia and the District of Columbia, where he previously served as an assistant attorney general in the Office of the Attorney General’s consumer protection bureau.