Virginia voters headed to the polls yesterday to select their preferred candidate for Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and state legislative offices.
Governor
Both gubernatorial candidates, Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears (R) and former U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger (D), ran unopposed in their respective primaries and did not appear on yesterday’s ballot. This race is the first time in history that two women are vying to be Virginia's next governor. Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) cannot run for re-election due to Virginia being the only state that does not allow governors to run for consecutive terms.
Lt. Governor Earle-Sears previously served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2002 to 2004 and on the Virginia Board of Education. Earle-Sears also served in the United State Marine Corps. She was elected alongside Governor Youngkin in 2021. As Lieutenant Governor, Earle-Sears oversees the Senate during legislative sessions and casts the deciding vote in the event of a tie. Her campaign priorities include reducing the cost of living, bolstering quality education, protecting the right to work, and a tough-on-crime approach to public safety. She has made tax relief a top priority and has been actively focused on it during the current Administration. To address the cost of living, she has vowed to make common-sense tax cuts and eliminate wasteful government spending. She supports parental rights in education and increasing funding for mental health initiatives. Earle-Sears made history in 2022 by becoming the first Black woman in the commonwealth to hold statewide office. If she is elected in November, she will become the nation’s first Black female governor.
First elected to Congress in 2018, former U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger (D) served three terms representing Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, a competitive district that includes the cities of Stafford, Fredericksburg, and Culpeper. During her tenure, Spanberger was ranked the most bipartisan member of Congress from Virginia. She was critical of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and voted against the HEROES Act, a proposed $3 trillion stimulus package in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She opposed the Trump Administration’s isolationist policies regarding environment and energy issues and was also critical of the Green New Deal proposed by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), highlighting the inclusion of unrelated policy objectives and did not prescribe specific solutions for the problems it outlined. In 2020, Spanberger described reducing the cost of prescription drugs as the top priority of families within her district, sponsoring the Public Disclosure of Drug Discounts Act that same year. Prior to taking public office, she served as a federal law enforcement officer with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and as a case officer with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). If elected to the governor’s office, Spanberger plans to tackle the cost of childcare, remove regulatory burdens for small businesses, and grow the state’s workforce training and apprenticeship programs. She also hopes to bring high-paying clean energy jobs through investments in offshore wind, rooftop solar, and other renewable energy sources. Spanberger has pledged to protect Medicaid expansion, work to lower prescription drug costs, and hold pharmaceutical companies accountable.
The Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball have rated this race as Lean Democratic. Virginia State University will host a gubernatorial debate on September 16.
Attorney General
Incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares ran unopposed in yesterday’s Republican primary. He is seeking his second term in office after a narrow victory over two-term Democratic incumbent Mark Herring in the 2021 general election. Prior to his election in 2021, Miyares served as a prosecutor in the Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney Office and three terms in the state legislature. His re-election campaign is focused on addressing violent crime and improving public safety, strengthening economic growth, and protecting Virginians from corporate misconduct.
Two candidates competed in the Democratic primary for attorney general: former Virginia State Delegate Jerrauld Jones and attorney Shannon Taylor. In the end, Jones won a close contest: As of this posting, he has secured approximately 51% of the vote. From 2018 to 2021, he represented District 89 in the Virginia House of Delegates. Jones previously served as an assistant attorney general in the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, within the Office of Consumer Protection. If elected, he pledges to address predatory lending schemes and banks that discriminate in the home buying process. He also plans to target corporate polluters and attempts to roll back clean air and water laws. Other priorities include resisting the Trump administration, improving public safety, and strengthening the state’s justice system.
House of Delegates
All 100 seats in Virginia’s House of Delegates are up for election this year. It is considered to be a battleground chamber in a sleepy off-year election, with many outside groups pouring money into the Commonwealth. Democrats currently have a narrow one seat majority. There were at least 10 competitive races in yesterday’s primary with two Democrat incumbents facing primary challenges.