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Incumbent Mark Herring won Tuesday’s Democratic primary for Virginia attorney general, beating challenger Norfolk Del. Jay Jones.
Herring, who is seeking a third term in office, will face Republican state Del. Jason Miyares, of Virginia Beach, in the November election.
The Associated Press called the race for Herring about 8:45 p.m.
In a Tweet Tuesday night, Herring said he was “proud” to be the Democratic nominee.
“After 8 years of unprecedented progress, we’ll have the opportunity with a Democratic Majority to break progressive ground like never before. Now, we’ll unite as one party and win big in November,” Herring wrote.
Herring, 59, has been Virginia’s top lawyer since 2014 and was the first Democrat to hold the position in 20 years when he was first elected.
Before that, he served as a state senator and a lawyer and elected county supervisor in Loudoun County.
In a statement Tuesday night, Jones congratulated Herring, Terry McAuliffe, and state Del. Hala Ayala and said that while the result was “disappointing,” “we will not let it deter us from continuing the fight to bring true reform to Virginia.”
“We must elect leaders who will be proactive, not reactive and rise to meet this moment in our history,” Jones said in the written statement. “As we enter the new Virginia decade, we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. I look forward to working in the House of Delegates to build on the progress we have made towards a Virginia that guarantees justice for every community.”
In an interview in April, Herring told The Virginian-Pilot that criminal justice reform, workers’ rights and protections, and health and well-being — including defending gun safety laws — would be priorities if elected.
He said he thinks of the attorney general as the “people’s lawyer,” and that the powers of the office should be used to help Virginians.
Throughout the primary campaign, Jones criticized Herring, saying he’d been slow to respond on criminal justice reform. Herring, however, pushed back, saying he’d led the way on many issues and broken “barrier after barrier.”
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Jones, 32, is one of the youngest state lawmakers and has represented the 89th House District in Norfolk since 2018. He’s a partner at the law firm Bischoff Martingayle and comes from a family of civil rights leaders.
His grandfather, Hilary H. Jones Sr., was the first Black member of the Norfolk School Board and state Board of Education. His father, Jerrauld Corey Jones, represented the 89th District as state delegate for 12 years and is now a Norfolk Circuit Court judge. His mother, Lyn Simmons, is a Norfolk Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court judge.
During the campaign, Jones said he’d bring a fresh voice and perspective to the job. Criminal justice reform topped his agenda, a “deeply personal” issue for him, he said. Jones said the attorney general needs to eliminate remnants of Jim Crow in Virginia and work to make the state more equitable.
Jones was one of the chief co-patrons on legislation that ended the death penalty in Virginia this year. As a freshman delegate he pushed for the “Ashanti Alert,” which created an alert for missing and endangered adults.
When he first became attorney general, Herring declared the state’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. He has worked to clear a backlog of untested rape kits in the state, pushed back against the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and advocated for “DREAMers” — recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was created in 2012 by President Barack Obama to protect certain undocumented immigrants from deportation.
Herring initially announced a run for governor in 2021, but last fall said he’d instead seek another term as attorney general.
Margaret Matray, 757-222-5216, margaret.matray@pilotonline.com