Virginia Republican who shared violent texts from prominent Democrat loses reelection | Virginia
The Virginia Republican politician who upended several statewide elections by leaking text messages in which a leading Democratic candidate fantasized about a rival receiving “two bullets to the head” has conceded defeat in her own bid to retain office.
Carrie Coyner was seeking a third two-year term in the Virginia House of Delegates when she publicly shared text messages she previously received from Jay Jones, a former Democratic colleague who ran for state attorney general on Tuesday.
Some predicted that the controversy that erupted around the texts would derail Jones’ campaign while also complicating fellow Democrat Abigail Spanberger’s bid for Virginia governor.
But Spanberger and Jones won the Republican-held positions they were seeking while Coyner lost to Democratic challenger Lindsey Dougherty by a margin of 52.5% to 47.3%, according to voting results.
The district from which Coyner was ousted was considered competitive. He broke out in favor of Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, which the then-Democratic vice president lost to her Republican counterpart, Donald Trump.
Coyner’s defeat also came as the president posted low public approval ratings and his party suffered a number of decisive defeats Tuesday in elections across the United States.
She released a concession statement on social media after her defeat, saying she would spend “much-needed time” with her family and refocus on her law practice. Calling it “the greatest honor” to have served in the Virginia Legislature and previously on a local school board, the release added: “I know God has new plans for me – and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead.” »
The text messages that shook Jones’ campaign were sent by him to Coyner in 2022 as they coincided with the Virginia State House of Delegates. In these documents, Jones speculated about what he would do if he had a pair of bullets and was confronted by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, Cambodian authoritarian Pol Pot and then-Republican Speaker of the House of Delegates Todd Gilbert.
“Gilbert is shot twice in the head,” Jones wrote, as first reported by the National Review. “Spoiler: Put Gilbert on a crew with the two worst people you know and he gets both bullets every time.”
In a later text to Coyner, Jones said Gilbert and his wife, Jennifer, were “mean” and “breeding little fascists.”
The texts show Coyner responding: “Jay. Please stop.” After leaking the texts in October, she released a statement claiming that “ [Jones] This was not only disturbing but disqualifying for anyone wishing to run for public office.
“It’s disgusting and unbecoming of a public official.”
Jones released a statement saying his texts left him “embarrassed, ashamed and sorry.”
“I cannot take back what I said,” Jones’ statement said. “I can only take full responsibility and offer my sincere apologies.”
Nevertheless, Republicans – including Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance – seized on it. Trump called Jones a “crazy radical leftist,” and Spanberger’s opponent — Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears — sought to link her to the texts while demanding she drop it.
Spanberger condemned Jones’ texts but said voters should determine the fate of his candidacy.
Republicans were particularly upset by Jones’ victory Tuesday, including Congressman Brandon Gill of Texas, who said the outcome of Virginia’s attorney general race, amid the ongoing dialogue about political violence in the United States, was “truly demonic.”
Others, however, experienced schadenfreude over Coyner’s defeat and the hand it played in strangling Jones’ campaign. For example, one social media user posted an image of former Democratic President Joe Biden raising his arms theatrically with the words: “Carrie Coyner is dead and Jay Jones is alive!” »
Political violence has become a recurring topic in American public discourse, in part after Trump survived two assassination attempts while running for a second presidency in 2024.
Other similar cases included the April firebombing of the home of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro; the June murders of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark; and the September shooting death of Charlie Kirk, a staunch Trump ally and founder of Turning Point USA.
Jones gained national media attention Thursday evening when he announced that he had named Ralph Northam — Virginia’s Democratic governor from 2018 to 2022 — to lead his transition team. In 2019, Northam resisted widespread calls to resign when a racist image in his 1984 medical school yearbook page resurfaced, depicting a person in blackface next to another person wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe.
Northam apologized but denied being in the photo, although he admitted to wearing blackface decades earlier to look like Michael Jackson in a dance competition.
