At the end of a tight race, former Del. Jay Jones emerged victorious in the race for attorney general. The Associated Press called the race at 10:05 p.m. Tuesday.

Jones, a Democrat, unseated Republican incumbent Jason Miyares for the position. With 82% of votes counted, Jones led the race 51.6% to 48%, according to unofficial results.

Jones, who will be the first Black attorney general in Virginia, declared victory at a joint event with Democrats in Richmond and thanked his opponent for his service to the commonwealth.

“To everyone who didn’t give up on this campaign, I say thank you,” Jones said.

Jones, 36, of Norfolk, is the son of longtime judge and delegate Jerrauld Jones, who died earlier this year. When Jay Jones served in the General Assembly from 2018 to early 2022, he occupied his dad’s old seat in Norfolk. Jones abruptly left the legislature shortly after winning re-election in 2021, later taking a job in the Washington, D.C., attorney general’s office.

Jones has made joining in on lawsuits against the Trump administration a central pillar of his campaign.

“I will protect our jobs, our health care, and our economy from Donald Trump’s attacks,” he said.

The challenge for Jones was to overcome a texting scandal that rocked his campaign last month and resulted in fellow Democratic candidates for statewide office distancing themselves from what had been a unified ticket.

Jones led in the polls for much of the campaign, but that changed when it became public that three years ago he had sent texts where he mused about shooting the Republican then-speaker of the House of Delegates in the head. Jones apologized for the incident, but discussion of the texts dominated much of the remainder of the campaign. Republicans called on Jones to withdraw from the race, painting him as both violent and soft on crime.

Miyares, 49, who resides in Virginia Beach, also served as a delegate from 2018 to 2021, when he was elected attorney general.

Speaking from an election watch party in Virginia Beach, Miyares thanked his supporters Tuesday night and said it had “been the honor of my life to be your attorney general.”

“Tonight is not the celebration we were hoping for,” Miyares said. “Virginian’s Republicans, we are down, but we are not out.”

Virginia is one of two states in the country with a gubernatorial election in odd years following a presidential election and has historically been watched nationally as a referendum on the party in the White House and a prediction for the congressional midterms. While Democrats were favored to win statewide seats and to hold control of the House of Delegates this year, Jones faced challenges late in the race and recent polling showed the race had tightened and Miyares led Jones by one point.

Miyares raised $25 million to Jones’ $14 million as of the end of last month, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

Kate Seltzer, 757-713-7881, kate.seltzer@virginiamedia.com

https://www.pilotonline.com/2025/11/04/election-2025-jay-jones/