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HAMPTON ROADS, Va. – The scandal over Virginia Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones’ texts envisioning the murder of a rival overshadowed the state’s top-of-the-ticket race as Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Abigail Spanberger descended on Jones’ backyard in Hampton Roads, Virginia, for their gubernatorial bout Thursday.
Earle-Sears — who also represented nearby Virginia Beach, Virginia, in the state legislature two decades ago — and Spanberger met at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia, Thursday for their one-and-only debate appearance.
At the debate, hosted by Nexstar’s Hampton Roads affiliate WAVY, Earle-Sears repeatedly interjected to press Spanberger to call on Jones to drop out, and to admonish her for giving similarly indirect responses to questions about whether biological males should be able to use female restrooms.
But Jones’ hometown political allies — most of whom are also at the highest levels of Virginia state leadership — have redoubled their support for his bid to become attorney general while offering measured criticism of his comments threatening the life of former House Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah.
Virginia House Speaker Don Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth, spoke to reporters immediately after the debate as an official surrogate for Spanberger.
Scott, who represents the area directly across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk, Virginia, proper, denied he was frustrated by Spanberger being pressed by Earle-Sears to call for Jones to drop out.
“It was a double standard for Spanberger,” he said. “How many times did Winsome Sears ever denounce the violence that Donald Trump has said over and over again?”
“He literally said that Liz Cheney should get bullets toward her face — I think this trying to make everything appear that it is all Abigail Spanberger’s thing,” said Scott, who referenced Trump’s comment during a discussion criticizing “war hawk”-ishness in which he said the then-Wyoming congresswoman would speak differently if she were in the “war zones” neoconservatives want to send American soldiers to.
Scott said that as the speaker of the House, that Earle-Sears — who ceremonially presides over the Senate — was “embarrassed” for the legislature of the “oldest continuous democracy in the Western Hemisphere.”
“It was not the Virginia way,” he said, before blaming the media for not holding their fire until Jones debates state Attorney General Jason Miyares at the University of Richmond Thursday.
Before the Sears-Spanberger debate, Scott had traveled to the home district of Del. Carrie Coyner, who had shared Jones’ damning texts with the press, and called the outrage a political diversion and urged parishioners at one house of worship to stay the course for Democrats.
Speaking from the pulpit of a predominantly Black church in Hopewell, Virginia, Scott dismissed coverage of Jones’ scandal as a distraction and urged congregants to vote his way in November.
“We need to understand something,” he said. “We have to be mature in our thinking, and how we vote we can’t get distracted.”
“They want us to get distracted by the text message here, or something else, so stay focused,” he said.
Local reports added that Scott did condemn the substance of Jones’ comments prior to his church speech, calling them “harmful, reckless and wrong.”
Senate President L. Louise Lucas, D-Chesapeake, represents the area directly south of Jones’ former House of Delegates district, and attested to his character in a joint statement with the Senate Democrats’ political chief — whose district is just on the other side of Norfolk, Virginia, from the embattled candidate.
“Like all Virginians we were deeply disturbed by Jay’s comments and we condemn his words without hesitation,” wrote Lucas and Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Newport News.
“Let us be crystal clear there is no place for political violence or violent rhetoric in our public discourse and Jay must take accountability for his actions.”
But the two leaders then pivoted to attacking Attorney General Jason Miyares as President Donald Trump’s “pro-bono attorney.”
We “will not allow this moment to overshadow the stakes in this election or to distract from the urgent fight we are all in for Virginia’s future,” they said.
“The choice before us is far bigger than this mistake — it is about the kind of leadership we need for our families, our rights and our democracy.”
Virginia’s Hampton Roads — the collective name for the cities and counties in and around Norfolk, Virginia, and so named for the hodgepodge of maritime channels and rivers — is a perennially swing area, though its individual jurisdictions are reliably partisan. It is also best known as the mainland anchor for the U.S. Naval Fleet.
Norfolk, Portsmouth and Hampton, Virginia, tend to skew heavily Democratic, while Virginia Beach and other municipalities are more moderate, especially with the weight of right-leaning sailors.
The area’s congressional district — which includes Hampton Roads and the “Eastern Shore” on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel that is currently represented by Rep. Jennifer Kiggans, R-Va. — leans Republican but often ping-pongs between parties every few cycles.
Prior to his run for attorney general and preceding stint in the Biden administration’s Justice Department, Jones was a Democratic state delegate representing Norfolk, Virginia, where the two governor hopefuls Sears and Spanberger engaged in a raucous debate Thursday. Jones’ father, of the same name, held the seat from 1988–2002, while Jones Jr. held it from 2018–2022.
Jones Sr. unsuccessfully challenged Kaine for the 2001 lieutenant gubernatorial role alongside Gov. Mark Warner – who is also now Kaine’s partner in the Senate.
Jones Sr. died in May, and appeared to be close with both of the then-future senators who have either defended or been mum about his son’s scandal.
In remarks to Fox News Digital, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., referenced knowing the younger Jones for “25 years.”
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