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Nov 3, 2021 · Republican Del. Jason S. Miyares has upset a two-term Democratic incumbent to become Virginia’s next attorney general, making him the first Latino elected to the office in the history of the...
- Overview
- Latinos gave Democrats strong support
Republican Jason Miyares, the son of a Cuban refugee, defeated the Democratic incumbent to become Virginia's first Latino attorney general and the first Hispanic elected statewide.
Miyares was officially declared the winner on Wednesday afternoon by NBC News after a very tight race.
Miyares had rooted his campaign in his mother’s flight from Cuba in 1965, saying often on the campaign trail that it was where his story started.
He congratulated his mom in a victory statement late Tuesday night. "Mom, you did well." She arrived from Cuba 56 years ago "with nothing but a dream, a dream for a better life for her family," he said.
"Now I stand here today — elected to be the attorney general of the Commonwealth of Virginia," Miyares said, referring to himself as the "first-ever son of an immigrant and the first Latino elected statewide in the Commonwealth's history."
With the win, Miyares, a Virginia House delegate and former prosecutor, denied Democrat Attorney General Mark Herring a third term.
Despite Ayala’s loss, the large majority of Latinos supported the Democratic candidates, according to NBC News exit poll numbers.
Sixty-six percent of Latinos voted for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, while 32 percent voted for Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin, who won the race.
Latinos made up 5 percent of the state’s electorate. Almost half (48 percent) of Virginia Latinos identified as Democrat, 18 percent as Republican and 34 percent as Independent.
According to the NBC News Exit Poll, 32 percent of Latinos in the state voted for Miyares, while 67 percent voted for Herring.
Miyares has said in many interviews and on the campaign trail that his mother fled Cuba when she was 19, after seeing her brother taken from their home by security forces and then subjected to a mock execution. Miyares also said his father left the family when he was a teenager.
"My mother fled Cuba in October of 1965," Miyares told a crowd in October, The Washington Post reported. "And almost 50 years to the day she left she was able to go in the voting booth and get a ballot and vote for me to represent her in the oldest democracy in the Western hemisphere."
Nov 4, 2021 · Miyares, who is currently a delegate in the General Assembly representing Virginia's 82nd District, is the first Latino elected statewide, not just as attorney general, but to any office in...
- Rebecca Downs
Nov 3, 2021 · Republican Jason Miyares on Tuesday defeated Virginia's Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring. Miyares, a current state lawmaker and ex-prosecutor, is the state's first Latino...
- Henry Blodget
Nov 3, 2021 · In the attorney general’s race, Republican Jason Miyares, the son of a Cuban immigrant, defeated the Democratic incumbent, Mark Herring, who was running for a third term. Both Ayala and Herring...
Nov 3, 2021 · Republican Del. Jason Miyares scored a major victory in Virginia’s attorney general race, defeating incumbent Attorney General Mark Herring (D). The Associated Press called the race for Miyares...
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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. [9] He was the first Cuban American elected to the Virginia General Assembly. [3]
