There’s a hard edge to Virginia politics right now — the kind you don’t see on campaign flyers or in polished debate lines, but in the jittery texts, the sudden arrests, and the frantic social-media posts from parents and staffers who are suddenly living with threats no one should normalize. Over the last few weeks, Republican state lawmakers have reported a string of death threats and menacing messages, and the mood has gone from heated to outright dangerous.
Take the case of Del. Geary Higgins, who says he received a text promising to shoot him and warning that the sender “knows where your f***in kids are too.” That’s not political theater; that’s a criminal act that targeted a family. Authorities have arrested Patrick Murphy in connection with that message, according to Higgins’ account — a stark reminder that the consequences of incendiary rhetoric are not abstract. They arrive at front doors, on phones, in the form of felony charges and frightened children.
🚨 New: A man is charged in Loudoun County with threatening to shoot Virginia lawmaker Republican Del. Geary Higgins. After Higgins sent a message informing the public about a sign a woman held at an Arlington School Board rally targeting Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears,… pic.twitter.com/lAV1GdaV1n
— Nick Minock (@NickMinock) September 29, 2025
Then there’s Del. Kim Taylor’s scare. A campaign official was allegedly threatened via text, and police moved quickly to detain Michael Ray Strawmyer. The suspect reportedly told investigators Taylor was “ruining the country,” a chilling echo of the larger tribal vitriol sweeping across campaigns and cable TV. These are not isolated incidents; they’re snapshots of a political climate where words spill over into real-world danger.
Predictably, fingers are being pointed. Higgins framed the violence as the logical outcome of “nasty lies and constant demonization from the radical left,” calling out figures like Abigail Spanberger — whom he says urged supporters to “let their rage fuel them.” Spanberger counters that her words were taken out of context, but context or not, the debate over causation misses the immediate point: words matter, and in this case, people were harmed.
Let me be clear: threats of violence have no place in our political discourse. I will not be intimidated, silenced, or deterred from doing the job I was elected to do—fighting for my constituents in Western Loudoun and Fauquier, and standing up for common sense.
I am incredibly… pic.twitter.com/304vGvjIBU
— Delegate Geary Higgins (@DelegateHiggins) September 29, 2025
What’s unnerving is how rapidly political invective becomes a practical hazard. Campaign rhetoric that paints opponents as existential threats doesn’t stay on the airwaves; it migrates into texts, DMs, and midnight browser searches.
It motivates unstable people. It endangers families. Arrests and jail cells are not political wins; they’re the fallout of a system that has normalized dehumanizing language as part of daily campaigning.
As Virginia barrels toward November, both voters and leaders should ask a simple question: do we want a politics where threats are an occupational hazard? If the answer is no, cooling the rhetoric — and holding accountable those who cross the line from fierce disagreement into violent intimidation — can’t be an afterthought.
