Democratic Virginia gubernatorial nominee and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger reportedly refused during Thursday night’s debate to say whether she will continue endorsing fellow Democrat Jay Jones for attorney general after the release of his violent 2022 text messages, which included threats to kill a Republican lawmaker.
The question came during the only scheduled debate between Spanberger and her Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, as the race for governor has tightened in recent weeks.
Moderators pressed Spanberger repeatedly to give a yes-or-no answer on whether she would still back Jones following the revelations.
“The comments that Jay Jones made are absolutely abhorrent. I denounced them when I learned of them, and I will denounce them every opportunity I get as a mother, as a public servant, as a candidate for governor,” Spanberger said. “And it is important that candidates always denounce violence, no matter which side of the aisle. Violence, violent rhetoric, we should always be focused and forceful in our denouncement of it.”
Earle-Sears, a Marine veteran and the state’s first Black woman to serve as lieutenant governor, pressed Spanberger to go further and call on Jones to withdraw from the race. Instead, Spanberger accused her opponent of hypocrisy, claiming Earle-Sears “only denounces violence when her side is the target” and asserting that the Republican had “routinely referred” to her as an “enemy.”
The moderator interrupted, noting that Spanberger had not answered the endorsement question. When asked again if she would continue supporting Jones, Spanberger pivoted, arguing that “those who released the text messages held them for years” and that “voters now have the information” to make their own decisions.
Earle-Sears again asked when Spanberger first learned of the messages and what she had done in response.
Spanberger replied that she learned about them “the day that they came out” and “denounced them as soon” as she became aware. She declined, however, to rescind her endorsement.
“Importantly, at this point, as we move forward, the voters now have this information, information that was withheld from them, presumably for political reasons,” Spanberger said. “But the voters now have the information, and it is up to voters to make an individual choice based on this information.”
When the moderator pressed a final time for a yes-or-no answer on whether she still endorses Jones, Spanberger responded: “I, we are all running our individual races. I believe my opponent has said that about her lieutenant governor nominee. It’s up to every person to make their own decision. I am running my race to serve Virginia. And that is what I intend to do.”
The text messages from Jones, sent in August 2022 to a former colleague, were graphic. In them, he fantasized about giving then–Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert “two bullets to the head” and “urinating on his grave.”
After the messages became public, Jones issued a statement saying, “Reading back those words made me sick to my stomach. I am embarrassed, ashamed and sorry.” He said he had reached out to Gilbert and his family to apologize directly, adding, “I cannot take back what I said. I can only take full accountability and offer my sincere apology.”
Spanberger’s refusal to call for Jones’s withdrawal drew criticism from conservatives, who said it showed a double standard on political violence. Earle-Sears framed the issue as one of integrity and moral consistency, emphasizing that “violence in politics must be condemned without exception.”
With polls showing Spanberger’s once-comfortable lead shrinking — 49.2 percent to Earle-Sears’s 45.2 percent, according to an October ABC7 News survey — the controversy threatens to complicate the Democrat’s message of restoring civility to Virginia politics.
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