Soros, J.B. Pritzker Give Combined $270,000 to Jay Jones in Campaign’s Final Stretch

Soros and Pritzker, both outspoken gun control advocates, have yet to comment on Jones’s violent rhetoric towards a Republican colleague’s children

George Soros and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, two Democratic heavyweights who have funded anti-gun groups and pushed for strict gun control policies, gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the campaign of Jay Jones, who faces growing calls to quit the race over text messages in which he fantasized about shooting a Republican colleague and wished death upon that colleague’s children.

Soros’s Democracy PAC gave $250,000 to Jones’s campaign on Sept. 30, and Pritzker donated $20,000 the same day, the records show.

The contributions were made days before the revelations about Jones’s violent rhetoric, though neither of the Democratic megadonors has weighed in on the scandal. National Review reported on Oct. 3 that Jones sent text messages in 2022 to a Republican colleague saying he wished to put “two bullets” in the head of then-Virginia house speaker Todd Gilbert. Jones, a former Virginia state delegate who is running against Republican incumbent Jason Miyares, also wished death on Gilbert’s children, calling them “little fascists.”

The messages have upturned the attorney general’s race, and have threatened to drag down the campaigns of Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Abigail Spanberger and lieutenant governor candidate Ghazala Hashmi.

But so far, Democrats have been reluctant to weigh in on the Jones matter, and none have called on him to quit the race. Soros and Pritzker did not respond to requests for comment.

The donations come as Soros and his charity, the Open Society Foundations, face scrutiny from the Trump administration over funding for left-wing groups “tied to terrorism or extremist violence.” Open Society Foundations gives tens of millions of dollars each year to organizations that have called to defund police departments, push soft-on-crime policies, or have condoned Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Democracy PAC, which Soros launched in 2019, has given millions of dollars to progressive prosecutors and state officials who want to defund police, end cash bail, and enact other soft-on-crime measures.

In 2024, Open Society Foundations donated $300,000 to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and, in 2023, contributed $400,000 to Global Action on Gun Violence, an anti-gun organization that has sued American gun manufacturers on behalf of the Mexican government. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously against Mexico and Global Action in June, shutting down a $10 billion lawsuit it had filed against Smith & Wesson and other gun makers.

Pritzker has called for extensive gun control measures and recently accused President Trump and Republicans of promoting political violence.

“Political violence unfortunately has been ratcheting up in this country,” Pritzker said at a press conference days after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. “I think the president’s rhetoric often foments it.”

On Sept. 30, the day Pritzker donated to Jones’s campaign, he hammered Trump for saying violent illegal immigrant gangs should be “taken out” of the country.

“Anyone who talks about their fellow Americans as enemies to be ‘taken out’ is not fit to lead the nation,” said Pritzker.

Several anti-gun organizations that donated to Jones have also stayed mum about the Jones texts.

Everytown for Gun Safety, the country’s largest gun control group, donated $200,000 to Jones in July and designated him one of its “Gun Sense” candidates. Everytown, which is funded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, has ignored repeated requests to comment on Jones. But the organization quietly scrubbed its endorsement of Jones from its website last week, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

The anti-gun Brady PAC, which gave $1,000 to Jones, pulled its endorsement of Jones from its website, though it has not publicly commented on the scandal.

Giffords PAC, led by former representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot at a campaign event in 2011, has endorsed Jones and not weighed in on the text messages.

The large, out-of-state donations to Jones highlight the significance Democrats place on the attorney general’s race and others in Virginia. Democrats hope to sweep all the statewide races in order to signal broad opposition to the Trump administration’s policies.

According to a Trafalgar Group poll released this week, 60 percent of participants said Jones’s text messages were “having a significant to some impact” on their voting decision. The poll showed Jones trailing Miyares by 6 points. Spanberger led Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears by 2 points, and Hashmi is leading Republican John Reid in the lieutenant governor race by around 1 point.