The 2025 Virginia attorney general election was held in the US state on November 4, 2025, to elect the attorney general of Virginia. The election was held concurrently with elections for Virginia's statewide offices, the House of Delegates, and other local offices. Incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares lost his bid for a second term to a challenge by the Democratic nominee Jay Jones in the general election. The in-person early voting period ran from September 19 to November 1, 2025.

During his campaign, Jones received widespread condemnation after text messages from 2022 surfaced in which he joked about shooting the then-state house speaker Todd Gilbert and fantasized about the death of his children, while deriding a moderate Democrat who had received eulogies from Republicans. Despite the controversy and bipartisan condemnation, including from his running mates, Jones defied the polls that predicted the reelection of Miyares and won the election by 6.69%. Jones became the first African American to serve as Virginia attorney general. Jones outperformed Kamala Harris from 2024, but largely underperformed Abigail Spanberger and Ghazala Hashmi in the concurrent gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial elections.

Republican primary Background Incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares announced his re-election bid on November 18, 2024, on X after declining a gubernatorial bid.

He received the party's nomination on April 3, after no other candidacies were filed.

Candidates Nominee Jason Miyares, incumbent attorney general (2022–2026)

Endorsements

Democratic primary Campaign Teo Armus of The Washington Post described the primary as a proxy battle between Dominion Energy and Clean Virginia, an environmental group meant to counter Dominion's influence in Virginia elections. Shannon Taylor received over $800,000 from Dominion, its largest ever contribution in a single race. Jay Jones received $579,000 from Clean Virginia.

Candidates Nominee Jay Jones, former Washington, D.C. assistant attorney general (2022–2023), former state delegate from the 89th district (2018–2021), and candidate for attorney general in 2021

Eliminated in primary Shannon Taylor, Henrico County commonwealth's attorney (2012–present)

Declined Steve Descano, Fairfax County commonwealth's attorney (2020–present) (endorsed Jones)

Endorsements

Polling Poll source Date(s)administered Samplesize Marginof error JayJones ShannonTaylor UndecidedGlobal Strategy Group (D)March 11–13, 2025600 (LV)± 4.0%15%25%60%

Results

General election

Campaign In October, a month before the election, a 2022 text conversation between Jay Jones and Republican delegate Carrie Coyner following the death of former delegate Democrat Joe Johnson Jr. was made public by National Review. In the texts, Jones made disparaging remarks toward Republican members of the House, stating, "If those guys die before me I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves." Jones targeted then-Speaker of the House of Delegates Republican Todd Gilbert, giving a scenario in which Gilbert would be shot twice in the head. Jones said, "Three people, two bullets, Gilbert, Hitler, and Pol Pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head. Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know, and he receives both bullets every time." Jones also wished death upon Gilbert's children, and said that Gilbert and his wife were "evil" and "breeding little fascists."

Jones received bipartisan condemnation for his texts. His running mates Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee in the 2025 Virginia gubernatorial election, and Ghazala Hashmi, the Democratic nominee in the 2025 Virginia lieutenant gubernatorial election, issued statements condemning Jones's comments. Spanberger said that she had spoken with Jones regarding her "disgust". Meanwhile, Hashmi stated, "I condemn it at every turn, Jay must take accountability for the pain that his words have caused", along with U.S. Senator Mark Warner writing that Jones's comments are "appalling, unacceptable, and inconsistent with the person [he's] known." Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell called the texts "a serious lapse in judgment that cannot be defended," while current Virginia House Speaker Don Scott condemned the remarks but stated that "we can't get distracted, because they want us to get distracted by the text message here or something else. Stay focused." Republicans, including Governor Glenn Youngkin, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Vice President JD Vance, called for Jones to withdraw from the race.

In Jones's initial statement following the publication, he accused his opponent of "dropping smears through Trump-controlled media organizations to assault my character and rescue his desperate campaign" and stated that his opponent "will continue to be accountable to Donald Trump, not the people of Virginia." Prior to the article, it had come out that in the same year, Jones was charged with reckless driving after driving 116 miles per hour on Interstate 64 in New Kent County. Despite Virginia's mandatory one-year jail sentence for reckless driving, Jones was sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service, half of which he served working for his own PAC, Meet Our Moment, along with a $1,500 fine. Jones later issued a statement taking responsibility for the text messages, and apologized to Gilbert and his family.

A criminal investigation was opened against Jones by the New Kent County commonwealth's attorney on October 9, stating that the documentation did not clearly indicate that Meet Our Moment was a political action committee and that community service must be performed at nonpolitical nonprofit organizations. On October 21, a judge signed an order recusing the New Kent County commonwealth's attorney and appointing the Williamsburg-James City County commonwealth's attorney as a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation.

Debates There was one streamed debate, on October 16, hosted by the University of Richmond.

+ 2025 Virginia attorney general debate Date Host Moderator Link Republican DemocraticKey: Participant  Absent  Not invited  Invited Withdrawn Miyares Jones1 October 16, 2025 Virginia Bar AssociationUniversity of Richmond Brett Marston

Predictions SourceRankingAs of State Navigate October 22, 2025Sabato's Crystal BallAugust 21, 2025

Post-primary endorsements

Polling Aggregate polls Source of pollaggregationDatesadministeredDatesupdated JasonMiyares (R) JayJones (D) Other/UndecidedMarginDecision Desk HQthrough November 3, 2025November 3, 202547.3%45.5%7.1%Miyares +1.8%RealClearPoliticsOctober 16–31, 2025November 2, 202547.0%45.4%7.6%Miyares +1.6%VoteHubthrough November 3, 2025November 4, 202546.9%45.8%7.3%Miyares +1.1%Average47.1%45.6%7.3%Miyares +1.5%

Poll source Date(s)administered Samplesize Marginof errorJasonMiyares (R)JayJones (D) Other UndecidedQuantus Insights (R)November 3, 20251,039 (LV)± 2.7%47%47%1%5%InsiderAdvantage (R)November 2–3, 2025800 (LV)± 3.5%47%49%–4%The Trafalgar Group (R)November 1–2, 20251,057 (LV)± 2.9%46%46%–8%Emerson CollegeOctober 30–31, 2025880 (LV)± 3.2%47%49%–4%Echelon InsightsOctober 28–31, 2025606 (LV)± 4.7%49%46%1%4%AtlasIntelOctober 25–30, 20251,325 (LV)± 3.0%48%47%3%2%SoCal Strategies (R)October 28–29, 2025800 (LV)–48%46%–6%State NavigateOctober 26–28, 2025614 (LV)± 4.0%46%49%–5%Roanoke CollegeOctober 22–27, 20251,041 (LV)± 4.1%46%38%4%12%A2 InsightsOctober 24–26, 2025776 (LV)–49%48%–3%Christopher Newport UniversityOctober 21–23, 2025803 (LV)± 4.1%46%45%1%8%Suffolk UniversityOctober 19–21, 2025500 (LV)± 4.4%46%42%2%9%Quantus Insights (R)October 19–20, 20251,302 (RV)± 2.8%49%42%2%7%State NavigateOctober 17–20, 2025694 (LV)± 4.0%45%50%–5%The Washington Post/Schar SchoolOctober 16–20, 2025927 (LV)± 3.5%46%46%5%3%927 (RV)44%44%9%3%Kaplan Strategies (R)October 16–18, 2025556 (LV)± 4.2%45%44%–10%co/efficient (R)October 15–17, 2025937 (LV)± 3.2%46%42%–11%Clarity Campaign Labs (D)October 14–17, 2025958 (RV)± 3.2%47%47%–6%The Trafalgar Group/InsiderAdvantage (R)October 13–15, 20251,039 (LV)± 2.9%50%45%–6%Virginia Commonwealth UniversityOctober 6–14, 2025842 (A)± 4.0%45%42%–12%The Trafalgar Group (R)October 8–10, 20251,034 (LV)± 2.9%49%43%–8%Cygnal (R)October 6–7, 2025600 (LV)± 4.0%46%44%–10%Hart Research (D)October 4–6, 2025600 (LV)–45%46%–9% October 3, 2025 Jay Jones text messages leakChristopher Newport UniversitySeptember 29 – October 1, 2025805 (RV)± 3.9%43%49%–8%The Trafalgar Group (R)September 29 – October 1, 20251,034 (LV)± 2.9%45%49%–6%The Washington Post/Schar SchoolSeptember 25–29, 20251,002 (LV)± 3.4%45%51%1%3%1,002 (RV)42%48%6%3%A2 InsightsSeptember 16–28, 2025771 (LV)–46%49%1%5%OnMessage Inc. (R)September 15–18, 2025800 (V)± 3.5%46%46%–8%Christopher Newport UniversitySeptember 8–14, 2025808 (RV)± 3.9%41%48%–12%Cygnal (R)September 7, 2025––43%46%–11%Virginia Commonwealth UniversityAugust 18–28, 2025804 (A)± 4.1%41%47%–12%SoCal Strategies (R)August 31 – September 1, 2025700 (LV)–41%46%–12%co/efficient (R)August 23–26, 20251,025 (LV)± 3.06%44%45%–11%Roanoke CollegeAugust 11–15, 2025702 (LV)± 4.3%38%41%–21%Wick InsightsJuly 9–11, 20251,000 (LV)± 3.0%41%48%–11%American Directions Research Group/AARPJune 25 – July 8, 20251,001 (LV)± 3.1%36%53%–11%Virginia Commonwealth UniversityJune 19 – July 3, 2025764 (RV)± 4.2%37%46%3%13%

Jason Miyares vs. Generic Democrat Poll source Date(s)administered Samplesize Marginof error JasonMiyares (R) GenericDemocrat Undecidedco/efficient (R)June 8–10, 20251,127 (LV)± 3.1%44%44%12%

Results

By county and independent city The counties and cities of Caroline, Nelson, Prince Edward, Spotsylvania, Waynesboro, and York voted for Miyares and Democrat Abigail Spanberger for governor.