With Virginia’s elections less than a month away, Democrats’ support appears to be shifting amid a series of scandals affecting the party’s state attorney general candidate.
Jay Jones, Virginia’s Democratic attorney general nominee, is currently facing backlash after leaked texts revealed that he fantasized about killing one of the state’s top Republican officials, RSBN previously reported.
Jones texted another state lawmaker in Aug. 2022 that he wanted to shoot the state’s GOP House Speaker Todd Gilbert twice in the head, and that he also wanted his children to die.
After news of his remarks broke, support for the Democratic candidates throughout the state began to drop steadily, most notably in Virginia’s gubernatorial race.
The latest Trafalgar Group survey found that Democrat Abigail Spanberger led GOP Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears by less than three points (47.7 to 45.1 percent), with 5.6 percent of those surveyed identifying as undecided.
Even closer was Virginia’s lieutenant governor race, with Democrat Ghazala Hasmi ahead of Republican John Reid by just 0.9 percent (46.8 to 45.9 percent), with 7.3 percent identifying as undecided.
With both of these elections well within the poll’s three-point margin of error, Republicans have a solid chance of winning these races in a blue-leaning state.
Jones’ odds of becoming the state’s top law enforcement official have also plummeted, with Polymarket betting odds predicting only a 40 percent chance of victory for him—down from a 66 percent chance of winning at the beginning of October.
His comments are seemingly hurting other Democrats as well, with their support falling while they refuse to call on him to exit the race.
Spanberger, who has disavowed the texts calling for the murder of Republicans, has been otherwise silent on the issue.
When pressed by the moderator three times about whether she still endorses Jay Jones during a debate against Earle-Sears on Thursday, Spanberger refused to answer the question directly, saying it was up to voters on whether or not to support him.
“Jay Jones advocated the murder of a man, a former Speaker, as well as his children,” Earle-Sears told Spanberger. “What if he said it about your three children?”
Spanberger refused to look at Earle-Sears, standing silent while looking ahead and smirking.
“Are you saying political murder is alright?” Earle-Sears added.