Jay Jones, a Democrat, was elected attorney general in Virginia on Tuesday, defeating Jason Miyares, the Republican incumbent, according to The Associated Press.
His victory, fueled by anger at the Trump administration, completed a Democratic sweep of Virginia’s three top statewide races.
“Donald Trump, MAGA and those corporate special interests believe that Virginia’s government should be beholden to them,” Mr. Jones said on Tuesday night, after the election had been called in his favor. “But tonight we sent a loud message to them and to every single person across this country: Virginia belongs to the people.”
With his victory, Mr. Jones becomes Virginia’s first Black attorney general. He succeeds Mr. Miyares, who was the first Hispanic person to serve in statewide office. Virginia attorneys general often see the post as a steppingstone to the governorship.
Mr. Jones, a former Virginia State delegate, won despite revelations about violent text messages that almost derailed his campaign. The closely fought race started out as a referendum on President Trump’s record, and when early voting began in September, Mr. Jones was expected to win along with Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee for governor, and Ghazala Hashmi, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor.
But the race tightened considerably after the revelation in early October that he had sent a series of violent texts in 2022 that suggested the Republican speaker of the State Assembly deserved to be killed and also mused about the speaker’s children dying.
The messages, which came to light at a time of rising political violence in the country, were widely condemned across the political spectrum. And Mr. Miyares pivoted his campaign in the final weeks to focus largely on his opponent’s texts, encouraging voters who supported Ms. Spanberger to split their tickets.
Questions about Mr. Jones’s character were further fueled by accusations that after a reckless driving conviction, he had fulfilled his community service obligations by working at his own political action committee.
Mr. Jones apologized several times for the texts but resisted calls to end his campaign.
And he tied Mr. Miyares to Mr. Trump, who is deeply unpopular in the state, especially as his administration has carried out mass firings of federal workers, many of whom live in the Northern Virginia suburbs.
Mr. Jones called Mr. Miyares a Trump “cheerleader” who hung out at MAGA rallies and was “too scared and too weak to stand up” to the president. He also criticized Mr. Miyares for not joining most of the lawsuits challenging Trump administration policies that have been filed by attorneys general in states around the country.
In the end, Mr. Jones won, though with a margin of victory narrower than Ms. Spanberger’s.
Democrats had other conditions working in their favor. Virginia’s odd-year elections typically tilt toward the party that is out of the White House. And Ms. Spanberger staked out moderate positions that enhanced her appeal to swing voters in the purple state.
From 2018 to 2022, Mr. Jones held the Virginia House of Delegates seat previously held by his father, Jerrauld C. Jones. He also served as an assistant attorney general in Washington, where he worked on consumer protection issues. On the campaign trail, he spoke often about protecting consumer rights, encouraging cleaner and more affordable energy sources and protecting families from unfair utility costs. Democrats now have another statewide platform from which to challenge Trump administration policies.
Amy Qin writes about Asian American communities for The Times.
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