Photo via Jason Miyares on X.
It’s every man for himself in the Virginia elections Tuesday, as one GOP statewide candidate shoved his fellow Republican under the bus in social media posts openly promoting split-ticket voting.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is running for re-election and polling much more favorably than the Republican at the top of the ticket, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.
Glenn Youngkin, the current governor, is term-limited, leaving an open seat that was surprisingly barely contested on the GOP side. Earle-Sears initially had two primary challengers, but neither of them managed to collect the required petition signatures, and she advanced to the general election unopposed.
Virginia Republicans may be regretting that now, as Earle-Sears flounders in the polls, trailing her Democratic opponent, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), by double digits for months and doubling her fundraising. Spanberger, who had a track record as a moderate in Congress, has trounced Earle-Sears in fundraising and picked up endorsements that went to Youngkin last time around.
In contrast, Miyares is running a much closer race against his Democratic opponent Jay Jones, a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates. Jones has also been dragged down by text messages he sent to another Virginia legislator in which he made offensive comments, including fantasizing about murdering the former Speaker of Virginia’s House of Delegates and watching his children die.
President Donald Trump headlined a tele-rally call for the Virginia Republicans last week, but notably still has not endorsed Earle-Sears.
Tuesday, Miyares posted a short video on his social media accounts showing him talking with a voter named Dave.
“Dave’s splitting his ticket,” the caption said. “You can too.”
In the video, Miyares is outside a voting precinct and says he’s been talking to voters, including Dave, “who’s splitting his ticket.”
“I voted already — early voting,” says Dave. “I voted for Spanberger for governor. I voted for you for attorney general.”
“Appreciate it,” says Miyares.
Explaining that he felt “this is not a time” to vote “straight down the ticket,” Dave tells Miyares he thinks he’ll “continue to be a good representative for us in the state [government] and we appreciate you.”
“Thank you, thank you, God bless you,” Miyares replies.
Miyares also posted the video on his Instagram page.
