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Democrats in Virginia elected an attorney general who privately fantasized about murdering his political opponents, raising questions from experts who spoke to Fox News Digital about whether the Democratic Party is serious about condemning political violence.
“The moral rot infecting the Democrat Party is here to stay and voters just proved it,” Mehek Cooke, a GOP political consultant and commentator, told Fox News Digital after Jay Jones won the race for Virginia attorney general.
Jones defeated incumbent Republican Jason Miyares despite a campaign plagued with scandal after it was revealed he fantasized in 2022 text messages about shooting former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert in the head while also suggesting that harm should come to that Republican’s young “fascist” children.
“Jay Jones called for the death of political opponents and their children, yet instead of rejecting that extremism, Democrat voters rewarded it,” Cooke said.
INSIDE JAY JONES AND THE DEMOCRATS’ LATE SURGE TO UPSET WINS ACROSS VIRGINIA, FROM THE SUBURBS TO THE SHORE
Virginia attorney general candidates Jay Jones, left, and Jason Miyares, right. ( Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post/Getty Images)
Julian Epstein, a longtime Democratic operative, attorney, and former chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital the “near unanimous rationalizations” from Democrats is driven by a “moral relativism that is a race to the bottom for any civilization.”
Epstein explained, “The collective shoulder shrug about a candidate who fantasizes about the assassination of his opponents and the death of his opponent’s children is of the same piece with the new era of violent rhetoric from the left and the data showing that nearly half of young progressives think that political violence can be justified. To look the other way on this because of political expedience is to lose the plot as to why one is in the public square in the first place.”
Ultimately, Cooke told Fox News Digital, the election of Jones in Virginia will help Republicans going forward.
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Virginia attorney general candidate Jerrauld “Jay” Jones speaks at an event in Norfolk, Virginia. (Trevor Metcalfe/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“These reckless choices by the Left, including the election of Jay Jones, will only electrify the Republican base heading into the midterms and beyond,” Cooke said.
Kentucky GOP Rep. Andy Barr, running for U.S. Senate next year, echoed the sentiment that Republicans look better to voters overall than Democrats after Tuesday night.
“The Democrat Party just elected a Socialist to run the financial capital of the world and a Leftist Attorney General who wished for Republican leaders and their children to be killed,” Barr said. “Meanwhile, one year after the greatest political comeback in history, President Trump is Making America Great Again. Our golden age will continue as the Democrat Party disgraces itself.”
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Voting booths and voters are seen at a polling location. (Graeme Sloan for The Washington Post/Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached out to the Jones campaign for comment.
News that Jones had sent the controversial texts, first reported by National Review, sparked a firestorm in early October, with many pundits believing the Jones campaign would be doomed for promoting political violence in a climate still reeling from the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
However, Democrats in Virginia remained behind Jones as gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger and prominent elected Democrats in the state refused to call on him to step down after he apologized for the texts.
“At the end of the day, this election has never been about me or my opponent,” Jones said in his victory speech. “It has always been about every single one of us and the future of Virginia.”
