"The stakes couldn't be higher," Jay Jones, the Virginia Democrat running for state attorney general, said Monday in an X post. It was an ironic post, coming 10 days after National Review reported numerous violent text messages Jones sent to a colleague in the legislature about a Republican lawmaker. Jones fantasized about urinating on the graves of political opponents as well as shooting then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert with "two bullets to the head."
He also texted that he hoped Gilbert's wife, Jennifer, would one day hold one of her children as they died.
He followed that post with the same tropes used against all Republicans about "saving our democracy" and accusing incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares of being someone "who takes directives from Donald Trump."
So what makes the stakes higher in this local election?
Is it character? There is none evident here. How can he tell voters he has the comportment to govern?
And how hard is it for Virginia Democrats to demand that he face consequences for his behavior? Where are Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Tim Kaine (D-VA)? Gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger and lieutenant gubernatorial nominee Ghazala Hashmi? Yes, they have tepidly called Jones' texts inexcusable. As for consequences? Well, they all still endorse him.
One Democrat they didn't support after a major scandal was former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. They tried very hard to drive him out of office in 2019 when it was unearthed that he appeared in blackface in a college yearbook in the 1980s.
It didn't work. He stayed, defying all the pressure.
At the time, Warner and Kaine said in a joint statement, "We no longer believe he can effectively serve as the governor of Virginia and that he must resign."
So did every major national Democrat, from Kamala Harris to former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe to Joe Biden. Yet there is no call for Jones to exit the race.
Perhaps it is because Democrats know it is too late to replace him on the ballot. Early voting has already started, and perhaps they don't want the Republicans to score a win in the off-year cycle. Or, perhaps, and this is the worst possible scenario, the Democrats are secretly OK with what Jones texted.
Jones has a host of other problems as well. He was stopped by law enforcement in 2022 for going 116 mph in a 70-mph zone, an infraction that could have resulted in jail time for reckless driving. Instead, his lawyer and the commonwealth's attorney worked out a deal by which Jones was only required to do 1,000 hours of community service, the bulk of which was performed by Jones for his own political action committee in lieu of jail time.
Virginia Democrats come across looking as though murder and gaming the system are not issues that deserve consequences. They aren't going to stick their necks out to make Jones leave the race.
This story has totally blown up the race. However, the lingering question remains about the mindset of the Virginia Democrats, and indeed the mindset of national Democrats.
Salena Zito is a staff reporter and columnist for the Washington Examiner. She reaches the Everyman and Everywoman through shoe-leather journalism, traveling from Main Street to the beltway and all places in between.
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