Jason Miyares

Jason Stuart Miyares (born February 11, 1976) is an American attorney and politician serving as the 48th Attorney General of Virginia since 2022. A Republican, he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2015, from the 82nd district in northeastern Virginia Beach, and served three terms from 2016 to 2022. He was elected Attorney General of Virginia in 2021. The son of a refugee, he is the first Hispanic elected statewide in Virginia.

Early life and education
Miyares was born in Greensboro, North Carolina and attended public schools in Virginia Beach. His mother fled from Cuba in 1965. Miyares earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from James Madison University and a Juris Doctor from the College of William & Mary’s Law School. He was Chairman of the Hampton Roads Young Republicans and a founding member of the Hampton Roads Federalist Society. He later served as an assistant commonwealth's attorney in Virginia Beach.

Career
Miyares worked on George Allen's 2000 Senate campaign. He was later campaign manager and advisor to Republican Scott Rigell in the 2010 and 2012 congressional elections. He was later a partner with the consulting firm Madison Strategies. He also worked at the Virginia Beach law firm Hanger Law until his election to the office of Attorney General.

Virginia House of Delegates
In 2015, Miyares ran for the Virginia House of Delegates' seat being vacated by Bill DeSteph, who ran successfully for the Virginia State Senate. Unopposed in the June 2015 Republican primary, he defeated Democrat Bill Fleming in the November 2015 general election. He was the first Cuban American elected to the Virginia General Assembly. He was reelected in 2017 and 2019. He served on three committees: General Laws, Courts of Justice, and Transportation. Miyares also served on the Virginia Board of Veterans Services and as Chairman of the Commission on Equal Opportunity for Virginians in Aspiring and Diverse Communities. He was the 2018 and 2019 "Legislator of the Year" by the College of Affordability and Public Trust and 2018 "Legislator of the Year" by the Hampton Roads Military Officers Association. In 2019 he received the "Action Award" by the Safe House Project.

Miyares voted against the Medicaid expansion bill (HB 5001) in the 2018 legislative session.

He endorsed Marco Rubio in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, and was Rubio's Virginia campaign co-chairman. In 2016, amid the Cuban thaw, Miyares criticized Governor Terry McAuliffe's outreach to Cuba. Miyares introduced a non-binding resolution (H.J. 1777) in 2016 condemning the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Miyares opposes abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy, with exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and protecting the life of the mother; he supports maintaining access to the commonly used abortion pill mifepristone and opposes prosecuting people for abortions. He supports the death penalty, and opposed the decision to abolish capital punishment in Virginia in 2021. In 2020, Miyares opposed legislation to increase the minimum wage in Virginia.

In August 2020, he offered HB 5037, a bill that would grant immunity, except in cases of willful misconduct or gross negligence, to public officials and businesses who followed public health measures to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.

In September 2020, Miyares voted against legislation to authorize local governments to remove Confederate monuments on public property.

Election
In May 2021, Miyares was nominated as the Republican candidate for Virginia Attorney General. He ran against Mark Herring, the incumbent Democratic attorney general, who sought a third term in the November 2021 general election. Miyares was selected at the Virginia Republican Party's "unassembled" convention, in which party delegates cast ranked-choice ballots at polling sites across the state. Miyares defeated three other candidates: Leslie Haley, Chuck Smith, and Jack White. In the final round, Miyares defeated Smith, a hard-right candidate, by a closer-than-expected margin of 52% to 48%.

During his campaign against Herring, Miyares emphasized crime issues. He opposed proposals for the elimination of qualified immunity and declined to take a position on what he would do in the controversial police killing of Bijan Ghaisar. In the November 2021 election, Miyares defeated Herring in a tight race, becoming the first Hispanic and Cuban American to be elected Attorney General of Virginia.

Abortion
In January 2022, Miyares withdrew the Virginia AG Office's brief to the Supreme Court, submitted under his predecessor, supporting a challenge to Mississippi's abortion ban of restricting abortion to 15 weeks.

On May 10, 2023, Miyares defended his decision to not join with 22 other Republican state attorneys general when they filed a lawsuit seeking to ban the abortion medication mifepristone, saying he supported the Food and Drug Administration's regulations. Miyares stated he believes in fostering compromise on abortion and supports a 15-week restriction on abortion with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. Miyares does not believe in prosecuting people for abortions with ''Yahoo! News'' writing that he has "sought to stake out a more moderate conservative position on the issue."

COVID-19
In January 2022, Miyares issued an advisory opinion in which he concluded that Virginia's public colleges and universities lacked the power to require students to receive the COVID-19 vaccine before enrolling or taking in-person classes. Such advisory opinions are not binding, although at least two institutions (George Mason University and Virginia Tech) dropped their vaccine requirement after Miyares issued the opinion.

Elections
On February 10, 2022, Miyares' deputy attorney general for government operations and transactions resigned when it was reported that she had spread misinformation about the 2020 election and praised the 2021 United States Capitol attack; in her position, she would have overseen matters related to future elections in Virginia. Miyares himself has affirmed that Joe Biden was legitimately elected president and has condemned the attack on the United States Capitol.

On October 10, 2023, Miyares sent a cease-and-desist letter to a right-wing advocacy group over their misinformation pertaining to the 2023 Virginia elections. Miyares stated, "Misinformation in our elections will not be tolerated in Virginia," and the group conformed to the letter.

On December 29, 2023, Miyares won a case that involved "false and misleading" fliers from being distributed in Virginia elections. Miyares said, "In Virginia, it should be easy to vote and hard to cheat. I’m proud of my Election Integrity Unit for taking action against voter misinformation and intimidation." The fliers falsely attested that "if voters did not cast their ballots they could lose their Social Security income, Medicare eligibility, unemployment benefits, child tax credits, child custody rights, and concealed carry permits."

Environment
On September 13, 2023, Miyares announced an $80 million settlement with Monsanto to ameliorate "the environmental contamination in the Commonwealth, which was caused by Monsanto's distribution of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)." According to the settlement, the "funds will be directed toward restitution and remediation efforts... environmental studies, stream restoration projects, improvements to drinking water and wastewater systems, fisheries management, and land remediation efforts."

Gun violence
In 2022, Miyares started a targeted violence intervention initiative, Operation Ceasefire, to crack down on gun violence through "rigorous prosecution and community prevention" in 13 cities. The initiative was lauded after its first year with Democratic Speaker of the House of Delegates Don Scott allocating $22 million to help fund it for the next two years after overall crime dropped in 12 of the 13 cities and violent crime dropped in 9 of the 13 cities. There were 225 fewer crimes in 2023 than 2022 in the targeted cities with Norfolk seeing a third as many homicides.

Opioids
On April 16, 2024, Miyares announced a $108 million settlement from seven drug manufacturers and retailers for illegally pushing opioids. Miyares praised his Consumer Protection team for negotiating the settlement with Virginia receiving over $1.1 billion in total opioid payouts under his team. According to Miyares, the funds will be used to more "effectively prevent, reduce, and treat addiction at a localized level."

Policing
On September 7, 2023, Miyares reached a settlement with the Town of Windsor, in Isle of Wight County, over its alleged "discriminatory, unconstitutional policing" conduct. Per the settlement, Windsor will have to "submit to an independent third-party review system for use-of-force complaints and other complaints of serious misconduct alleged against any officer." The town police department will also have to "obtain accreditation from the Virginia Law Enforcement Professional Standards Commission, raising the bar on its internal investigation processes and officer training." Jonathan Arthur, the attorney for Caron Nazario, a Black United States Army lieutenant, whose interaction with the Windsor police department prompted the investigation into its alleged discriminatory behavior, praised the settlement in an interview with WVEC. Miyares said that "excessive use of force and violations of constitutional liberties will not be tolerated in Virginia."

Reentry services
On April 4, 2024, Miyares started a job fair program aimed at connecting "previously incarcerated individuals" to employers who had available job openings and were ready to hire former inmates. Miyares said that his conversations with incarcerated individuals at state prisons spurred his push for expanding job fairs, "The number one thing I kept hearing from these gentlemen was, ‘I made some bad choices in my life, but I’m ready to turn my life around.’ The number one anxiety was, ‘Can I find work?"

Retail theft
In 2022, Miyares was directed by the Virginia General Assembly to study retail theft. A report commissioned by Miyares found that $1.3 billion of retail goods were being stolen annually in Virginia, resulting in $80 million less in state sales tax revenue per annum. The report led to Virginia passing a law in 2023 to raise the penalties for organized retail theft, defined as "steal[ing] retail merchandise with a value exceeding $5,000 in a 90-day period, with the intent to sell the stolen goods for profit", from a misdemeanor to a felony.

Staffing
Upon taking office in January 2022, Miyares fired 17 attorneys, and 13 other employees, in the Virginia AG's Office and the counsels for George Mason University (GMU) and the University of Virginia. After the firings, Miyares hired former Commonwealth's Attorney for Arlington County and Falls Church City Theo Stamos, a moderate Democrat, to lead the conviction integrity unit.

Tolls
In January 2024, Loudoun County Supervisor Matt Letourneau and Miyares wrote to the State Corporation Commission on their opposition to increased tolls on State Route 267 (the Dulles Toll Road and Dulles Greenway in Loudoun and Fairfax counties). The proposal would increase tolls from $5.25 to $6.40 (22%) for one way trips during regular hours and $5.80 to $8.10 (40%) for one way trips during peak hours with Miyares calling the proposed hikes an "unreasonable financial burden" for commuters.

Personal life
Miyares and his wife, Page (Atkinson) Miyares, have three daughters and live in Virginia Beach, Virginia. His father-in-law, John Atkinson, was formerly treasurer of Virginia Beach. Miyares is a member of the Galilee Episcopal Church and a past President of the Cape Henry Rotary, where he was a Paul Harris Fellow.