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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones, a Democrat, is facing growing pressure to drop out of the election race after texts he once sent suggesting a former Virginia House speaker should receive "two bullets to the head” were made public.
President Donald Trump is among key Republicans who have called on Jones to drop out of next month’s election over his texts sent in 2022 that called for violence against former State House Speaker Todd Gilbert and his family.
The texts written by Jones were first reported by National Review and viewed by The Washington Post. Newsweek has not independently verified the messages, but Jones has not questioned their veracity and has apologized for them.
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Newsweek has reached out for comment to the Jones’ campaign office.
Former State Delegate Jay Jones, Democratic nominee for state attorney general, on September 1, 2025, in Buena Vista, Virginia. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Why It Matters
The controversy around the texts sent in 2022 has rocked Virginia’s off-year elections that take place next month in which Jones is running against the incumbent Jason Miyares.
As well as handing the Republicans ammunition, the comments exacerbate concerns over an uptick in political violence amid the fallout from the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last month.
What To Know
National Review reported Jones had sent a number of texts on August 8, 2022, to Republican State Delegate Carrie Coyner about shooting then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert.
Jones at the time had just resigned from the State House after representing Norfolk. He was expressing how he felt about the tributes from Republicans like Gilbert about the recently deceased Joe Johnson Jr., a moderate Democrat and former state legislator.
Jones disparaged Johnson Jr.’s political centrism and scoffed at the “glowing” tributes from Republicans following his death in a message to Coyner, which said “damn that was for mark,” suggesting that it had been sent to the wrong person, according to National Review. But Jones still referred to “that POS” Gilbert and wondered what he “would say about me if I died.”
National Review said that the texts took a dark turn with Jones writing, “If those guys die before me, I will go to their funerals to p*** on their graves” so as to “send them out awash in something.”
Jones then suggested that if he had only two bullets and was faced with the choice of shooting Gilbert or the dictators Adolf Hitler and Cambodia’s Pol Pot, he would shoot Gilbert “every time.”
Concerned about their violent context, Coyner called on Jones to stop the texts. Jones later called Coyner to explain his reasoning, a source familiar with the exchange told National Review, telling her that public policy only changes when policymakers feel pain themselves, such as that felt by parents when their children die from gun violence.
Coyner hung up, but Jones continued texting, saying he was just asking questions. Coyner chastised Jones for “hopping [sic] Jennifer Gilbert’s children would die.”
One text said, according to the publication “I mean do I think Todd and Jennifer are evil? And that they’re breeding little fascists? Yes.”
Jones' Apology
Coyner has not spoken with Jones since, apart from a brief conversation about policy issues.
Jones said in a statement to the outlet WRIC that he was “deeply, deeply sorry for what I said and I wish that it hadn’t happened and I would take it back if I could.”
Miyares, who had declined to respond to the situation on Friday, held a news conference in Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday afternoon to say that he feels the text messages disqualify Jones from office.
Miyares stopped short of calling for Jones to drop out of the race when he heard of the messages, but later said that he did not accept the apology, adding that Jones had a chance to apologize when he first wrote the texts. Miyares said he needed to make the decision himself but added, “I think he has disqualified himself," according to The Washington Post.
Republicans across the country, including Vice President JD Vance and Trump have called on Jones to suspend his bid.
What People Are Saying
Vice President JD Vance on X: “The Democrat candidate for AG in Virginia has been fantasizing about murdering his political opponents in private messages.”
President Donald Trump on Truth Social: “Radical Left Lunatic, Jay Jones...made SICK and DEMENTED jokes, if they were jokes at all, which were not funny, and that he wrote down and sent around to people, concerning the murdering of a Republican Legislator, his wife, and their children.”
What Happens Next
Early voting is underway for Virginia’s November 4 statewide elections for a governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, as well all 100 seats in the House of Delegates. There will be anticipation over whether the text messages will force Jones out of the running for attorney general, with a Washington Post-Schar School poll last Friday showing him ahead of Miyares by 51 percent to 45 percent.
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