‘Decency on the Ballot’ in Virginia’s Elections

Richmond, Va. — Shortly after 1 p.m. on Friday, October 3, Jay Jones’s state attorney general campaign was inundated with a flood of angry phone calls.

At 1:09 p.m. that day, National Review published a story on a disturbing text conversation between Jones, a Democrat, and his former state legislative colleague, Republican Carrie Coyner, in August 2022. At the time, Jones, who had recently resigned from the Virginia House of Delegates, was frustrated that his former Republican colleagues were eulogizing Joe Johnson Jr., a moderate Democratic delegate who had died the previous week.