Jay Jones
WASHINGTON – The president of a group for Democratic attorneys general says calls for its party’s candidate in Virginia to exit the race for sending text messages “glorifying political violence” ring hollow.
But the executive director of a similar group for Republican AGs still says Jay Jones should withdraw from the race.
In the 2022 text message exchange with Republican state Delegate Carrie Coyner, Jones complained how then-Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert was honoring Joe Johnson Jr., a moderate Democratic lawmaker who had died.
“Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, hitler, and pol pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head,” the text reads, referring to Gilbert and the two dictators. The National Review first reported the story. It also said Jones tried to call Coyner after she had objected to the message and went on to text that Gilbert and his wife were “breeding little fascists.”
Sean Rankin, president of the Democratic Attorneys General Association, said Jones is remorseful.
“I have spoken with Jay and expressed my outrage for him losing his temper and making reckless and unacceptable comments,” the DAGA president said October 7, five days after the news broke about Jones’ texts. “He has taken responsibility for what he said and apologized to the former Speaker and Virginians.”
The Republican Attorneys General Association has called on DAGA to withdraw its political and financial support of Jones’ campaign. It also launched a petition to demand Jones withdraw from the race. Jones is running against incumbent Republican AG Jason Miyares.
DAGA has put $1 million into Jones’ campaign. Miyares’ campaign also is set to debut a $1.5 million ad campaign focusing on Jones’ texts.
“The content of Jay Jones’ text messages is abhorrent, but the context makes them worse,” RAGA said in a previous statement. “Jay Jones sent graphically violent text messages while Republicans and Democrats were eulogizing a former Virginia Delegate, a Democrat known for working across the aisle.
“Jay Jones said if any of the Republicans who were reaching across the aisle died before him, he would ‘go to their funerals to piss on their graves.’ Jay Jones said the Republican Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates is worse than two murderous dictators, Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot. He also said that he hoped the Speaker’s wife would watch her own children die in her arms and further justified his comments about murder because he believed the speaker was raising ‘little fascists.’”
RAGA Executive Director Adam Piper said October 8 that DAGA remained silent for five days about Jones’ “violent, graphic and reprehensible text messages.”
“Rejecting political violence should not be a partisan issue,” Piper told Legal Newsline. “Less than one year ago, all 50 state Attorneys General joined together in a bipartisan coalition condemning political violence – a rare, yet powerful statement during a tumultuous election.”
But in his statement, Rankin said RAGA is being partisan in its efforts against Jones.
“Calls from RAGA, Republican AGs and the Trump administration for DAGA to renounce Jay or call for Jay to step aside ring hollow,” Rankin said. “When one of their own candidates, Sigal Chattah of Nevada, said in a text message that Democratic AG Aaron Ford ‘should be hanging from a f---ing crane,’ neither RAGA nor Republican AGs said anything.
“Their selective outrage shows this is not about principle, but rather is a naked attempt to gain political advantage as their candidate continues to trail in the polls in this first referendum on the wanton disregard for the rule of law by the Trump administration.”
In 2022, Chattah’s remark about the incumbent Ford, who is Black, drew condemnation and accusations of racism. Ford said the comment of “threatening to lynch someone, especially a Black person, is racist.”
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump appointed Chattah as acting U.S. Attorney for Nevada. But last month, a federal judge disqualified her from overseeing criminal cases by ruling her interim appointment had expired. The Department of Justice is appealing that ruling.
As for the Jones-Miyares race, Rankin said the voters of Virginia will have the ultimate say.
“I believe in free and fair elections, and Virginia voters are the ones who make this decision,” he said. “On balance, Jay Jones will be a better Attorney General than Jason Miyares, and voters will not have their decision made for them by Trump, Stephen Miller or RAGA.”
