Bloomberg-funded group donated $200,000 to Jones’s campaign
Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control group funded by Michael Bloomberg and other wealthy Democrats, has quietly scrubbed its website of an endorsement of Jay Jones, the Virginia attorney general candidate who fantasized about shooting a Republican colleague.
Everytown, which donated $200,000 to Jones’s campaign on Aug. 26, had listed Jones on its “Gun Sense Voter” endorsement page, a distinction given to candidates who have “demonstrated that they will support stronger gun laws and advocate for safer communities if elected into office.”
But as of Tuesday morning, the endorsement page for Jones no longer exists. Everytown, which operates the “Gun Sense” project in conjunction with its affiliate, Moms Demand Action, has not issued a public statement on the Jones matter, and did not respond to requests for comment. Everytown’s endorsements of Jones for his campaign for the Virginia house in 2019 and 2021 remain online.
Everytown, alongside Jones’s fellow Democrats, has faced growing pressure to urge Jones to drop out of the race against Republican Jason Miyares. National Review reported last week that Jones, a former Virginia house delegate, sent text messages to a colleague in 2022 in which he said then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert deserved “two bullets in the head.” Jones then wished death on Gilbert’s children, whom he referred to as “little fascists.”
It has sent shockwaves through Virginia politics and stoked concerns from Democrats that Jones will be a drag on Abigail Spanberger’s gubernatorial campaign. Spanberger said she was disturbed by Jones’s messages, but she declined to call on him to drop out of the race. Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.), who in 2019 called on then-Gov. Ralph Northam to resign from office for wearing blackface in a yearbook photo decades earlier, has dodged questions about Jones.
President Donald Trump called on Jones to “immediately” quit the race and said Democrats were “weak” for refusing to do the same.
Everytown and other gun control groups that have endorsed Jones have faced growing calls to distance themselves from the Democrat.
“Every single one of these anti-gun organizations needs to loudly renounce Jay Jones & his calls for political violence,” said Gun Owners of America.
So far, only Brady PAC, which gave $1,000 to Jones’s campaign, has commented on Jones’s rhetoric, albeit in a vaguely worded social media post that didn’t identify Jones by name.
“Violent rhetoric has no place in our political process,” Brady PAC said. The group also removed an endorsement of Jones from its website, though without issuing a public statement.
Giffords PAC, the group started by former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords after she was shot at a campaign event in Arizona in 2011, has also endorsed Jones. As of press time, its endorsement remains active online. Giffords PAC has not responded to requests for comment.
