Supporters of Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger remain confident her running mate, Jay Jones, will win on Tuesday, even after his “stupid mistake” that caught national attention last month.
Jones, running against incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares, joined Spanberger and former President Barack Obama at a campaign rally in Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday. A month earlier, he was at the center of controversy when a series of leaked messages from 2022 showed Jones spoke of wanting to shoot his political rival, then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert, and his children.
Two days out from Election Day, Spanberger supporters spoke negatively about Jones’s text messages to the Washington Examiner, though they still believe he will win.
“I think he made a stupid mistake, but I admire the fact that he stand[s] up and said, ‘Yeah, I was stupid, I made a mistake.’ And If he’s going to be honest about that, not making excuses, not blaming anybody else, then I feel confident that he learned from his silliness,” Vicky Merryman told the Washington Examiner at a Spanberger bus stop in Annandale, Virginia.
Merryman also said Jones was “blowing off” with his text messages, and it “makes more sense” when one reads the full exchange. She added that his messages were not “well thought out,” but believes Jones is using this controversy as “quite a learning experience.”
James Schroll told the Washington Examiner that Jones’s messages are “really unfortunate,” but said Spanberger “didn’t make the statements,” and people are “smart enough” to vote for the “better candidate” at the top of the ticket. He acknowledged the concerns that Jones’s controversy could affect Spanberger’s election, but speculated it won’t “tip the election” against her.
Natalie Nguyen-Woodruff, who is with Service Employees International Union, said she’s heard “some stuff” about the controversy surrounding Jones, but noted that he apologized for his comments. She also claimed “the Republican side is a lot worse,” and Trump administration officials “lie a lot.”
“We’re pretty confident, and from what we’re hearing from the community, we’re pretty confident that we’re voting the whole ticket to Virginia,” Nguyen-Woodruff told the Washington Examiner at a bus stop in Woodbridge, Virginia.
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New polling for the attorney general race puts Jones ahead of Miyares by 2%, 49%-47%, with 4% of respondents undecided. The same poll has Spanberger ahead of her opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, by 11%.
The poll, conducted over Thursday and Friday, surveyed 880 respondents and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
