Text messages from Democratic voters in Virginia have exposed the radical views harbored by some supporters of Jay Jones, the party’s nominee for attorney general in a critical swing district race.
Jones sparked outrage last week when text messages surfaced showing him gloating about putting ‘two bullets’ through the head of former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican.
In the same exchange, Jones suggested Gilbert was ‘breeding little fascists’ — a disturbing reference to the Speaker’s two young children.
Family Foundation Action, a conservative grassroots organization based in Richmond, Virginia, decided to test voter sentiment by sending Get Out The Vote (GOTV) texts to residents in several swing districts.
The messages highlighted Jones’s scandal and tied him to the ‘radical left.’
The responses they received were chilling.
‘I hope all the Republicans die. They’re ruining our country. If I could shoot them myself, I would,’ read one reply from a voter who received the text.
The screenshots collected by Family Foundation Action reveal that rather than condemning Jones’s violent rhetoric, some Democratic voters in these battleground areas actively praised and echoed his extreme views. Sentiments from Jones’s supporters are increasingly alarming today, still less than one month since the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Jay Jones, who is running to become Virginia’s attorney general in 2025, speaks to the audience during Abigail Spanberger’s bus tour stop at Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center in Fairfax, Virginia on June 26, 2025
The text message sent by the Family Foundation of Virginia that elicited responses from Democrat voters
Responses from votes recreated by the Daily Mail, editing out expletives
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares sits for a portrait in his office, May 9, 2023, in Richmond, Va.
Other messages from voters received by the Family Foundation Action and shared with the Daily Mail included sentiments such as, ‘Thank God, we need to kill more Nazis,’ and ‘Conservatives are inhuman cretins. Thus, they should be put down swiftly without remorse.’
Further messages appeared to stoke egregious racial sentiments.
‘Get a fu**in life. He’s a BLACK man running for office and it fu**in Kills you WHITE folks… We(The whole d**n World) knows who does stupid a** random attacks in people and they have NO MELANIN!! Go figure,’ read one message from a voter.
Another message targeted Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears, who is presently serving as Virginia’s lieutenant governor.
‘I hope sears gets caught in the crossfire she is a deplorable republican who has got to go!’ a respondent identified as Julie wrote.
Daily Mail has reached out to the Jones campaign for comment.
Peyton Vogel, spokesperson for the Earle-Sears campaign, exclusively told The Daily Mail that ‘this kind of language is vile and completely unacceptable. No one should ever wish harm on another person over politics. Winsome Earle-Sears has faced this kind of hate before, and she’ll keep standing tall because she believes Virginia is better than this. This is the rage Abigail Spanberger called for and it’s dangerous.’
The Democratic nominee was previously shown to have called for her supporters to ‘let your rage fuel you’ at a June political event.
Spanberger has not denounced Jones amid the controversy, but she may be asked about the remarks at the Virginia gubernatorial debate scheduled to take place at 7:00 PM EST Thursday evening.
The data used by Family Foundation Action to target the texts included voters modeled as ‘soft liberal’, defined as individuals who usually vote for liberal candidates, but have demonstrated a history of splitting their vote at least once in the last four years.
That is particularly notable in Virginia, as the Commonwealth has elections every year and is one of two states to vote for statewide offices this fall, along with New Jersey.
Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears speaks to the crowd during a campaign rally in Chesterfield, Va., Friday, Sept. 19, 2025
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger addresses a crowd at a rally at her alma mater, J.R. Tucker High School, in Henrico, Va., June 16, 2025
Since the publication of Jones’ text messages, he has cancelled a fundraising event scheduled for this evening amid the backlash, per Axios.
Internal polling from Jones’ campaign conducted from Saturday to Monday of this week showed him up one point over GOP incumbent Jason Miyares.
Notably, the polling memo also showed that after reading Jones’ texts, 12% of respondents had a more favorable view of the Democratic nominee. That aligns with additional research that has shown left-wing voters to be much more tolerant of political violence, particularly after Kirk’s assassination.
