Virginia Democrats are defending the way gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger handled the text scandal that rocked the commonwealth less than a month before the election.
Over the weekend, the governor’s race heated up with news Democratic Attorney General candidate Jay Jones sent text messages Expressing violence toward former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert (R) in 2022. Republicans have since used Jones’ comments, in which he suggested firing Gilbert, to attack Spanberger amid national criticism over an increase in political violence.
Spanberger has repeatedly condemned the texts, but she notably avoided calling them out during Thursday night’s debate against GOP candidate Winsom Earl-Sears. Many Democrats see this as the right approach, even as Republicans have stepped up their attacks on the controversy.
“She basically said, I’m accountable for my words. She was very clear on that,” state House Speaker Don Scott (D) said in an interview after the debate. “He strongly condemned what she said but he said he had to run his own race.”
The scandal took center stage at Thursday’s gubernatorial debate in Norfolk, where Earl-Sears repeatedly interrupted Spanberger throughout the night and immediately pressed her opponent on the issue.
“Jay Jones advocated the murder of an individual, a former speaker, as well as his children,” Earle-Sears said. “What if he said it about your three kids?”
The moderator also asked Spanberger if she still supported Jones, a question the Democrat repeatedly declined to answer directly.
Republicans view the Jones controversy as a major weakness for both Democratic candidates in November, although some party members acknowledged that Earl-Sears’s fiery performance may have overshadowed some of his more successful attacks on the issue.
Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell (R) said, “If I were Winsom, I would just let her talk because she was definitely twisting the vine without any good answers.”told The HillIn an interview after the debate.
“Of course she had to say it both ways, ‘I condemn it, but no, let the voters decide.’ Well, that is not leadership,” the former governor added.
While Spanberger has campaigned with Jones and the party’s lieutenant governor nominee, Ghazala Hashmi, the candidates are running their own races independently of each other. On Thursday, Spanberger tried to put distance between him and Jones.
“Comments from Jay Jones [made] They are absolutely disgusting,” she said. “When I found out about them I condemned them and I will condemn them whenever I get a chance. “As a mother, as a public servant, as a candidate for governor, I condemn him.”
When debate moderators pressed Spanberger on whether she would continue to support Jones, she said it was up to voters whether they would support her now that they had the information. The response echoes Spanberger’s initial statement, which was a response to the news quickly emerged from his campaign last week.
Virginia Democratic strategist Ben Tribbett said, “She made a very strong statement the day before, where many Democrats in the state were upset with her that the statement was too strong. I think she got it right with her first statement. And so last night she stood by her statement.”
“Until she issued the first very strong statement, nothing happened to cause her to change her mind, so why would she state a different position than what she had already said in the debate?” He added.
It’s unclear how the texting scandal will affect the attorney general race, but the possibility of split-ticket voting has come up since last week. While polls show Spanberger leading Earl-Sears by two points, the attorney general race is more narrow.
The Christopher Newport University poll released earlier this week and conducted before the text messages were leaked showed Jones ahead of Republican attorney general candidate Jason Miyares by six points, 49 to 43 percent. However, an internal poll of the Jones campaign conducted after the text messages were leaked showed Jones ahead of Miyares by 46 percent to 45 percent. An internal poll released by the Republican Attorneys General Association after the leak showed Miyares ahead of Jones 46 to 44 percent.
“Generally, it’s been a straight party line in the last three elections,” said McDonnell, who was last elected attorney general on a divided ticket in Virginia in 2005.
“I think it’s disappointing on the Democratic ticket as a whole but will cause a real decline in votes for Jay Jones in particular,” he said.
Before Spanberger and Earl-Sears took the stage for the debate in Norfolk, Jones made a campaign stop at City Hall with state lawmakers on Thursday. Jones issued a statement Friday taking aim at the Trump administration over the latest layoffs in the federal workforce amid the government shutdown.
Jones issued two statements last week following the leaked messages, one of which drew criticism, accusing Miyares of “slandering through Trump-controlled media organizations.”
In a second statement, Jones apologized to former House Speaker Gilbert, whom she referenced in her texts, and said she was “embarrassed, embarrassed and regretful.”
Jones also apologized during an interview with WRIC in Richmond, which is owned by The Hill’s parent company Nexstar Media Group.
Despite issuing a second statement and participating in a sit-down interview explaining herself, some Democrats don’t think Jones is out of the woods yet. Most pressingly, he faces a debate against Miyares on Thursday, which could prove to be a ‘make or break’ moment for him.
“He’s not going to survive the AG race and win the election if he tries to change the subject from what happened,” Tribbett said. “He just needs to apologize and give a response that people can feel is genuine and that doesn’t sound like a pre-written soundbite designed to move us towards ‘we’re back to normal.’
Miyares and the moderators will have ample opportunity to pressure Jones on the scandal next week, but Jones will have another opportunity to explain to voters why they should still vote for him in the wake of the leaked texts.
“Abigail is doing him a huge favor by giving him a chance to explain himself,” Tribbett said.
“But that time is not infinite and the party’s time to continue to screw this up is not going to be infinite either.”
