Jay Jones claimed victory in Virginia’s Attorney General race on Tuesday despite a scandal involving text messages where he wrote about killing political opponents and their families.
He defeated Republican incumbent Jason Miyares with 52.7 percent of the vote.
The race was called approximately two hours after polls closed, with 96.4 percent of precincts reporting.
Jones secured the position with a margin of nearly six percentage points over Miyares, who received 46.9 percent of the vote.
The outcome marked a significant upset in the contest.
Miyares had experienced a surge in polling after the controversial messages surfaced in early October, leading many observers to predict his reelection.
Exit polling conducted by Fox News revealed that 46 percent of Virginia voters considered Jones’ messages disqualifying.
The data showed 25 percent found the messages concerning but not disqualifying.
An additional 17 percent of voters indicated they had not received sufficient information about the scandal to form an opinion.
10 percent of respondents stated the messages were “not concerning,” Trending Politics reported.
“Jay Jones is not going to drop out of the race. Why would he? He knows that the majority of Democrat voters agree with what he said and are happy that he said it,” The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh posted on Oct. 5.
“Fantasizing about murdering conservatives and their children is not a scandal on the Left. That’s how they all feel.”
Another X user wrote, “Turns out refusing to even comment on your radicals (much less cancel them) is the winning political move. Who Knew?”
TP noted that Jones initially avoided addressing the controversy directly before later issuing an apology following public backlash.
Throughout most of his campaign, he focused on criticizing President Donald Trump rather than discussing the text message scandal.
During the sole debate between the candidates, Jones attempted to deflect from the issue.
“And I will also say this. I was held accountable by my party, and I deeply, deeply respect that. But what about when Donald Trump used incendiary language to incite a riot to try to overturn an election here in this country? What about when Winsome Sears used violent language about people who disagree with you and her and your extreme position on abortion?” he said when questioned about the messages.
Jones’ victory occurred alongside broader Republican losses across Virginia.
Gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears lost by double-digit margins in her race.
The Republican Party also lost control of multiple House of Delegates seats previously held by GOP members.
These results represented a significant shift in Virginia’s political landscape on election night.
The text messages at the center of the controversy were sent by Jones to a former House of Delegates colleague in 2022. In these communications, Jones expressed violent fantasies about then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert.
“If those guys die before me… I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves,” Jones wrote in one message.
The messages escalated further as Jones continued despite his colleague’s objections. “Three people, two bullets,” Jones wrote. “Gilbert, hitler, and pol pot… Gilbert gets two bullets to the head.”
Jones added in the same exchange, “Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time.”
The text messages also targeted Gilbert’s family members directly.
“I mean do I think Todd and Jennifer are evil? And that they’re breeding little fascists? Yes,” Jones stated in the messages.
