Picture Credit: The Richmond-Times Dispatch
If this is the first time you’ve watched a debate for a Virginia Attorney General election, no one can blame you.
The race has been remarkably uncompetitive throughout the year, with the State Navigate forecast having Jones up at least eight points through the end of September.
Then came October: a flurry of opposition research against Jones and skeletons unveiled by journalists hit the presses the first week of October. Since then, the campaign of Jason Miyares, the Republican incumbent, has launched attack ads against Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee, over his treasure trove of scandals. There has unfortunately been a lack of nonpartisan polling in the first half of October, but each candidate’s campaign released internals showing the race to be within 3 percentage points. As of this writing, Jay Jones is projected to win by 6.6% with an 89% chance of winning, but it remains to be seen if this continues to be the case as we expect nonpartisan polls to report their findings before Election Day.
In the last of two debates between candidates on the statewide tickets, the two finally went head-to-head on the issues. The two faced off at the University of Richmond’s Camp Concert Hall in a broad-ranging discussion, with only a few repeats from the gubernatorial debate. The Lieutenant Governor nominees will not be having a debate, as per Ghazala Hashmi; she has unequivocally refused to debate him, and it may prove to be the correct judgment call for her sake. Reid has had decades of experience speaking to the public as a byproduct of his status as a broadcast radio star. With two candidates who have little positive media presence, especially Jones, tonight’s debate will inevitably set the stage for the final weeks of the campaign.
Right out of the gate, Jones was asked by the moderator about the texting and speeding scandals. Jones, in his answer, said, “I am ashamed. I am embarrassed, and I am sorry. I am sorry to Speaker Gilbert and I’m sorry to his family and I’m sorry to my family, and I’m sorry to every Virginian.” Jones says he was “held accountable” by his political party and state police for his actions. Miyares would continue to lay into Jones throughout the debate on the texts in particular.
Jones mentioned President Trump 35 times during the debate, continually making his pitch to Virginians that Attorney General Miyares is not up to the task of standing up to the President, who is deeply unpopular with Virginians. It perhaps comes as no surprise that this was Jones’ strategy: it’s virtually certain that the majority of Virginian voters this year will have voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. If he can win over what will likely be a Democratic-leaning electorate that detests Trump, he wins.
Miyares, in his defense against Jones’ attacks, noted that he has sued the Trump administration this year over cuts to the Veterans Affairs office. Jones argued that there is much more the Attorney General of Virginia could be doing to protect Virginians against the Trump administration, including over the federal job layoffs from the Spring. “Fifteen times he’s said the name of the President, not one time he’s said the name of a victim,” Miyares said as Jones brought Mr. Trump up for the fifteenth time.
Miyares pitched himself as “The People’s Protector,” and skewered Jones’ progressive voting record during his time in the House of Delegates, noting that Jones “has never prosecuted a case.” Jones noted that he has previously served as an Assistant Attorney General to make his case that he is up to the task of being the top cop of Virginia. Miyares said Jones was too focused on Washington and should run for Congress instead.
Perhaps the surprising moment during the debate was on the issue of Dominion Energy, Virginia’s largest utility company. Miyares, who has taken $1,375,000 from Dominion during his re-election campaign, said that during Jones’s time in the General Assembly, he voted for the “largest corporate giveaway” to Dominion, and said that during his time as Attorney General, he’s “taken Dominion to task.” Jones noted Miyares has taken money from Dominion, saying that he is “bought and paid for” by Dominion.
There wasn’t a moment during tonight’s debate that seemed to be an obvious screw-up by either candidate: no gaffe like Sears’s interruption during the gubernatorial debate, where she argued that being against gay marriage and supporting businesses firing workers for being gay is “not discrimination.” While the Virginia Attorney General debate certainly drew national audiences, few Virginians likely watched the event. At the end of the day, the goal of a debate for a campaign is to cut effective ads from it.
We’ll have to wait and see what ads, if any, are cut from tonight’s debate, but nothing of note stood out. The race for Virginia Attorney General remains the most competitive statewide election in Virginia this year, but we’ll have to wait for new nonpartisan polls without an agenda to show just how close it is.
