A local Democrat Party in Virginia is slated to host a fundraiser featuring attorney general candidate Jay Jones after reported text messages and phone calls showed the Democrat fantasizing about assassinating a Republican lawmaker and wishing death on his children.
According to the event calendar on its website, the Stafford Democratic Committee (SDC) is scheduled to hold a “Defending Democracy” fundraiser in neighboring Fredericksburg, Virginia, on Friday, Oct. 17. The gathering — in which “[a]ttendees will be treated to a buffet dinner” — is expected to include three featured guests: U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., and Jones.
The event post includes an RSVP link that takes users to a donations page hosted by ActBlue, a Democrat-aligned fundraising platform currently under investigation by Congress and the Trump administration over allegations related to illegal “straw” donations and foreign contributions in U.S. elections.
“Our democracy is under attack and the more that Trump chips away at our rights and freedoms at the national level, the more emboldened others will become at the state and local levels. The Stafford Democratic Committee supports candidates and causes that will prevent those threats from becoming a reality here in Stafford,” reads an excerpt on the SDC’s ActBlue donations page for the event.
The SDC also posted a flyer for the scheduled event on its Facebook page earlier this month, which includes a QR code that takes users to the aforementioned donations page. The document also boasts a statement that reads, “The Stafford Democrats invite you out for a night of music, movement, and solidarity.”
The event flyer was posted to the SDC’s Facebook page hours before National Review reported a series of 2022 text messages sent by Jones to a GOP state lawmaker, in which he fantasized about killing then-state House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican. As The Federalist’s Breccan Thies summarized, “Jones … presented a hypothetical … where he had only two bullets and three options to kill people: violent Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, responsible for millions of deaths; Adolf Hitler, another violent dictator responsible for millions of deaths; or Gilbert, a Republican who served in the state House for nearly 20 years.”
“Gilbert gets two bullets to the head,” Jones wrote in the text messages. “Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time.”
Jones didn’t stop there, however. He also “suggested he wished Gilbert’s wife could watch her own child die in her arms so that Gilbert might reconsider his political views” in a follow-up phone call, “prompting [the GOP state lawmaker] to hang up the phone in disgust,” according to a source cited by National Review.
Despite the horrific nature of the messages and phone call, Jones has thus far refused to step down as the Democrat nominee in the race to become Virginia’s chief law enforcement officer. Many Democrats have also refused to withdraw their support for his campaign, including Virginia’s Democrat candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, Abigail Spanberger and Ghazala Hashmi.
During her debate against Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears last week, for example, Spanberger declined on five separate occasions to pull her endorsement of Jones’ AG bid.
The Stafford Democratic Committee did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment on whether it agrees with Jones’ reported text messages and comments in which he fantasized about assassinating his political opponent and wishing death upon his children. Nor did it respond when pressed on why it still supports Jones’ AG bid given his remarks in the reported messages and phone call, or whether it believes it is acceptable for Jones to call for violence against his political opponents and their children.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood