(LifeSiteNews) – Democrats swept back into control of the Virginia state government on Tuesday, winning the governor’s mansion, expanding their hold on the state legislature, and even winning the attorney general’s race with a candidate who had been caught wishing death on numerous political opponents.
With 95% of precincts having reported, Democrat gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger defeated Republican challenger and incumbent Lt. Gov. Winsome Earl-Sears 57.3% to 42.8%, Democrat state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi defeated conservative radio host John Reid for the lieutenant governor’s office 55.4% to 44.6%, Democrat Attorney General nominee Jay Jones ousted incumbent Republican Jason Miyares 52.9% to 44.1%, and Democrats won all nine races for House of Delegate seats.
The outcome completes Democrats reclamation of the state from a Republican flip outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin (who was term-limited out of running again) led in 2021, fueled by a backlash to Democrats’ hostility to parental rights.
Spanberger, previously Virginia’s 7th District representative in the U.S. House, is a left-wing radical who supports amending the Virginia Constitution to establish an unlimited “right” to abortion, during the gubernatorial debate refused to answer if babies delivered alive after botched abortions should be given life-saving care, and who in 2018 declared that religious hospitals should not be granted consciences exemptions to polices such as assisted suicide.
On the campaign trail, she repeatedly refused to take a clear stand on biological males accessing female locker rooms or participating in female sports despite having made clear her support for both during her time in Congress.
Far more alarming, however, and what propelled Virginia into the national spotlight this fall, was the Attorney General’s race. Jones became the subject of a firestorm last month when it was revealed that during a text conversation with Republican state Del. Carrie Coyner in 2022 he said he thought Republican Todd Gilbert deserved death more than murderous dictators Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot did and that he wished the legislator’s “little fascist” children would die in his wife’s arms because “Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.” Coyner later attested that Jones had privately mused that if more police officers were killed it would positively influence how they conduct themselves. Jones expressed regret for the initial comments but denied saying the things about police.
Especially coming so soon after the murder of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk by a deranged leftist, conservatives and Republicans declared Jones emblematic of a deeper tolerance of political violence within the Democrat Party and political Left. Yet Democrat leaders, including Spanberger, refused to call on Jones to drop out, and Jones was even welcomed onstage at a homestretch Spanberger rally that also featured former President Barack Obama, though Obama did not mention Jones by name at the event.
“And, yes, it’s alarming for many of us Virginians to realize that our neighbors have no problem electing a guy with homicidal fantasies about a political opponent to be the commonwealth’s top law enforcement official,” RedState contributor Teri Christoph lamented. “If they’re OK with that, is there any depraved act they won’t condone?”
