Virginia Dem Climbed Political Ladder Despite Allegations of Threatening Behavior in the Home

Michael Jones has worked his way up through the ranks of Democratic politics in Virginia — going from the Richmond City Council to the state assembly to a state Senate run — despite a history of protective orders against him based on allegations of threatening behavior from two spouses.

Jones is running in the special election primary for Virginia’s 15th state Senate district’s unassembled caucus on Sunday with the endorsement of Democratic Lieutenant Governor-elect Ghazala Hashmi. The fact that Jones is still in good standing among Virginia Democrats like Hashmi is bewildering to his estranged wife, June Jones, who alleged he engaged in erratic and threatening behavior in an interview with National Review -- allegations that Jones denies. The general special election will take place on January 6.

June Jones is despondent that Hashmi chose to endorse her estranged husband even after she warned Hashmi’s chief of staff about Jones’s character and urged her to have her boss oppose Jones in the primary.

“He's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” she told National Review in a wide-ranging interview about her estranged husband who is now seeking a state legislative promotion in Hashmi’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate district. “I honestly think that he wanted me to kill myself.”

A former pastor, Jones first entered politics in 2016 when he was elected to the Richmond City Council. That was five years after his first wife, Tanya, secured a temporary emergency protective order against him in response to what she described as threats of physical violence. Jones then received a promotion from Virginia voters, who elected him to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2023. A year later, Jones’s second wife, June, would secure a preliminary protective order against him following an incident in which she says he “grabbed me by the wrist (both) and would not let me go until prying a cellphone out of my hand.”

Now, Jones is seeking another promotion. He is facing Virginia House Delegate Debra Gardner in the district’s firehouse Democratic primary. Gardner has the backing of Virginia Senate Pro Tempore Louise Lucas and the well-funded pro-choice group Emily’s List. Given the deep-blue tint of this Senate seat, the winner of the Democratic contest is expected to coast to victory in the district’s general special election, which is scheduled to take place on January 6.

Heading into the holiday season, this closely watched special election is now dredging up inconvenient questions about what kind of personal behavior Virginia Democrats are willing to tolerate in their candidates.

June Jones’s searing allegations about her estranged husband’s behavior come as Virginia Democrats are still reeling from the drama of the commonwealth’s off-year elections, when their Democratic attorney general nominee, Jay Jones, became mired in scandal following an early-October report in National Review regarding text messages he sent to a former colleague in 2022 in which he fantasized about shooting the former Republican Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. Despite the fallout, Jay Jones soundly defeated incumbent GOP Attorney General Jason Miyares amid this year’s Democratic electoral sweep, though his margin of victory was much closer than those of other Democrats on the ballot.

The allegations against Michael Jones also raise questions about his history of having some staff members sign nondisclosure agreements, a practice he says has helped his staff “ensure that people's private information stays private.”

“I've had a couple staff members sign NDAs” to ensure that people's private information stays private, Jones conceded in an interview with NR. “My current staff members, they haven't signed NDAs.”

For June Jones, who works in the entertainment industry, the prospect of her estranged husband getting a political promotion is frightening. The pair are currently separated but not yet formally divorced, and she believes his history of intimidating behavior, as she describes it, is disqualifying for an elected official.

Reached by phone, Jones points out that he has not been charged or convicted of any abuse, and any effort to characterize him in such a manner is a political hit job by his opponent, whom he declined to name.

A representative for Debra Gardner, his primary opponent, declined National Review’s request for comment for this story, though on Wednesday her campaign released a video ad hitting Jones for the protective orders in both marriages.

“In the court of law, when all the evidence was laid out, I've never been convicted of any type of abuse, because it did not occur,” he told National Review. “I am really saddened that a member of my party—in an effort to try to win an election—would go to these lengths. It's sad. It's really sad, instead of focusing on the issues of this race and the people that we serve, they want to go to mudslinging and character assassination.”

“This is simply a tactic at the last minute to try to embarrass, harass and berate me and my family,” he added.

Meanwhile, June Jones feels betrayed and disappointed that high-profile Democrats in the state are continuing to stand by Jones despite her sworn testimony and private pleas for support. “They're letting this man get by with domestic violence two marriages—that's reported,” she tells NR. She feels especially frustrated with Hashmi. “I called her office to tell her what was going on,” she said, describing a private conversation she had with the lieutenant governor-elect’s chief of staff, in which she shared her concerns. Hashmi endorsed Jones anyway.

Hashmi’s office has not responded to a request for comment.

June Jones described the messiness of their breakup, which she insists included paranoid and unfounded allegations from Jones that she cheated on him. Once it became clear Jones intended to end their relationship, she began calling suicide and domestic violence hotlines seeking counsel on how to respond to Jones’s behavior, she told NR. She recalled one evening in March 2024, when she says Jones repeatedly told her that he loved her but planned to leave her. She called a domestic violence hotline that evening. Suspicious about his motivations for leaving her, June admits that she “grabbed his phone.”

“I never knew the passcode, but he chased me into the bathroom, basically, almost knocked the door out the hinges, grabbed me up with both arms and, basically, was shaking me until I dropped the phone,” she recalled in an interview with National Review.

She said that following the incident, she went to Democrat Don Scott, Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. “He told me to leave him,” she recalled in an interview. A representative for Scott declined to comment for this story.

The aspiring politician vociferously denied his estranged second wife’s account. Last year, a judge of the Chesterfield County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court entered a temporary protective order based an affidavit from June Jones detailing the phone incident. However, after hearing Michael Jones’s account, the court later declined to extend the order, as was publicly reported at the time, finding that June Jones had not met her burden to show fear of harm.

Michael Jones maintained in an interview with NR that he chased after her because he wasn’t sure what was in her hand. He said she’d attempted suicide on multiple occasions in the days leading up to this incident and that he chased after her to make sure she wasn’t engaging in self-harm.

“I thought she was running to the room again to harm herself because I said I was leaving,” he said.

June concedes that she had spoken to him about her own suicidal ideations, but she denies that she ever attempted to take her own life. She insists that Jones drove her into the unstable mental state that he describes, and says she is stable following their separation.

June is not the first woman to make serious allegations about Jones’s temperament in court.

In December 2011, Jones’s now ex-wife, Tanya, successfully obtained a temporary emergency protective order against him following alleged verbal threats of assault.

According to court documents reviewed by National Review, a Chesterfield Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court judge concluded in December 2011 that “reasonable grounds exist to believe that Respondent has committed family abuse and there is probable danger of a further such offense against [Tanya Jones] by the Respondent.” At the time, Jones called his now ex-wife’s protective order unfounded.

In a February 2012 court hearing, Tanya Jones explained why she took Jones’s threats seriously, citing an incident that allegedly occurred shortly before their separation, according to a court transcript reviewed by NR.

He came in the closet and grabbed my -- We had been arguing. He was like, well, you're packing up -- Because I was headed to a funeral after church. And he was like, you might as well pack up all your shit and go live with your mother. He came into the closet and he grabbed my forearms, and he stood in front of the door. I said, get off of me. Drop my arms and let me get out the door. And then he backed up some. He did the same thing again. I said, get off of me. Drop my arms and get out of my way. And he did.

Tanya Jones also testified in court that she discovered a recording device in her car, which she said Jones admitted placing to determine if she had reported him to police. “When I got back that Saturday night, the next morning, I'm driving with the kids in the car, and when I stopped to go into the parking lot at the church, a digital recorder came from in between my daughter's feet,” she testified, according to court documents. “And then he told me when I asked him about it, I said, I found this in the car. He said, yeah, I put it in the car, because I didn't know whether you were gonna go to the police or what you were gonna do.”

Tanya Jones did not respond to requests for comment for this story. The divorced couple have two adult children together.

Pressed about the 2011 and 2012 court proceedings, Jones again insisted that he has been cleared of any allegations surrounding domestic violence in court.

On his campaign website, Jones insists he has spent his time in politics aiming to “amplify the voices of those that are too often overlooked, unheard and feel powerless.”