Virginia AG-elect Jay Jones sent violent texts about GOP opponent and his children in 2022

Claim:

In 2022, Virginia Attorney General-elect Jay Jones sent violent text messages about former Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Todd Gilbert and his children.

Rating:

Context

Snopes has not reviewed the original text messages; however, speaking on camera in early October 2025, Jones publicly admitted to and apologized for sending the messages in question.

In fall 2025, a rumor circulated online that Jay Jones, Virginia’s Democratic incoming attorney general following his Nov. 4 election victory, once sent violent text messages about a political opponent and his children.

For example, social media users on X (archived), Facebook (archived) and Instagram (archived) shared the rumor in the days and weeks before election day. 

The X user wrote: “#BREAKING: Aspiring child murderer and Democrat Jay Jones is now projected to win the Virginia AG race. This comes after texts leaked showing Jones talking about killing his political opponents and their children.”

According to another social media user (archived), the texts in question were sent in 2022 and referred to then Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Todd Gilbert and his family.

The X post included screenshots of the alleged texts, which included messages reading, “If those guys die before me, I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves,” and compared Gilbert to Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler and Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, saying, “put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time.”

Another supposedly read: “Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”

It was not possible to independently review the original text messages from the source and we were awaiting a response from Jones’ office at the time of publication. 

However, in October 2025, Jones publicly admitted to and apologized for the messages during an on-camera interview with WRIC, the ABC News affiliate servicing central Virginia. The channel posted a portion of the interview on YouTube. 

Given the credible video evidence of Jones accepting responsibility for the messages sent, we have rated this claim as true.

How the texts came to light

Jones sent the texts to Republican Del. Carrie Coyner on Aug. 8, 2022. The texts, allegedly meant for someone named “Mark,” were not made public until conservative opinion magazine National Review published a report on Oct. 3, 2025, which Coyner reportedly confirmed to the outlet. 

The National Review article reported that Jones “had strong feelings about how the political class was eulogizing recently deceased former state legislator Joe Johnson Jr., a moderate Democrat with a long tenure in Virginia politics,” who passed away Aug. 4, 2022, days before the texts were sent. Jones was said to have sent the texts while “some of those statements were making the rounds in state legislative group chats.” 

On Oct. 7, 2025, after the National Review article went live, Coyner posted a statement about the texts on her official Facebook profile, which appeared to have been turned private or deleted following her loss to her Democrat opponent Lindsey Dougherty on Nov. 4, 2025. Coyner’s statement was reported by WRIC at the time, but the only remnant of her original Facebook post at the time of publication appeared to be a Google search result that, when clicked, led to a page stating the post had been removed or turned private .  

(Google)

The statement, viewed by Snopes before Coyner removed it or made it private, read in part:

Jay Jones started the conversation by mistake with texts meant for another individual named Mark but kept texting after realizing he was texting me instead. When I expressed alarm and disgust at the awful violence he was fantasizing about, he continued to try to justify his initial statements by phone and by text.

Coyner’s statement included a link to a website that featured screenshots of the text messages in question. Jones was actively running for attorney general in Virginia when the news broke, prompting many critics, including the Republican Attorneys General Association and Vice President JD Vance, to call for the suspension of his campaign.

Jones’ admission on WRIC

During his appearance on WRIC on Oct. 3, 2025, Jones apologized for sending the texts and did not directly comment on whether their content should disqualify him from the race:

Thank you for having me and for giving me the opportunity to apologize. I sincerely, and from the bottom of my heart, want to express my remorse and my regret for what happened and what I said. That language has no place in our discourse and I am so remorseful for what happened. I actually reached out to Speaker Gilbert this afternoon to apologize to him and to Jennifer and to their children because I know they are angry and furious and they are well within all of their bounds to feel that way, because what I said was unacceptable and I accept responsibility for that. I want them to know and I want the people of Virginia to know that I am so deeply, deeply embarrassed, and that I understand the gravity of what I said and I am so apologetic for it, from the bottom of my heart. 

Jones also called the texts “very embarrassing” and said the language he used has “no place in Virginia and no place in this country’s discourse.”

He continued his campaign and was ultimately victorious in his bid for attorney general, defeating Republican incumbent Jason Miyares on Nov. 4, 2025.

According to reporting by NBC News, Miyares wished Jones the best in his concession speech and said: “I know, given the circumstances of last six weeks, many of my supporters will find that difficult. The reason I wish Jay the best is because we, the people of Virginia, need it. We need an attorney general who will focus every day on keeping us safe.”