An all-star cast gathered last week at the 7 Dogs Brewpub in Wytheville to rally local Republicans to vote “no” in the upcoming special election on redistricting. There were two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, two General Assembly members, two former statewide officials and a lengthy slate of local officials from both Wythe County and surrounding counties.
Before the event began, most of the dignitaries were gathered in the back, chatting amongst themselves.
Not Jason Miyares, though.
The former attorney general was working the room, taking time to shake hands and speak with the 50-plus people there.
It’s almost as if Miyares was campaigning for something other than a “no” vote.
While Miyares lost his reelection bid last November to Democrat Jay Jones, Miyares is the rare candidate who came out of a defeat not being blamed for losing. In what was a bad year for Republicans, Miyares, who was at the bottom of the ticket, won more votes than the party’s gubernatorial candidate at the top of the ticket. An election loss can end some political careers; that does not appear to be the case with Miyares.
Miyares, when asked about this, says all the usual things you’d expect him to say about how right now he’s focused on defeating the proposed constitutional amendment on redistricting in the April 21 election. However, it’s not lost on anyone that a day before Miyares left office in January, he posted a video to his social media accounts in which he listed what he considered his major accomplishments during his four years as attorney general and then vowed: “I believe in Virginia and in our future. I’m not going anywhere. Because without a setback, there can be no comeback!”
It’s a video he still has pinned to the top of his social media accounts and a line he repeated when I asked him about his plans during a brief interview in Wytheville. There’s really no doubt, though: Miyares is running for governor in 2029.
More accurately, he’s running for the Republican nomination for governor in 2029. There’s persistent chatter that former Gov. Glenn Youngkin — who is clearly itching to do something — will seek the governorship again, as well. Youngkin seemed to quell that talk with his appearance in Wytheville, telling journalists that he had “no plans” to run again, although plans can always change. Perhaps more significantly, he said by 2029, “there’s going to be a whole other generation of Republicans ready to lead.”
Still, Rep. Morgan Griffith, unprompted, told the audience of Republicans in Wytheville that he is so supportive of Youngkin that “anything he wants to run for, he has my support.”
Even if Youngkin decides he doesn’t want or need a sequel as Virginia governor, there will be others interested in the Republican nomination. If the redistricting amendment passes, four Republican House members could be out of work. Three of those four previously served in state government, and the fourth, Rob Wittman from the 1st District, has previously expressed interest in the governorship.
For that matter, Democratic names are already being talked about, too. Democrats now have both a lieutenant governor (Ghazala Hashmi) and an attorney general (Jay Jones); if someone gets to one of those positions, there’s always the unspoken (and sometimes spoken) assumption that they’ll run for governor. Meanwhile, House Speaker Don Scott has let it be known that he might see himself as a future governor, too.
It’s far too early to speculate about who might have the advantage — for one thing, the presidential election of 2028 will set the tone for whatever the political mood in Virginia might be in 2029. Virginia historically elects a governor from the opposite party of the president, so Virginia Republicans might need to hope that Democrats win the presidency in 2028, while Democrats will want to hope that changing demographics put those trends in the rearview mirror.
Because Virginia term-limits its governors, campaigns for the next election often begin early. In this case, it might have begun before last year’s election. I had a Lynchburg Democrat call me then to offer the assessment that Jones was well ahead in a potential Jones-Hashmi contest in 2029 because Jones had made numerous visits to the Hill City in the 2025 campaign while Hashmi had not.
Those of us who are involved in Virginia politics — either as partisans or observers — love to peer into the future, even though we know it’s as changeable as the weather.
In Miyares’ case, the next campaign appears to have begun the day before Abigail Spanberger took office when he posted his video that’s the political equivalent of “I’ll be back.” A few hours after the inauguration, Miyares posted a “thank you” to Virginians that repeated the “I’m not going anywhere” line.
The next day, Sunday, Jan. 17, Miyares posted his first criticism of the new administration, specifically Spanberger’s repeal of a Youngkin executive order that required state law enforcement to work with federal immigration authorities. “This is a disaster for the public safety of the Commonwealth,” Miyares posted. “Mark my words, there will be Virginians who will be robbed, raped and murdered as a result of this anti public safety executive order. No one should be surprised.”
Ever since then, Miyares has kept up a regular drumbeat of commentary and criticism of the Spanberger administration and the Democratic majority in the General Assembly. Much of this has been delivered with a sense of humor, although Democrats may not see the same humor that Miyares does.
On some of the Democratic bills that Republicans found objectionable:
Jeez, gone for five minutes and the kids immediately trash the house and set the kitchen on fire……
On a report that a Fairfax County prosecutor reduced criminal charges against a man because he wasn’t in the country legally, only to have him charged with murder:
“I’ll take the consequences of leftist policies for $500, Alex.”
On Spanberger touting “affordability” after returning Virginia to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which Republicans contend is a tax increase in disguise:
Literally your first week in office was to place a HALF BILLION dollar carbon tax on every Virginian’s electric bill. Don’t paint a horse and call it a zebra.
To be fair (and even balanced!), Miyares doesn’t just talk politics online. He also serves up some pretty good nonpartisan lines about three of his passions — sports, movies and Cuba, the nation his mother fled once Fidel Castro took over. His views on those, however, while often funny and insightful, aren’t necessarily noteworthy — or newsworthy. However, it’s clear that Miyares sees a political future — and others see one for him. His name has come up as a potential Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate and U.S. attorney general, although it’s unclear how seriously to take the latter mention. Both of those options seem like no-win scenarios. It’s also notable that Miyares has given scant attention to the candidate who defeated him; instead, his criticism has been directed at the governor, or Democrats more broadly.
Against that backdrop, the special election on redistricting amendment seems something of a godsend for Miyares because it’s given him an opportunity to get back out on the campaign trail and become the face of the “no” campaign for many Republican voters. Miyares co-chairs the main “vote no” group — Virginians for Fair Maps (former Rep. Eric Cantor is the other co-chair) — but Miyares is the one out stumping across the state. Miyares, who lives in Virginia Beach, recently joined a Washington, D.C., law firm but says he spends several days a week out campaigning on behalf of the “no” side, with the vast majority of those appearances coming in Republican-voting parts of the state where the party needs a big turnout.
Last Monday, Miyares started in Yorktown and made stops in Providence Forge, Tappahannock, Bowling Green and Fredericksburg. On Friday, he was in Southwest Virginia with appearances in Wise, Wytheville and Fairlawn. On Saturday, it was on to Lynchburg and Bridgewater. For those Friday and Saturday events, he wasn’t the headliner — Youngkin was at most of them, with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson being the Republican star in Bridgewater.
Still, redistricting gives Miyares a chance to put himself back in front of Republican voters and leave a favorable impression, even if their side loses in the special election. Remember what Youngkin said about a “new generation” stepping forward for 2029? He went on to cite Miyares by name. “Jason Miyares is a rock star,” Youngkin said. “He is leading all across the state on this effort.”
I don’t know how the redistricting vote will go. I’m not confident enough to predict the outcome of an election that’s days away. I certainly don’t feel confident enough to say what the politics of the state will look like years away. There is one thing, though, that I know for certain: Parties out of power often feel in a funk and will rally behind one of their own who stands up to take the fight to the other side. Nationally, look at how quickly California Gov. Gavin Newsom has risen in the eyes of Democrats for his social media campaign against Trump. For Republicans in Virginia, the equivalent might be Miyares.
For more on Virginia politics …
This is the last week of early voting before next Tuesday’s special election on redistricting. You can find the maps in our Voter Guide.
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