Virginia Attorney General Candidate Jay Jones Faces Poll Decline
Jay Jones, running as the Democratic candidate for attorney general in Virginia, has experienced a significant drop in his polling numbers following the release of text messages he sent to the former Republican state House speaker. In these messages, he expressed grotesque fantasies about being shot in the head.
The messages made headlines after being published in the National Review on October 3. An internal poll for the Jones campaign conducted from October 4 to October 6 showed him holding a fragile 1-point lead (46% to 45%) over the current Republican Attorney General, Jason Miyares. Prior to the text revelations, two polls indicated that Jones was leading Miyares by a larger margin of 6 percentage points.
A recent statewide survey by Hart Research suggested that the media coverage of Jones’ messages adversely affected his public image and influenced the attorney general race. Remarkably, 44% of voters reported having a less favorable opinion of him after hearing about the texts, contrasted with only 12% who held a favorable view.
Despite still enjoying solid backing from Democratic voters, Jones trails Miyares by a single point among independents, with numbers standing at 42% to 41%. The pollster indicated that the text message incident had a notable impact on the independent voter demographic, although the broader dynamics of the race still favor the Democrats.
While Jones’s lead has diminished recently, there remains a viable path to victory as the election date approaches, according to Hart Research.
Furthermore, a poll by the Republican Attorneys Association (RAGA) pointed to Miyares leading Jones by about 2 percentage points. A month earlier, the same poll indicated Jones had a lead of 46.4% to 42.5%. Interestingly, despite the controversy, Jones’s favorability rating has reportedly risen from 19% to over 43% since the scandal broke.
The situation escalated when it was revealed that Jones had sent troubling messages to Republican Representative Carrie Coyner on August 8, 2022. In these messages, he drew horrific comparisons between the former speaker, Todd Gilbert, and notorious dictators like Hitler and Pol Pot, even suggesting that Gilbert deserved to be shot. He also made disturbing remarks about Gilbert’s children, referring to them as “little fascists.”
Coyner stated that Jones was “unfit” for Congress. In addition, she claimed he made disrespectful comments regarding police, suggesting that if a few officers died, they would halt the killing of others. Jones has denied many of the allegations but acknowledged sending the alarming texts and issued an apology.
