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Abigail Spanberger, Democratic candidate for Virginia governor, declined to say on Thursday whether she still endorsed her party’s attorney general hopeful, Jay Jones, who is facing a storm of criticism over 2022 text messages suggesting the former Virginia House speaker should be shot.
Why It Matters
Along with New Jersey, Virginia, is one of only two states holding a gubernatorial election this year and the races are being closely watched as litmus tests of support for both parties ahead of next year’s midterms. Democrats are hoping for a 2018-style “blue wave” next year that will help them flip control of Congress.
Virginia has trended Democratic in recent presidential elections but saw Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin secure a narrow victory in 2021, signaling the state’s battleground status.
A new poll by Emerson College on Thursday showed Spanberger leading Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears by 10 points in Old Dominion’s gubernatorial race. The election is set for November 4.
What To Know
Jones, a Democrat, faces intensifying pressure to drop out of the election race after texts he once sent suggesting a former Virginia House speaker should receive “two bullets to the head” were made public.
President Donald Trump is among Republicans who have called on Jones to drop out of the election for attorney general, which is also on November 4, over his texts sent in 2022 that called for violence against former State House Speaker Todd Gilbert and his family.
In the only debate between the two candidates for governor on Thursday, Spanberger said she denounced the texts but she repeatedly declined to say whether she would withdraw her support for Jones, saying it should be left to the voters.
“The voters now have the information, and it is up to voters to make an individual choice based on this information,” she said.
Pressed by the debate moderator on whether she endorsed Jones, Spanberger said: “We are all running our individual races … As of now, it’s up to every voter to make their own individual decision.”
Earle-Sears also pressed her rival on the issue of the texts that became public in recent days amid new worries of political violence in the aftermath of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“My opponent needs to answer about Jay Jones,” Earle-Sears said.
The texts written by Jones were first reported by National Review and viewed by The Washington Post. Newsweek has not independently verified the messages, but Jones has not questioned their veracity and has apologized for them.
What People Are Saying
Trump, on Truth Social: “Radical Left Lunatic, Jay Jones…made SICK and DEMENTED jokes, if they were jokes at all, which were not funny, and that he wrote down and sent around to people, concerning the murdering of a Republican Legislator, his wife, and their children.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, on Monday: “I think the president himself made his position very clear, and I think anyone could agree, the messages that were sent by the Democrat nominee for attorney general in Virginia are really shocking, alarming and completely unacceptable. He was threatening to kill his opponent and his opponent’s children, and that type of rhetoric has zero place in our country, and the president was absolutely right to condemn that.”
What Happens Next
The Virginia elections will take place on November 4.
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