Billionaire heiress donated $750,000 to disgraced Virginia AG candidate Jay Jones

FIRST ON FOX: The largest individual donor to Jay Jones’ fractious Virginia attorney general campaign is a billionaire heiress who has supported a variety of left-wing candidates and causes, as well as a recent massive donation to New York socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

Elizabeth “Liz” Simons, the daughter of the late billionaire hedge fund manager James “Jim” Simons, has donated a total of $750,000 to Jones’ campaign over the past few months, in four separate payments: campaign finance records show.

The elder Simons founded the successful hedge fund Renaissance Technologies and amassed a personal fortune worth $31.4 billion during his lifetime while donating billions of that money to charity.

Her daughter’s donations will likely come under scrutiny after Jones was the subject of National Review Report Friday, which revealed text messages he sent in which he fantasized about shooting a fellow Republican, former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert, in the head and suggested his wife should have to watch his young “fascist” children die.

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Heising-Simons Foundation Board Chair Elizabeth Simons speaks on stage at the 2016 Milken Institute Global Conference. (Getty Images)

The texts compared Gilbert to mass murderers Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot, adding that if he was shot twice, he would use both against the Republican lawmaker to shoot him in the head.

The report prompted Republicans in Virginia and across the country to call for Jones to withdraw from the race, but as of Wednesday afternoon he was still in the race as Democrats who had supported him rallied around his candidacy.

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who condemned the texts, said he was “still a supporter” of her campaign.

Fox News Digital reported Tuesday that Mark Warner, Virginia’s other Democratic senator, also criticized Jones’ “appalling” texts and said his behavior was “inconsistent with the person I knew,” but stopped short of calling on him to drop out of the race. His office did not respond to a request for comment on the $25,000 donation to Jones’ campaign.

Jones has since apologizedcalling the comments “embarrassing and shameful,” and said he had personally contacted Gilbert and his family.

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A text message from Jay Jones to Del. Carrie Coyner. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)

In August, Simons gave $250,000 to a Mamdani-aligned super PAC and has been a prolific donor to various Democratic campaigns and causes.

FEC records reviewed by Fox News Digital show it gave millions of dollars to the Senate Majority PAC, which has close ties to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and the House Majority PAC, a fundraising operation aligned with House Democratic leadership. She also gave more than $800,000 to a PAC that supported Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign.

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Virginia Attorney General candidate Jerrauld “Jay” Jones speaks at an event in Norfolk, Virginia, June 17, 2025. (Trevor Metcalfe/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Simons, who joined her husband creation of the Heising-Simons Foundation in 2007 to fund left-wing environmental, education and social policy causes, recently donated to Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff’s campaign, more than $100,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and more than $40,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

His family foundation is also a member of at least two gun control advocacy organizations, including Fund for a Safer Future and Hope and Heal Fund, both of which are controlled by the New Venture Fund, according to Capital Research Center’s InfluenceWatch.

Fox News Digital reached out to Simons for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.