Jay Jones, the scandalized Democratic candidate for attorney general in Virginia, snatched an unlikely victory Tuesday night, riding the coattails of the top of the ticket to become the commonwealth’s chief law enforcement officer.
He beat incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares.
Jones was plunged into scandal after the publication of texts he sent wishing death on then-Republican speaker of the Virginia House of Representatives.
He sparked outrage last month 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.
Jones looked poised for a loss in polling conducted in the final weeks of the race.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares speaks at a campaign rally on November 02, 2025 in Hanover, Virginia
Campaign signs for Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and Democratic challenger Jay Jones appear outside the elections office for the City of Fairfax, Va., Friday, Oct. 17, 2025
Democratic candidate for Virginia attorney general Jay Jones participates in the debate with Republican incumbent Jason Miyares in Richmond, Va., Oct. 16, 2025
In fundraising, Miyares reversed the trend of other Republicans in the Commonwealth who were significantly outraised by their Democrat opponents.
Miyares raised over $25.2 million, compared to Jones’s $14.1 million, per the Virginia Public Access project.
The race between Jones and Miyares was the most expensive state attorney general race of all time, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.
The two campaigns spent $39,931,935 on ads, surpassing last year’s North Carolina attorney general’s race by more than $4 million.
Virginia governor-elect Abigail Spanberger denounced Jones’ rhetoric but stopped short of calling on him to withdraw from the race, leading to widespread backlash.
Other top Democrats also stood by Jones.
‘Jay has apologized. The statements that he made were indefensible, but I’ve known Jay Jones for 25 years, and I think those statements were not in character,’ Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, a former Virginia governor, told reporters on Capitol Hill in October.
Mark Warner, Virginia’s other Senator, noted that Jones’s comments were ‘appalling, unacceptable, and inconsistent with the person’ he’s known when they were made public on October 3rd. However, Warner appeared at a fundraiser with Jones two weeks later.
