Virginia Democratic Attorney General candidate Jay Jones’ death fantasies have not dramatically swayed voters’ opinions against him, and that should raise alarms about the state of his party and its base.
On Friday, the National Review published text messages by Jones from 2022 where he fantasized about the death of then-Virginia GOP Speaker of House Todd Gilbert and his children. Gilbert “gets two bullets to the head,” while the speaker’s children “die in [their mother’s] arms.”
Now, polling conducted between Saturday and Monday shows that despite these comments, Jones is still very much in the race for AG against his Republican opponent, Jason Miyares.
VIRGINIA POLL: Attorney General – Jay Jones (D) internal
???? Jay Jones: 46%
???? Jason Miyares: 45%
——
Hart Research | 10/4-6 | 600 LV pic.twitter.com/QIfg2LVu9s— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) October 8, 2025
Despite Hart Research saying 44 percent of voters felt less favorable towards Jones, astoundingly 12 percent viewed him more favorably, and the election remained favorable towards Democrats.
Jones had 46 percent of support from those surveyed while Miyares had 45 percent. [However, it should be noted the survey was conducted before the surge in negative coverage of Jones’ comments this week.]
Unfortunately, these attitudes cannot be viewed in a vacuum.
Virginia is not some special hub of radicalism and violence, but part of a broader sentiment from the American left.
A report from Rutgers earlier this year found a majority of respondents who identified as left-of-center thought killing the president was justified:
“Over half of those who self-identified as left of center (55.2 percent) reported that if someone murdered Donald Trump, they would be at least somewhat justified.”
Jones comments are horrifying, but this was unfortunately just foreshadowing the direction the left was going.
It seems like there are near daily stories of Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities being attacked or mentally ill “transgender” individuals carrying out attacks on innocents.
Look no further than the left celebrating the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
We should all be worried for our country.
Kirk once warned, “[W]hen people stop talking, really bad stuff starts. When marriages stop talking, divorce happens. When civilizations stop talking, civil war ensues.
“When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with, it becomes a lot easier to want to commit violence against that group. … What we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have a reasonable disagreement where violence is not an option.”
The left needs to back away from this ledge.
What was unimaginable 20 years ago is now normal political rhetoric as Jones’ comments and the reaction has shown.
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