Democrats running for attorney general say Virginia needs to challenge Trump

Yahoo

14-05-2025

Democrats will choose between a longtime prosecutor from the Richmond suburbs and a former lawmaker from a politically active Hampton Roads family in the primary race for attorney general. Former state delegate Jay Jones and Henrico County Commonwealth's Attorney Shannon Taylor are facing off in the Democratic primary.
Democrats are hoping to win big this year. Virginia is considered to be a bellwether state because its statewide elections are held the year after the presidential election. Virginia's election in November is thought to be a referendum on the president's first year in office. The winner of the race will run against incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares in November.
Early voting has already begun, and primary day is June 17.
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Taylor has served as the commonwealth's attorney of Henrico since 2011 and has been a practicing attorney for almost 30 years. In addition to the attorney general's role as an advisor to state agencies and offer consumer protection, she said that experience particularly prepares her for the role of the state's top prosecutor. As commonwealth's attorney, the 57-year-old was appointed special prosecutor in Virginia's case against one of the men involved with the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, though the charges were ultimately dismissed following a mistrial.
'The importance of being the prosecutor for the commonwealth is two points,' she said. 'The fact that I can do our own investigation and our own prosecuting as the attorney general or be there as a resource for our local prosecutors. … I have very good relationships across this commonwealth with all of my colleagues to be able to offer assistance in whatever they may need.'
Taylor is making the case that she's the more experienced candidate. In a new ad, she seemingly took aim at Jones, saying, 'I'm the only Democrat to have prosecuted a criminal case and win a Republican seat.'
757 Votes: The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press 2025 primary election guide
Jay Jones and Shannon Taylor compete in Virginia's Attorney General Democratic primary
Early voting in Virginia primary elections starts this week. Here's what you need to know.
But Jones says he's prepared for the role, and his time in the consumer protection unit of Washington, D.C.'s attorney general's office offered valuable experience. He said he took on slumlords and corporate special interest groups in that time.
'My hair is all gray at this point,' the 36-year-old joked. 'I've had my experience as an assistant attorney general. I've been a trial attorney for over a decade now. … I think all of that lends itself to this moment when we need someone who's going to step up and use the office as it should be used.'
Jones hails from Norfolk, where he currently resides. He previously served as state delegate, elected to his dad Jerrauld Jones Sr.'s old seat. He served in the legislature from 2018 to 2021 but stepped down shortly after he was last elected, saying he and his wife were expecting their first child. Jones' grandfather Hilary Jones Sr. was a civil rights attorney in Norfolk and the first Black member of the Norfolk School Board.
Jones went on to work as an assistant attorney general in Washington, D.C., before primarying then-incumbent Mark Herring for the position of attorney general in 2021. Jones lost that race, and Herring was defeated by Miyares in the general election that year. In 2023, Jones, who now works in private practice, sued the governor's administration on behalf of the Virginia NAACP for access to the voting rights restoration database, though a judge later denied that access.
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Both candidates are running on staunch anti-Trump platforms and say Virginia should have signed onto lawsuits brought by Democratic attorneys general against the administration, like one that states signed onto to restore federal research money.
'We are now watching our current attorney general not challenging any of the executive orders that are coming from the Trump administration, not even looking for the constitutionality or legality,' Taylor said. '(The court) found that if you were a state that did make that challenge, the research money should come and has to come to those states. But because Jason Miyares did not file in that case, the commonwealth of Virginia is losing out on millions of dollars of research money that goes to very critical issues like Alzheimer's and cancer research.'
'I think it's really important for folks to know that when we don't participate in these lawsuits, we don't get to avail ourselves of the protections that the injunctions that have been handed down offer those other states that have put those lawsuits up,' Jones said. 'In particular, (the lawsuits to protect federal funding and to protect federal workers) I would have loved to have seen Miyares engage and fight for us.'
Both candidates also say they want to expand certain units within the attorney general's office. Jones said he would build out a civil rights unit and a labor justice unit. Taylor said she would expand the Medicaid fraud unit to encompass broader elder abuse investigations and protections.
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Powerful current and former state and local Democratic officials are split in their endorsements this campaign. Jones is endorsed by former Govs. Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam, U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott and much of the Hampton Roads delegation in the state legislature, including Sen. Mamie Locke and Del. Kelly Convirs-Fowler. Meanwhile, Taylor has so far been endorsed by more commonwealth's attorneys, former Attorneys General Mark Herring and Mary Sue Terry, and Eileen Filler-Corn, former speaker of the House of Delegates.
In April, Taylor announced that she had fundraised more than $1 million, including $525,000 raised in the first quarter of the year, which ended in March. Jones' campaign reported that as of last filing, it had raised more than $1.8 million including more than $900,000 raised in the first quarter.
Kate Seltzer, 757-713-7881, [e-mail]