It Turns Out You Can Fantasize About Your Colleague's Kids Getting Shot and Still Win An Election

"Jones had for most of the race held a tight lead over the incumbent, Republican Jason Miyares, and been a fairly unremarkable candidate. And it seemed until early October that his election would come down to a referendum on how Virginians felt about the Republican Party. It was a good place for him to be, given that the state typically votes against the party in the White House, but it wasn't a sure bet."

"The race changed suddenly on October 3 when the National Review revealed a series of text messages Jones had sent to a colleague three years earlier. The messages were starkly violent. In one exchange, he wrote this of the Republican Todd Gilbert, then the House Speaker: Three people, two bullets Gilbert, hitler, and pol pot Gilbert gets two bullets to the head Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time"

"According to the National Review, Jones called the colleague who received the texts, Republican House Delegate Carrie Coyner, in order to defend himself, arguing that Republican lawmakers experiencing pain firsthand was necessary for change. "He suggested he wished Gilbert's wife could watch her own child die in her arms so that Gilbert might reconsider his political views [on gun violence], prompting Coyner to hang up the phone in disgust," the National Review reported."

Jay Jones won the Virginia attorney general race despite a late-campaign revelation of violent text messages he sent years earlier. Jones had held a narrow lead over incumbent Jason Miyares and had been an otherwise unremarkable candidate. On October 3 a report published explicit texts in which Jones described killing Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert and wrote graphic lines about bullets. Jones later called the recipient, Republican Delegate Carrie Coyner, and suggested he hoped Gilbert's wife would watch her child die to change his views on gun violence, prompting Coyner to hang up. Jones was elected despite the controversy.

Read at Slate Magazine