Several Virginia law enforcement leaders are calling for attorney general candidate Jay Jones to drop out of the race after texts surfaced depicting him envisioning the murder of a former GOP leader, as a former top lawman turned senator told Fox News Digital it is unthinkable that many Democrats remain silent on the matter.

The Virginia Law Enforcement Sheriffs’ Association, representing the 86 sheriffs in the Old Dominion’s counties and independent cities, wrote a letter to Jones’ campaign headquarters in Williamsburg, Virginia, Wednesday demanding he bow out of the race. 

“It’s really sickening,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital.

“Calling for the assassination of a rival, calling for the death of his children: I think hopefully all of us can agree that that’s beyond the bounds of what’s reasonable here, and he ought to step down,” said Schmitt, who previously served as the Show Me State’s attorney general. 

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Schmitt added that it is unfortunate but telling that many Democrats have not said anything about it.

That “is pretty sad,” he said.

While Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., did defend Jones’ candidacy to Fox News Digital, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., ignored questions, along with Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Chris Coons, D-Del., to other reporters as seen in a recent video.

Schmitt’s tenure in Jefferson City, Missouri, was particularly litigious against the Biden administration, which he sued several times.

The most notable of the cases was one alleging collusion between the feds and social media companies to censor content they disagreed with. Another suit sought to challenge bans on new oil and gas leases.

Back in Virginia, several sheriffs who lead the commonwealth’s association wrote to Jones demanding he leave the race. 

Grayson County, Virginia, Sheriff Richard Vaughn, the sheriffs’ association president who patrols a rural county centered on Independence and Mouth of Wilson, led off the letter, which said Jones’ statements are “disgusting” and “unacceptable” for someone seeking to be Virginia’s top law enforcement officer.

“Our association has seen the text messages in which you called for violence against a family to include his young children,” the letter read. “Furthermore, it is alleged that you stated that if more police were killed it would reduce shootings of civilians.” 

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The letter, further signed by association officials representing Virginia’s Campbell County — surrounding Lynchburg, Mecklenburg County — which includes South Hill, and Wise County on the Kentucky line, said calls for violence are unbecoming of a law enforcement officer.

“We will not follow an individual who has made such vile statements against citizens and the men and women in uniform who work hard every day risking their lives to combat the violence you advocate against them,” they wrote.

“Sir, you need to hold yourself accountable and immediately withdraw from the Attorney General race.”

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Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, who is the GOP candidate for re-election, followed the letter with more reactions he received from other law enforcement around the commonwealth.

Smyth County, Virginia, Sheriff Chip Schuler joined the district prosecutor in the county seat of Marion to rip Jones.

“The office of attorney general is not a political prize — it is the commonwealth’s highest legal authority,” Schuler and Commonwealth’s Attorney Bucky Blevins said in a statement to Miyares’ campaign.

“The Attorney General must embody discipline, restraint, and integrity,” they added. “Every deputy sheriff and every prosecutor in this Commonwealth is held to that standard daily. Those seeking to lead us must meet, not evade, that same measure of accountability.” 

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“For the good of the Commonwealth and the credibility of our justice system, we believe Mr. Jones should withdraw his candidacy,” Blevins and Schuler concluded.

Fox News Digital reached out to Jones’ campaign for comment.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., dodged Wednesday when asked if Virginia Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones should drop out of his race after his text messages about shooting a Republican lawmaker were leaked.

Pelosi said such a decision was none of her business and that it was up to the voters of Virginia and the state’s Democratic lawmakers to decide. 

“I really don’t get involved in other people’s races,” she told CNN’s Dana Bash. “It’s up to the people in that state. I respect their judgment and wish them well.”

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Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., refused to say whether Virginia Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones should drop out of his race after his text messages about shooting a Republican lawmaker were leaked. (Jemal Countess/Getty; The Washington Post/Getty)

Bash asked Pelosi about the controversy which blew up in recent days following the publication of Jones’ private text messages from 2022 that revealed his violent thoughts about the then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert.

In an exchange with Virginia Delegate Carrie Coyner, Jones compared Gilbert to two infamous dictators and said that he’d rather shoot Gilbert than the dictators.

“Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, Hitler and Pol Pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head,” he wrote to Coyner, who asked him to “Please stop” in response.

“Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know, and he receives both bullets every time,” he added.

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Jay Jones has come under fire for a series of text messages calling for the death of political opponents and remarks about police officers. (Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post/Getty Images)

Jones has since apologized, calling the remarks “embarrassing and shameful,” and said he had reached out personally to Gilbert and his family.

The leak of the texts has sent shockwaves through Virginia’s upcoming November election, which features Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, R-Va., facing off against former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., for the governorship.

Though Earle-Sears, Republican AG candidate Jason Miyares and others have called Jones’ conduct disqualifying, Pelosi wouldn’t go there with Bash. 

When asked if he should drop out, she said, “Well, that’s up to the people, the leaders in Virginia — they have said he has apologized. What I understand is, they say that on balance, he’s the better person to be attorney general. But that’s up to them.”

Bash noted Pelosi herself has experience with political violence. Her husband, Paul Pelosi, was brutally assaulted with a hammer in 2022 by David DePape.

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Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, left, and Attorney General Jason Miyares, right, both called Democrat attorney general candidate Jay Jones, center, unfit for office after texts emerged showing Jones fantasizing about political opponents’ deaths. (Pool, Getty Images, AP Photo)

Pelosi said she wished people were as concerned when people threatened to shoot her, saying, “We have to get rid of that kind of language. It’s not appropriate.”

Bash then asked Pelosi if she thinks Spanberger should call on him to step aside. 

“Well, she has to do what she has to do,” she said. “She’s going to be governor. She’s running very well, everybody’s very proud of her candidacy. And her race is her race, and her state is her state, and it’s up to her.” 

Pelosi’s language about not getting involved in other people’s races comes after she played a key role in pressuring President Joe Biden to drop out of the White House race in 2024.

A Democrat congressional candidate’s history of violent rhetoric is coming under fire after his public vow to “kick the s—” out of senior Donald Trump aide Stephen Miller resurfaced online.

“Stephen Miller needs to be THUMPED! That guy’s a freaking worm. I would be willing to go to jail for – I mean, how much [time] would I get for just cracking him a couple of times?” North Carolina congressional candidate Richard Ojeda said while recording one of his regular “Ojeda LIVE” live streams in March 2022.

“I’d be willing to go to jail to kick the s— out of him,” he added. “I’d be more than happy to find myself in an elevator with him and I’d whoop his a– from the first floor to the fifth floor and be happy to go to jail.”

The Trump administration was quick to denounce the rhetoric.

“Unfortunately, Democrats disgustingly supporting political violence is nothing new,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Fox News Digital. “Neither Stephen Miller nor any other member of the administration is going to back down from delivering on President Trump’s agenda to Make America Great Again. In the meantime, Richard Ojeda should seek help.”

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North Carolina Democratic congressional candidate Richard Ojeda (left) is under fire for past comments about how he would be willing to go to jail if he ever got the opportunity to “kick the sh— out of” top Trump aide Stephen Miller.  (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Sarah Silbiger/CQ Roll Call)

Speaking in response to the backlash his comments have garnered, Ojeda said that despite his language, he does not believe that violence is the answer. 

“The language I used in that video reflects my discontent with how political figures like Steven [sic] Miller are steering the nation I served for 24 years in the U.S. Army. I believe his conduct and the conduct of many who enable him to be a betrayal of our oath that I can not accept,” the Democrat candidate said in a statement he sent to Fox News Digital.

“That said, political violence has no place in our society. I know that better than most. When I first ran for state senate, I was beaten nearly to death on a creek bank simply for putting my name on the ballot in defense of my community. My family wasn’t sure I’d make it out of the ER that night, and I won my seat from a hospital bed. I survived my attack, but as we know many others haven’t. Political violence has spiraled toward darkness in our country and I would not use those same words today.” 

Ojeda also pointed to the fact that he grew up around coal miners, people who “talk tough and don’t mince words about how they feel.”

Criticism of Ojeda’s controversial rhetoric comes amid heightened GOP concerns surrounding inflammatory and violent political rhetoric in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination and multiple attempted assassinations on President Donald Trump. Even Democrats have warned that “violent words precede violent actions” and that “we should have a culture of condemning any rhetoric that glorifies violence.” 

Meanwhile, this week, Virginia’s Democrat candidate for attorney general, Jay Jones, came under fire after text messages surfaced of him saying his Republican colleague should get “two bullets to the head.” 

Ojeda is running to represent North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District in the House of Representatives. A veteran who served in the prestigious 82nd Airborne Division, he had a short stint in the West Virginia state Senate before attempting multiple failed runs for Congress at both the House and Senate level. Those runs include two failed bids for the U.S. House in 2014 and 2018, followed by a short-lived run for the presidency that preceded an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 2020. 

Amid his current race, Ojeda has raised more money than any other Democratic candidate he is facing in the upcoming North Carolina Democratic primary, according to Federal Election Commission records.

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Richard Ojeda can be seen on the campaign trail during his short-lived presidential bid in 2020.  (John Sommers II/Getty Images)

In his comments to Fox News Digital, Ojeda noted that the remarks being referenced are four years old, and they were made “long before” he ever considered running for Congress, even though he had already run three failed bids up to that point. He also reiterated multiple times that he condemns political violence.

“I’ll admit I was angry then, and I’m still angry now. Angry at what people like Stephen Miller are doing to this nation,” Ojeda concluded in his comments to Fox News Digital. “The fact that he holds a place in our history books disgusts me, and I think it disgusts a lot of Americans. Steven Miller is a racist.”

WATCH: LAWMAKERS WRESTLE WITH HOW TO APPROACH HATEFUL POLITICAL RHETORIC IN WAKE OF KIRK ASSASSINATION

Charlie Kirk warned his followers to be weary of “assassination culture” among the left months before his own assassination on the campus of Utah Valley University. (Getty Images)

Prior to his assassination last month, Kirk warned “assassination culture” was spreading on the left in a post on social media. At the time, months before his death, Kirk’s post cited survey data showing 55% of left-leaning respondents said killing Trump could be justified. 

Kirk called the violent momentum a “natural outgrowth of left-wing protest culture,” and accused the left of tolerating “violence and mayhem,” while also slamming “the cowardice” of local prosecutors and school officials for their complicity in promoting the trend of violent attitudes.