Virginia Del. Jason Miyares will be the Republican nominee for state attorney general in November.
The Virginia Beach lawmaker was chosen by fellow Republican Party members in a four-way primary the party held Saturday. The coronavirus pandemic-induced “unassembled convention” across the state gathered remotely on Saturday to select its nominees for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general.
The ranked-choice voting system, meaning second-place choices came into play, combined with the diffuse nature of the party convention, led to elongated counting for the GOP nomination spots.
FIGHT FOR VIRGINIA GOP STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINATION FOCUSES ON LAW-AND-ORDER THEMES
“Thank you! The Great Virginia Comeback starts here,” Miyares tweeted Sunday night.
Miyares is expected to take on incumbent Democrat Mark Herring, who’s running for a third term. However, Herring faces a primary of his own against Norfolk Del. Democrat Jay Jones.
The GOP state legislator was able to garner the necessary 51% threshold by the third round of voting against Chuck Smith, a former Navy judge advocate general, who presented a strong showing of just over 48%, to win the state party’s nomination.
GOP candidates who also ran for the post but were eliminated in earlier rounds were Northern Virginia attorney Jack White and Chesterfield County Supervisor Leslie Haley.
Miyares, a former criminal prosecutor whose family is from Cuba, led his Republican primary candidates in fundraising with just over $478,000. He was first elected to the Virginia General Assembly in 2015 and serves on the General Laws, Transportation, and Courts of Justice committees.
“We need an attorney general who will work with our law enforcement officers. Not against them. I’ll defend the police, not defund them and give them the tools to do their job. We need an attorney general who protects the rule of law, and that is not Mark Herring,” he said in his campaign launch video back in December. “I will defend our constitution and oppose left-wing radicals who will try to get around it. Making our community safe will be my top priority.”
Immediately following Miyares’s victory, the Herring campaign released a statement attacking Miyares as “Trumpian.”
“As the Republican Party of Virginia’s Attorney General nominee, Jason Miyares is beholden to the values and policies of Donald Trump — and he’ll bring them the same result that Trump did in 2016 and 2020,” said Farah Melendez, Herring for Attorney General campaign manager. “Miyares is anti-healthcare, anti-civil rights, anti-criminal justice reform, and anti-gun safety. His vision for Virginia is no different than Donald Trump’s, and Virginians will overwhelmingly reject him in favor of four more years of progress under Attorney General Mark Herring.”
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Virginia Republicans on Monday are expected to tally the results of the seven-way governor’s race and the six-person lieutenant governor’s contest.
