Everytown for Gun Safety hailed Dem AG candidate Jay Jones as an ‘advocate for safer communities’
Everytown for Gun Safety, the country’s largest gun control group, has contributed $200,000 to Jay Jones’s campaign for Virginia attorney general and hailed the Democrat as an “advocate for safer communities.” But now, as Jones is embroiled in scandal over text messages in which he fantasized about shooting a Republican state leader, Everytown is sitting on the sidelines.
Everytown, which donated to Jones’s campaign on Aug. 26 and named him one of its “Gun Sense Candidates,” has not weighed in on revelations that Jones, a former Virginia house delegate, said in a series of text messages in 2022 that then-Virginia house speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican, deserved “two bullets to the head.” Jones doubled down on those remarks, which he sent to Republican house delegate Carrie Coyner, and wished death upon Gilbert’s children, according to National Review. Jones told Coyner in a subsequent message that Gilbert was “breeding little fascists.”
Jones initially refused to apologize over his remarks and accused his challenger, Republican incumbent Jason Miyares, of leaking them as part of a smear campaign. Jones apologized in a subsequent statement, saying he was “embarrassed, ashamed, and sorry” for the messages.
Everytown, funded heavily by its founder Michael Bloomberg and other wealthy Democrats, has not commented on Jones’s remarks, and did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment.
Everytown has focused heavily in recent years on political races in Virginia. The group says it “has made Virginia a proving ground for the gun safety movement,” citing what it claims is a series of victories in winning gun control legislation.
Everytown hopes to maintain that momentum in the upcoming Virginia elections. It launched a $1-million ad campaign last week supporting gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger, a former member of Moms Demand Action, which merged in 2013 to form Everytown.
A public rebuke of Jones could be seen as a drag on Spanberger and other statewide Democratic candidates. But while Democrats privately worry Jones’s remarks could help Republicans at the polls next month, none have called on him to drop out of the race.
Spanberger said Friday she “spoke frankly with Jay about my disgust with what he had said and texted,” but declined to call on him to quit the race. President Donald Trump called on Jones to “immediately” drop out, and slammed Democrats as “weak” for refusing to pressure him to do so.
While Everytown stays mum on the scandal, at least one prominent gun control group has quietly distanced itself from Jones. Brady PAC, a group affiliated with James Brady, the former Ronald Reagan press secretary who was shot alongside Reagan in a 1981 assassination attempt, appears to have removed Jones from its database of endorsed candidates, as well as a press release announcing the group’s endorsement of Jones. The endorsement of Jones was on the site as of Aug. 22, according to an archive of the website.
Brady PAC issued a statement on social media on Friday saying, “Violent rhetoric has no place in our political process,” but did not mention Jones. Brady PAC did not respond to a request for comment.
Giffords PAC, the gun control group formed by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D., Ariz.) after she was shot by a schizophrenic man at a campaign event in Arizona in 2011, gave $1,000 to Jones’s campaign on July 14 and has endorsed his campaign.
Giffords PAC, which has Jones’s endorsement still on its website, did not respond to a request for comment.
