Fewer than half of Virginia voters interviewed — 46% — found Jay Jones’ violent texts “disqualifying” for holding office. This is according to InteractivePolls, which conducted an exit poll on November 4.
Exactly one in four — 25% — found the texts “concerning but not disqualifying.”
One woman in her upper 70s who was passing out Democrat sample ballots to voters on Election Day at William Byrd High School in Vinton fits this category. When asked her views about Jones’ scandal, she said she thought his remarks were “stupid,” yet she continued to pass out the blue fliers that held Jones’ name alongside the other Democrat candidates for office as she stood near blue “Spanberger/Hashmi/Jones” signs.
One male voter at Byrd, who claimed he had been a union member for about 30 years, is clearly in the 46% category. When he took the blue flyer the volunteer gave him, he promptly pointed to Jones’ name and asked her, “Why is he even a candidate?”
Ten percent claimed the texts were “not concerning.”
Since the Old Dominion has about 8.9 million residents, that extrapolates to about 890,000 Virginians who seemingly have no problem with an elected official who openly expressed a desire to not only kill a member of the other political party, but his young children, too, ages two and five at the time. More shocking, the official involved was the one who was running to be attorney general, the state’s chief law enforcement officer.
Rounding out the survey, 17% answered they “hadn’t heard enough” or “didn’t have enough information” about the situation to make a judgment.
The scandal broke on October 3 when Jones, who was then in the House of Delegates, texted another delegate expressing rage that some Republicans had recently been eulogizing a moderate Democrat who had often crossed the aisle to reach bipartisan deals. Not only did Jones express a desire for “two bullets” for then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) [thus killing Gilbert but leaving Hitler and Cambodian dictator Pol Pot alive], but he also fantasized about gun deaths in their mother’s arms for Gilbert’s two sons, ages two and five at the time, children Jones knew personally through their connections in the 100-member House of Delegates.
Jones also fantasized about later urinating on the graves of Republican members of the House of Delegates.
Considering the scandal broke on October 3 and made national headlines, the fact that nearly one in five voters claimed not to know enough to take a position raises other questions about the media environment, civic engagement, education quality, and the so-called “low-information voter.”
On a related topic, much attention has focused on both candidates for governor being women, and thus, the Old Dominion will have its first female governor come January. A CNN exit poll shows women voters went 65% for Spanberger but only 35% for Sears.
It is unclear why, despite Jones wishing to see young children die a violent death in their mother’s arms, women chose Jones’ ticket mate Spanberger over Sears by almost a two-to-one margin.
As reported here, Del. Salam “Sam” Rasoul (D-Roanoke City) gave a full-throated endorsement of Jones at early voting on Kimball Avenue on November 1.
— Scott Dreyer
