Who is Elizabeth Simons? Meet the largest individual donor to Virginia’s disgraced Dem AG nominee
Who is Elizabeth Simons? Meet the largest individual donor to Virginia’s disgraced Dem AG nominee,
FIRST ON FOX: The largest individual donor to Jay Jones’ flailing attorney general campaign in Virginia is a billionaire heiress who has backed a variety of left-wing candidates and causes along with a recent massive donation backing socialist NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
Elizabeth “Liz” Simons, the daughter of the late billionaire hedge fund manager James “Jim” Simons, 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 built up a personal fortune worth $31.4 billion over the course of his lifetime while donating billions of that money to charity.
The donations from his daughter are likely to face increased scrutiny after Jones was the subject of a National Review report on Friday that exposed text messages he sent fantasizing about shooting a Republican colleague, former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert, in the head and suggesting his wife should have to watch his young “fascist” children die.
DEM SENATOR’S HEFTY DONATION TO DISGRACED AG CANDIDATE’S CAMPAIGN COMES BACK TO HAUNT HIM
The texts compared Gilbert to mass murderers Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot, adding that if he was given two bullets, he would use both against the GOP lawmaker to shoot him in the head.
The report has prompted Republicans in Virginia and across the country to call for Jones to drop out of the race, but as of Wednesday afternoon, he is still in the race as Democrats who endorsed him rally around his candidacy.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who condemned the texts, said he is “still a supporter” of his campaign.
Fox News Digital reported on Tuesday that Mark Warner, the other Democratic senator in Virginia, also criticized Jones’ “appalling” texts and said his behavior was “inconsistent with the person I’ve known,” but stopped short of calling for 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 apologized, calling the remarks “embarrassing and shameful,” and said he had reached out personally to Gilbert and his family.
GUN CONTROL GROUP GAVE SIX-FIGURE DONATION TO DEM CANDIDATE WHO FANTASIZED ABOUT SHOOTING GOP LAWMAKER
In August, Simons gave $250,000 to a super PAC aligned with Mamdani and has been a prolific donor to a variety of Democratic campaigns and causes.
FEC records reviewed by Fox News Digital show that she has given 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 over $800,000 to a PAC that supported Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign.
Simons, who joined her husband in forming the Heising-Simons Foundation in 2007 to bankroll left-wing environmentalist, education, and social policy causes, has recently made donations to Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff’s campaign, over $100,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and over $40,000 to the Democratic National Committee.
Her 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, which are both controlled by the New Venture Fund, according to the Capital Research Center’s InfluenceWatch.
Fox News Digital reached out to Simons for comment, but did not receive a response by press time.
, The largest donor to the beleaguered Virginia attorney general campaign of Jay Jones is billionaire heiress Elizabeth Simons who also recently gave to Zohran Mamdani., , , https://moxie.foxnews.com/google-publisher/latest.xml, Latest & Breaking News on Fox News, Discover the latest breaking news feed with Fox. Find out what the latest news is and read about the latest news happening today., https://global.fncstatic.com/static/orion/styles/img/fox-news/logos/fox-news-desktop.png, https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2F, Fox News, 10, October 8, 2025, 6:08 PM
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