Incumbent Jason Miyares (R) and Jerrauld Jones (D) are running in the general election for attorney general of Virginia on Nov. 4, 2025.
According to AP’s Olivia Diaz, Virginia’s odd-year elections are “seen as referendums on the party in power before Congress heads into midterm elections. … Democrats’ hold on Virginia has slipped in recent years, moving it close to swing-state status nationally. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin beat former Gov. Terry McAuliffe in 2021. Still, Democrats have history on their side: The party of the sitting president typically suffers defeat in Virginia’s statewide races. And considering Trump has never won the state, Democrats are probably better positioned to make gains.”
University of Virginia Professor Larry Sabato said, “Jason Miyares is the incumbent, which means Jay Jones has a tough race automatically against an incumbent. But go back four years: Miyares beat the Democratic incumbent. How? He had coattails from Youngkin.” Sabato said that in 2025, “The greatest threat to Jason Miyares is not really the Democratic nominee. It’s Donald Trump. It’s coattail.”
Miyares was elected attorney general in 2021. The Virginia Scope’s Brandon Jarvis said, “Miyares argues that Virginia is safer today than it was when he took office, pointing to declines in murder and overdose rates as the centerpiece of his reelection pitch to voters.” Miyares said he “secured over $1 billion in opioid settlements” and “launched Operation Ceasefire … a multifaceted approach to fighting violent crime by focusing on violence intervention in communities and aggressive prosecution of violent gun crimes.” As of July 13, the Republican Attorneys General Association pledged $2 million to support Miyares’ campaign.
Jones was an assistant attorney general in the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia and represented the 89th District in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2018 to 2021. Jones said he is running “to protect Virginia families — from crime and violence, corporate price gouging, and politicians with extreme agendas attacking our rights and Virginia workers.” As an assistant attorney general in Washington D.C., Jones said he “took on the gun lobby to keep families safe from violent crime, sued corporate special interests to prevent higher grocery prices, and went after big banks and slumlords preying on consumers.” As of July 13, the Democratic Attorneys General Association pledged $1 million to support Jones’ campaign.
Jones has tied Miyares to Trump and his policies, including the federal workforce cuts. Virginia has approximately 145,000 federal employees, or roughly 5% of the state’s workforce. Jones said, “Federal workers are under siege and they’ve not done a single thing to protect us, to do the job that [Miyares] was elected to do.”
Miyares casts himself as the public safety candidate, saying, “More Virginians are alive today than when I took office because our murder rate has dropped one-third… in our targeted ceasefire cities, [it] has dropped 66 percent.” Miyares added that Jones was one of the “most left-wing legislators ever in the history of the Virginia legislature” and was unqualified for the job because he never served as a prosecutor.
The results of this election, and the state’s gubernatorial election, will determine Virginia’s triplex status. A triplex is when one political party holds the governor, attorney general, and secretary of state offices. In Virginia, the governor appoints the secretary of the commonwealth.
Virginia switched from a Democratic to a Republican triplex following the 2021 elections of Youngkin and Miyares. Youngkin appointed Kay Coles James (R) secretary of the commonwealth when he took office in 2022. The state will remain a Republican triplex if Miyares and the Republican gubernatorial nominee, Winsome Earle-Sears, win the elections. It will become a Democratic triplex if Jones and the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Abigail Spanberger, win the elections. If one Republican and one Democrat win either of the races, Virginia will have a divided government.