One lone Democrat has stepped up to call for Jay Jones, Democratic nominee for state attorney general in Virginia, to drop out of the race over several text messages he sent calling for the assassination of a political opponent.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) spoke with Hugh Hewitt about the texts Jones sent to a Republican colleague, then-Delegate Carrie Coyner, in which he’d suggested then-state House Speaker Todd Gilbert should be shot and that he’d like to “piss on the graves” of other Republicans.
WATCH:
Congressman @RoKhanna calls on VA Democratic nominee for AG Jay Jones to drop out of the race, for Katie Porter to hold a long press conference, and for government to reopen though it took a long time to get to the last point.https://t.co/1xXRvtO21s pic.twitter.com/JJKbYaGQEn
— HughHewittShowLinks (@HHSLinks) October 9, 2025
Hewitt asked the question point blank: “Should that man, Jay Jones, drop out of the race?”
“Well, it’s horrific. There’s no excuse for it,” Khanna began. “I fully condemn it. And yeah, I haven’t followed all the details, but if he was actually saying that, I certainly wouldn’t support him.”
While many Democrats have come forward to condemn Jones’ remarks, they have repeatedly stopped short of calling for him to exit the race — and some have even defended him staying in the race either by claiming that despite those texts, he was still a better choice for attorney general than the Republican incumbent, Attorney General Jason Miyares. Khanna became the first prominent member of the party to break with Jones.
Even former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) attempted to split the baby, telling CNN anchor Dana Bash that whether or not Jones should leave the race was a decision best left to leaders in Virginia — and then said that since he’d at least apologized, “What I understand is they say, on balance, he is a better person to be Attorney General.”
WATCH:
CNN: “The Democrat candidate for Attorney General in Virginia said a Republican deserved two bullets in his head… Should he get out of the race?”
Pelosi: “What I understand is they say, on balance, he is a better person to be Attorney General.”pic.twitter.com/WOgV0EXk0v
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 8, 2025