By Brandon Jarvis

(VS) – Del. Mike Jones, D-Richmond, won last week’s firehouse primary to replace Lt. Gov.-elect Ghazala Hashmi in SD-15 by a large margin according to party officials. This is a strong Democratic district according to VPAP, making the special election next month more of a formality compared to this primary race, which took a dark turn last week.

“I’m humbled, and I’m happy to represent the Democrats of SD-15 in the special election coming up on the sixth of January,” Jones said in a statement to Virginia Scope Sunday night.

Del. Debra Gardner and Jones competed for the Democratic nomination in SD-15, which encompasses parts of Richmond and Chesterfield.

Gardner went on the attack when her campaign uploaded a video to YouTube highlighting some past headlines involving Jones and a protective order placed against him by his former spouse.

“Mike Jones’ history of alleged violence toward women is shocking, dangerous and disqualifying,” the narrator of the ad reads after showing clips from past news stories about Jones.

“I’m Debra Gardner, a candidate for Senate, and I sponsored this ad,” the ad concluded.

In 2024, Jones’ then-wife issued a protective order against him, but a judge later dissolved the order after finding that the evidence was insufficient.

During the court hearing for the protective order, Jones played an audio recording of an interaction with his wife. After hearing the recording, the judge dissolved the protective order. Virginia Scope listened to the audio and confirmed with a separate source who was in the courtroom the day of the hearing that it was played in court.

“I am honestly saddened that a member of my own party, someone who I thought was a friend, who I’ve talked in confidence with about this situation, would use portions of it for her political gain,” Jones said in an interview with Virginia Scope.

Jones said that in the attack ad, Gardner used the allegations without mentioning the case’s resolution.

“We had a full conversation about the entire case, but the only part she talked about are the allegations and not the resolution,” Jones said. “It’s clear that she’s doing this for her political gain.”

The Gardner campaign declined to answer whether or not Gardner was made aware by Jones of the resolution of the allegations.

Gardner has not released a public statement about the loss at the time of publication.

Republicans nominated John Thomas to run in the special election that is taking place on Jan. 6.