Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who is running for governor, released a campaign ad Sunday exposing text messages from 2022 sent by Democrat Jay Jones, a candidate for attorney general, in which he talked about shooting former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert and wrote that his wife needed to witness their children die.
The one-minute video, posted Sunday, opens with a montage of news anchors reporting that “Jay Jones is under fire” for sending messages in 2022 saying Gilbert “should be shot.” One anchor references that Jones suggested Gilbert’s wife “watch her own child die in her arms so that Gilbert might reconsider his political views.” Another states, “Jones said quote Gilbert, Hitler, and Pol Pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head.” A later clip adds, “Jones doubled down, saying quote, do I think Todd and Jennifer are evil and that they’re breeding little fascists? Yes.”
The ad also features footage of Democrat gubernatorial candidate Rep. Abigail Spanberger. As text appears on screen reading, “Abigail Spanberger: I’m excited about Jay Jones,” the video cuts to her saying, “It’s been great to be out on the campaign trail with Jay Jones.”
Throughout the ad, clips from Spanberger’s campaign speeches are interspersed, including her statement, “We deserve an attorney general who will stand up for the people,” and her frequently used line, “Let your rage fuel you.” The ad ends with the words, “Reject the insanity. Vote Republican.”
In an interview with ABC 8News reporter Tyler Englander on Friday evening, Jones was asked, “How can Virginians trust a man who said something so horrific, so callously?” Jones responded that he was “so deeply, deeply sorry” for his comments and wished he could take them back. In contrast, the campaign ad separately includes a clip of Jones saying, “Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) called Jones’s messages “violent” and “disgusting,” writing that they were “beyond disqualifying.” He asserted the rhetoric “targeted at an elected official and his children,” showed that Jones “doesn’t have the morality or character to drop out of this race,” and criticized Democrat candidates for not calling on him to step aside.
President Donald Trump also weighed in Sunday, endorsing Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares for reelection and calling for Jones to “drop out of the race immediately.” Trump declared Jones’s remarks were “sick and demented.”
In a statement, Miyares noted that Jones’s comments were “disqualifying” for someone seeking Virginia’s top law enforcement position. “The Attorney General is Virginia’s chief law enforcement officer,” Miyares added. “That authority must always be exercised with neutrality, integrity, and character.”
Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson also urged Jones to withdraw. Johnson stated, “There is no conceivable justification for wishing violence against a political opponent and their children.”
Earle-Sears, who is running against Spanberger for governor, also condemned the texts and tied them to what she described as a broader problem within the Democrat Party. “The calls for hate and violence are coming from the mouths of the Democrat Party’s leaders, and Jay Jones is just the most recent, and his wish for violent acts the most clear,” she said. “So if you can’t solve a problem, you can’t name it. But I will. And here and now, the leadership of the Democrat Party has become consumed with hate.”
The release of the ad comes amid a tightening Virginia gubernatorial race. An A2 Insights poll conducted September 26–28 showed Spanberger leading Earle-Sears 47.7 percent to 44.6 percent, within the margin of error.
The firestorm also follows incidents involving Spanberger’s allies. In September, Chesterfield County School Board member Dot Heffron, who endorsed Spanberger, faced backlash for praising the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. A Spanberger campaign staffer was separately accused of posting “F around and find out” following Kirk’s murder. Spanberger condemned “any efforts to justify or minimize” political violence, saying disagreements “should never lead to violence.”
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