A Late Night in Virginia
Jay Jones takes primary race for AG; Sen. Ghazala Hashmi declared victory in the LG primary and was leading at midnight, but neither the Washington Post nor the New York Times had declared a winner.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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There were no local primary races in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, or Stafford Tuesday. Rather, voters went to the polls to select the Democratic candidates for Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor.
Attorney General
The AG race pitted Jay Jones against Shannon Taylor. Jones was declared the winner by the Washington Post around at 10 p.m. At that time Jones held a two-percentage point advantage and a 9,500-plus vote lead over Taylor with 95.3 percent of votes counted.
Locally, Jones carried Fredericksburg (953 votes for Jones vs 890 votes for Taylor), Spotsylvania (3,088 vs 2,891), and Stafford (3,819 vs 3,276).
These margins, along a strong showing in the Norfolk and Hampton Roads area and good support in south-central Virginia, helped Jones overcome Taylor’s advantage in Northern Virginia and the greater Richmond area.
The winner will square off against Jason Miyares, the incumbent AG who has recently shown a willingness to break with Donald Trump on some issues. For example, he spoke out against pardoning former Culpeper sheriff Scott Jenkins, who was convicted of “accepting over $75,000 in bribes in exchange for issuing auxiliary deputy sheriff appointments and law enforcement credentials to wealthy businessmen and undercover agents,” according to the Virginia Mercury.”
Jones will make Donald Trump a central issue in this November’s election, as he routinely invoked Trump’s name on the campaign trail and in his interview with the Advance.
“We’re running to protect Virginians and their families in the crazy era of Donald Trump,” he told the Advance, “where federal workers are under attack, federal families are under attack. The uncertainty is making people feel less safe and less secure. We need an attorney general who is going to step up to fight for those folks, to protect those folks, to let them know that we work for them and not for Donald Trump.”
Lt. Governor
The Lt. Governor’s race was even closer than the race for AG. Sen. Ghazala Hashmi was leading former Richmond mayor Levar Stoney by just some 3,500 votes at 10:10 Tuesday night — less than one percentage point — when Hashmi declared primary victory.
Shortly after 11 p.m., Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell sent a press release congratulating Hashmi on her victory. Chazz Nuttycombe, a close observer of Virginia political races, also declared Hashmi the winner.
As of 11:30 p.m., however, neither the Washington Post nor the New York Times had called the race.
Locally, Hashmi finished third in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, and Stafford behind Stoney and Aaron Rouse.
Hashmi’s strength was in an around the greater Richmond area, Alexandria, and along the I81 corridor.
Hashmi, who emigrated from India when she was 4 years old, is the first Muslim and the first South Asian American to serve in the Virginia Senate.
As did Jones, Hashmi has pushed Donald Trump front and center in her campaign and will continue that push in the run to November should the results hold.
The Republican nominee is John Reid, who faces a challenging environment. Gov. Glenn Youngkin tried to force Reid out of the race over a blog containing nude photos that GOP researchers linked to Reid. Reid refused, showing the limit of Youngkin’s power to control the Virginia Republican party.
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