The race for the Democratic nomination for attorney general in Virginia is heating up — and the primary is Tuesday.
Jay Jones, a former state lawmaker from Norfolk, and Shannon Taylor, the longtime elected prosecutor in the Richmond suburb of Henrico County are running.
The winner takes on Republican incumbent Jason Miyares.
As the race comes down to the wire, WTOP’s Kyle Cooper was joined by Washington Post reporter Salvador Rizzo to take a closer look at the candidates and break down whether there’s much difference between them.
This Q&A has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Salvador Rizzo: There’s not much of a difference in terms of policy.
You know, it’s a primary where you can choose, you know, an attorney general candidate for the Democrats who’s going to oppose President Donald Trump’s initiatives such as, you know, these mass layoffs of federal workers and file lawsuits and get involved in sort of this national movement to stump the Trump agenda through the federal courts, or another candidate who’s going to do the same thing, but a little differently.
So that’s basically the primary in a nutshell, between Jay Jones and Shannon Taylor. There are some differences, of course.
Shannon Taylor will point out her experience. She’s been a courtroom attorney for about 30 years, almost all that as the Henrico County Commonwealth attorney, basically the DA and she’s had important positions, regional positions, and she’s been president of the Association of Commonwealth Attorneys in Virginia. She has connections.
And then Jay Jones, who was a former delegate, for about three years in Richmond, and also worked for the attorney general in D.C. So different kind of profile of experience. But in terms of policy, it’s basically the same.
Kyle Cooper: As we know in Virginia. You know, the governor can only run for one term, but the attorney general isn’t limited by that, but it is still a little bit unusual that they run two or three times or whatever. So whoever wins this one’s gonna take on Jason Miyares. Is it tough to beat an incumbent in Virginia?
Salvador Rizzo: Miyares has name recognition. He has good fundraising, but the issue is really this anti-Trump sentiment.
You see a lot of enthusiasm in some polls for Abigail Spanberger — the Democrat who’s running for governor, and that may translate down ballot. You know, attorney general — you know how many people are following that. You know, the minutia of that.
A lot of these voters will be, you know, Spanberger voters, or they’ll be, you know, voting for the Republican candidate, Earl Winston Sears along with Miyares, and there won’t be much tickets splitting, according to some experts.
Kyle Cooper: OK, so maybe that Spanberger, she seems, at least in some polls we’ve seen, to be ahead. It could be some coattails there that may bring in one of these candidates over an incumbent.
Salvador Rizzo: Right and, again, it would be because of the anti-Trump sentiment. Virginia has a huge number of federal workers, of course. And, I can’t imagine that, even if you’re a fervent Trump supporter, but you’re out of a job — your federal worker job, you probably have some conflicted feelings about this primary, or this election in November.
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