“No one has done more for Trump in Virginia than Jason Miyares,” a narrator says in a recent campaign video. The ad criticizes Miyares, claiming, “Workers fired, prices soaring, health care slashed. And Jason Miyares cheers them on, even pushing for a Virginia abortion ban.”
This six-figure, statewide ad buy targeting Miyares comes as Democratic candidate Jay Jones has faced a drop in the polls following scrutiny over controversial text messages he sent in 2022. In those messages, Jones called then-Republican state House Speaker Todd Gilbert to receive “two bullets to the head.” He also referred to Gilbert and his wife as “breeding little fascists” and appeared to express a hope that their children “would die.”
Jones has since apologized for the messages, but the controversy has taken a toll on his campaign. Republicans have seized on the scandal to argue that Jones is an inappropriate candidate for Virginia’s next attorney general.
On Sunday, former President Donald Trump weighed in, calling Jones an “animal that wanted to kill somebody” during comments to reporters aboard Air Force One. “He’s a third-rate intellect, he’s a guy who I’ve never seen anybody say what he said, that he wanted to kill his opponent’s children, he wanted to kill his opponent,” Trump said. “I can’t imagine anybody voting for Jay Jones. Look, you would think he’s totally discredited. I would think he wouldn’t even be allowed to do that; anybody would be put in prison for what he said.”
Recent polling reflects the tight race. The Hill’s latest Decision Desk HQ polling average, released last week, showed Jones and Miyares tied with 46.4% support each.
Two other polls—from the Trafalgar Group and the Republican Attorneys General Association—show Miyares leading Jones. Trafalgar’s polling indicates Jones’s support slid from 48.8% in early October to 43.1% more recently.
Despite the controversy, the Jones campaign points to internal polling that shows him leading Miyares by 1 percentage point.
As the race intensifies, former President Barack Obama is expected to endorse Abigail Spanberger, aiming to bolster her campaign amidst the fallout from Jay Jones’s text message scandal.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/state/3856785/jay-jones-tying-jason-miyares-trump-virginia-attorney-general-bid-falters-text-scandal/