Democrats’ refusal to force out a candidate who fantasized about killing a Republican lawmaker and his children reveals how far standards have fallen.
So let me get this straight. A candidate for Virginia’s top law enforcement position once texted about putting “two bullets to the head” of a Republican legislator, wished the man’s kids would “die in their mother’s arms,” and asked whether the family was “breeding little fascists.”
And he’s still in the race.
I spend most of my time covering the White House and national politics, so Virginia races don’t usually cross my desk unless they’re bellwethers for something bigger. But this one’s different. When a candidate for attorney general, the state’s top law enforcement job has a murder fantasy problem, that’s not just a Virginia story. That’s a “what the hell is happening to our politics” story.
Jay Jones apologized, of course. They always do. But he’s out there campaigning like nothing happened, and most of his party is letting him. That ought to tell you something about where we are though I’m not sure what’s more depressing, that he said it or that Democrats think an apology fixes it.
Here’s what gets me. This isn’t some random Twitter troll or basement-dwelling radical. Jones was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates when he sent those texts in August 2022 or maybe July, the reports vary. He’d been an assistant attorney general under Mark Herring. This is someone who knew better, who’d taken an oath to uphold the law, who understood the weight of words.
And still, he indulged in this little murder fantasy about Todd Gilbert, then the House speaker. Gilbert’s district is up in the Shenandoah Valley, where people still remember when Democrats actually won rural seats, back before…well, never mind, that’s a different column. Jones compared Gilbert to Hitler and Pol Pot and decided Gilbert deserved both bullets “every time.” The messages are so vile I had to read them twice to believe someone actually wrote them. (I kept thinking there had to be more context, but nope — it’s exactly as bad as it sounds.)
Trump called for Jones to drop out immediately. So did Mike Johnson, JD Vance, and Virginia’s Republican leadership. You know who didn’t? Most Virginia Democrats.
Abigail Spanberger, running for governor at the top of Jones’s ticket, said she was “disgusted.” But disgusted enough to demand he quit? Apparently not. Several Democratic state senators went further, actually defending Jones and crediting his “character and compassion.” I’m sorry, character? The man who wanted children to die in their mother’s arms has character?
The cognitive dissonance here is Olympic-level.
Look, I’m not naive. I know most Democrats find Jones’s texts as repulsive as I do. But their party’s refusal to treat this as disqualifying reveals something rotten in the state of our politics. It’s like watching a ship take on water while the captain insists everything’s fine because technically we’re still floating. Nobody wants to be the one who admits the boat’s sinking.
We’ve seen this movie before, and from the White House beat you see it play out in real time. Kathy Griffin’s mock beheading of Trump. The Bernie bro who shot up that congressional baseball practice and nearly killed Steve Scalise. The armed man who showed up at Brett Kavanaugh’s house. Johnny Depp musing about presidential assassination. Madonna talking about blowing up the White House.
Each time, we get the same excuse: “It was a joke.” “Hyperbole.” “Artistic expression.” Then everyone moves on until the next one.
However, when Republicans cross the line, and some do, they get drummed out. Fast. Remember that nobody named Madison Cawthorn anymore? Or how quickly Steve King got primaried out after his comments? The standard isn’t applied equally and we all know it, but nobody wants to say it out loud because then you’re being “divisive.”
The frustrating part is how predictable it all is. Jones will probably lose in November because Virginia isn’t quite blue enough yet to elect someone with this baggage.
Actually, scratch that. I forgot Miyares isn’t exactly setting the world on fire either. His approval numbers are middling at best, and in a year when Democrats are fired up about…well, everything, this race might be closer than it should be. Which is somehow more depressing. Virginia could elect a guy who fantasized about murdering children because the other guy is just kind of boring.
But imagine, just for a second if a Republican attorney general candidate had texted about murdering a Democratic lawmaker and his kids. CNN would run a seven-part series with dramatic music. There’d be think pieces about “stochastic terrorism” in The Atlantic. Nancy Pelosi would be on every Sunday show doing that thing where she looks concerned but also slightly amused. The candidate would be radioactive within 48 hours.
Instead, Jones gets a scolding from Spanberger and a pass from his party. Because reasons.
This is what happens when political tribalism trumps basic decency. When winning matters more than principles. When your team’s violence gets rationalized away because, well, at least they’re not Republicans. It’s the kind of moral flexibility that would make a yoga instructor jealous.
The saddest part? There are good Democrats in Virginia who know this is wrong.
They know Jones should drop out. You can see it in the careful wording of their statements, the ones who bothered to say anything at all. The hedging, the “I’m disappointed but…” formulations. Folks who’ve been around Richmond politics for years, who remember when there were actual standards, are watching this unfold and keeping their mouths shut. Because that’s what you do now, you circle the wagons, you protect your own, you never give an inch to the other side even when that side has a valid point.
Jones represents, represented? I lose track with these guys, Norfolk, which makes this even weirder. Tidewater Democrats usually don’t go in for this kind of revolutionary cosplay. That’s more of a Northern Virginia thing, where everyone’s either a fed or married to one and politics is blood sport. Norfolk’s supposed to be more practical, more military-adjacent. But here we are.
Back in Oklahoma, we’ve had our share of political scandals, but at least when someone crosses the line this badly they have the decency to pretend to be ashamed and quietly exit stage right. Maybe that’s a regional thing. Or maybe Virginia Democrats just think the rules don’t apply to them anymore.
That’s not how this should work. Not when we’re talking about fantasies of murdering political opponents and their children. There should be a line somewhere, right? Apparently, we haven’t found it yet.
Virginia voters will decide Jones’s fate in a month. But the real test is whether his party had the courage to decide it first. They didn’t. And that failure says more about the state of the Democratic Party than any campaign speech ever could.
Maybe I’m old-fashioned. Maybe I still think words matter and that people who want to be attorney general shouldn’t casually discuss infanticide in their text messages. Call me crazy.
