We got ourselves a 2025 Virginia politics cycle shocker on Monday: Jason Miyares is going to run for a second term as attorney general, ceding the Republican Party gubernatorial nomination to Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.
“Three years ago, I made one promise to the people of Virginia: to keep you and your family safe,” Miyares said in a campaign video posted Monday, announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination for a second term as AG.
I have to think that Miyares is making a wise read of the political tea leaves here.
Virginia’s off-year elections put the party of the new president at a disadvantage, with the tradition, dating back more than half a century, being that our voters put the opposition party in Washington back in power in Richmond.
That would put Abigail Spanberger, the lone Democrat in the running for her party’s nomination for governor, in the driver’s seat.
The move by Miyares does give Earle-Sears a better shot in the November 2025 state elections, because she won’t have to spend millions of dollars and endure months of friendly-fire political attacks to get to the general election.
The last time Republicans held the lieutenant governor and attorney general statewide spots going into a gubernatorial cycle, in 2013, saw Ken Cuccinelli, then the sitting attorney general, outmaneuver the two-time lieutenant governor, Bill Bolling, to get the GOP governor nomination, but the weakened Cuccinelli lost the general to Democrat Terry McAuliffe.
Democrats themselves avoided a nasty gubernatorial nomination season earlier this year when Levar Stoney, the Richmond mayor, decided after briefly entering the governor’s race to withdraw and refocus his attention on the Democratic Party lieutenant governor nomination.
Video: Jason Miyares shakes up the 2025 Virginia governor race
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Chris Graham
