by Brandon Jarvis
RICHMOND — Attorney General Jason Miyares argues that Virginia is safer today than it was when he took office, pointing to declines in murder and overdose rates as the centerpiece of his reelection pitch to voters.
In an interview with Virginia Scope, Miyares cited what he called a “remarkable turnaround” in public safety, touting the results of his office’s work on violent crime, fentanyl enforcement, and consumer protection. “There are more Virginians alive today than when I took office because of what we’ve done,” he said.
Miyares defeated two-term incumbent Mark Herring in 2021. Democrats held control of all three statewide offices for the eight years prior.
As he runs for a second term, Miyares is drawing a sharp contrast with the Democratic administration that preceded him, presenting his first four years as a shift in direction on public safety. He frequently points to declines in violent crime and drug overdose deaths as evidence that his policies are working, while warning that those gains could be reversed if Democrats win in November.
His claims, especially on crime and drug policy, come at a time when homicide rates are in fact falling in several Virginia cities — including Virginia Beach, Richmond, and Newport News.
Read Virginia Scope’s interview with Miyares below:
VS: What do you see as your most significant accomplishments during your first term as attorney general?
Miyares: “I’d like to say that my entire mission as attorney general is being the people’s protector, and that Virginians’ safety has been my mission from day one. And in my opinion, when we came in, where Virginia was and where we are today, it’s remarkable. When we came in, Virginia had a murder rate at a 20-year high. Our addiction death rate was at a 30-year+ high. We were hurting. Law enforcement morale was low. We were seeing a record number of officers who were just quitting and leaving the force, and we were seeing a lot of Virginians living in fear. We had unacceptable levels of violence in too many of our cities. The people’s protector is something we have taken seriously from day one, but protecting Virginians from criminal actors, from fentanyl dealers, but also consumer protection, has been a huge victory in our office. And also the small things — [Democrats] had decided to stop doing child support enforcement. That’s one of the divisions in our office, but because they think in the name of equity, it wasn’t fair to do child support enforcement. And I remember distinctly my first week in the office meeting with those individuals, and I was incredulous by the fact that they were not enforcing child support. These are indigent women, mostly overwhelmingly women, that were showing up to court with their own attorney and the attorney general’s office nolle prossed (abandoned or dismissed) their case. So by every single objective measure, we have made Virginia safer and more prosperous. We went from having a 20-year high in the murder rate to now it’s dropped by a third. And in our 13 targeted ceasefire cities, the murder rates dropped 66%. We went from having a record level of addiction deaths to the top state in the entire country in reduction of addiction deaths — 48% reduction in fentanyl deaths, over 40% reduction in overdoses overall — and the national average is in the 20s. It is a remarkable turnaround. Virginians are safer today than when I took office. There’s more Virginians alive today than when I took office because of what we’ve done, going after fentanyl, fentanyl dealers and obviously our public service campaign—One Pill Can Kill—we’ve gotten over $1.2 billion+ of settlements in our opioid lawsuits. It’s the largest infusion of money to local governments for addiction or addiction recovery in Virginia’s history. We’ve gotten the largest housing discrimination settlement in the attorney general’s office history in our civil rights division. So whether it’s civil rights, whether it’s consumer protection, whether it’s in major crimes, by every objective standard, we as a people’s protector have been meeting our mission, and that has been something I’ve taken seriously from day one.”
Editor Notes:
- Preliminary data from the Virginia Department of Health shows that in 2024, there were 1,396 drug overdose deaths among Virginia residents, a 43% decrease from 2023. Drug overdose deaths peaked in 2021 at 2,622 deaths
- In early 2022, Miyares’ office announced it had found around 1,000 child support cases dismissed by state attorneys at the request of the Division of Child Support Enforcement in late 2021. However, there’s no public documentation showing the prior administration cited equity as the reason for this practice.
- Murder rates did decrease in localities across Virginia in 2024
- Virginia Beach: The city experienced a 46% drop in homicides, decreasing from 24 in 2023 to 13 in 2024. This marks the lowest number of homicides in five years. News 3 WTKR Norfolk
- Richmond: Homicides fell by 18%, with 53 murders reported in 2024—the lowest since 2018 and below the city’s 10-year average of 60 per year. The Richmonder
- Hampton: The city saw a 44% decrease in homicides, from 27 in 2023 to 15 in 2024. News 3 WTKR Norfolk+1
- Newport News: Homicides dropped by approximately 52%, from 48 in 2023 to 23 in 2024.
- Norfolk: The city reported a 17% decrease in homicides, from 42 in 2023 to 35 in 2024. News 3 WTKR Norfolk
- Petersburg: Homicides were halved, declining from 23 in 2023 to 11 in 2024. CBS 6 News Richmond WTVR
“The fact that we’re leading the country shows you we are doing something right.”
VS: Take me into the weeds on your efforts on fentanyl enforcement and work to lower overdoses
Miyares: “We looked at this as an issue with supply and demand. The Sinaloa Cartel is the single most dangerous criminal enterprise the world has ever seen. ISIS, at its peak, was generating revenue of $1 to $2 billion a year. The Sinaloa, on average, can generate roughly $39 to $40 billion. And that’s being conservative. They have the resources of a nation-state actor. It’s remarkable. They are ruthless. They practice a form of vertical integration that is shockingly brutal. They were coming into Virginia because, at the time, Virginia was undermanned, underserved and candidly in an attorney general’s office that had lost its priority of public safety. We reversed that and got really focused with the Bureau of General Investigations at the state police. Obviously with the governor’s office too, through Secretary Cole, we recovered enough fentanyl off our streets to kill every Virginian five times over. We launched Operation Ceasefire, which specifically targeted not just gun violence, but also fentanyl dealers, because so much of the gun violence in Virginia has to do with turf battles over narcotics distribution. The reality is that roughly 5% of felons are committing over 50% of the violent crime. That is consistent across multiple studies. So as a result, if you want to lower violent crime, you have to go after those that are perpetuating the violent crime, and so much of that is drugs. So we went after the dealers. Every community through confidential informants knows who the bad players are. The biggest problem you have, oftentimes, is a lack of will to get stuff done. And so we got funding from the General Assembly and assistant AGs—a lot of them— brought these cases in federal court. We cross-designated them with the US Attorney’s Office, because in some of these areas, they have local prosecutors that don’t prosecute — whether it’s in Norfolk or Portsmouth — you could pick the locality. So we went after this small subset of repeat offenders. We got these dealers off the street. Also, a huge component of this was information. The best way to fight bad information is with good information, right? So launching One Pill Could Kill, we worked with the First Lady and what we saw is a remarkable turnaround with the number of young people. Whereas, when we came into office, people did not understand what fentanyl even was. They didn’t know that 75% of the illicit pills on the street had fentanyl in them, and part of our job was doing public safety town halls at different high schools talking to parents. We would tell them, ‘your child is never going to be offered fentanyl at school or at a party or sleep over or on the bus. They’re going to be offered a Xanax. They’re going to be offered a Percocet.’ The most tragic story I heard was a family in Northern Virginia where their child, who had never experimented at all, was worried about a final exam and had decided they needed to take Adderall. So classmates said, ‘we can get Adderall on Snapchat.’ The parents were downstairs watching a movie, the doorbell rings, their son says, ‘Oh, I ordered something off DoorDash’ but it was actually the dealer dropping it off at the door. They found him overdosed in his room. Those type of stories that haunt you as AG. We decided we have to get that information out. And I think that combination — the disruption meeting the supply and demand side, the good information side, I think, has led to some remarkable results. And we’re incredibly proud. When you meet with a family that has lost a child, the one thing you so often hear from a parent is, ‘I wish I had known. I just wish I had known.’ So a big part of what we’ve done is raise awareness, because the single biggest influence on a child is actually their parent. And I have three teenagers, so I know how you sometimes don’t think teenagers listen to you, but you are still their biggest influence. If you can have that conversation with your son or daughter: ‘Don’t ever take anything unless it comes from your mom or dad or directly from our pharmacy. I don’t care what they claim it is. I don’t care if it’s in aspirin.’ The governor has also been an incredible partner on this. This is something we talked about when we campaigned together — about just how many people in Virginia were dying from addiction. And it’s really satisfying to see these numbers drop the way they are. The fact that we’re leading the country shows you we’re doing something right.”
Editor Note:
- The CDC’s most recent report shows a 24% drop in overdose deaths nationwide.
VS: Historically, Virginia elects statewide officials who are opposite of the party in the White House. With Republicans winning the presidential election last year, what can Republicans do to try and counter that trend this year?
Miyares: “I think, first of all, Virginia is not a red state or a blue state, it’s a common sense state. That’s always how I have viewed Virginia. And I think the great argument for us, from our perspective to Virginia voters, is reminding them of where Virginia was in 2021 versus the Virginia today. Virginia in 2021, our schools were closed, Virginia in 21, we saw 20 years of gains in African American and Latino test scores wiped out almost overnight because our schools were closed for 18 months. We saw that parents were marginalized and ignored. We saw violent crime rate at a 20-year high, addiction death rate again at a 30-year high. And probably the most telling statistic is back in 2021 for the first time since Calvin Coolidge was president. You had four straight years of more Virginians moving out of the state and moving into the state. They were voting with their feet. They were telling you it was an indictment on the failed leadership of what we had. And then Governor Youngkin and Winsome and I came in, and we conducted what I would argue, is the Virginia Renaissance. We have the largest labor force participation rate in Virginia history. In the last 36 months, $100 billion in new investment. Virginia being named the best state in the country to do business. We’ve seen a remarkable, remarkable turnout, the largest drop in addiction deaths of any state in the country, dropping down our 20 year high in the murder rate. More businesses and more people now are moving into Virginia than moving away, which I think is an amazing statement. And poll after poll shows, when you ask Virginians if Virginia is heading in the right direction, they say yes, because they look at this great leadership from this governor and his record, and they’re saying, ‘Yes, this is the type of common-sense leadership that we want.’ That’s why Winsome is running to pick up the mantle from Governor Youngkin, and I’m asking Virginians to rehire me to continue to protect them.”
Editor Notes:
- Approximately 276,161 people moved to Virginia in 2023, while 253,240 moved out. This represents a positive net migration of 22,921 residents.
“I think it’s a remarkable record that the fantastic team at OAG has been able to accomplish for Virginians.”
VS: What feels different about this election cycle compared to 2021?
“I remember when I was running in 2021 and I was the little engine that could. We had a statewide staff of maybe four or five people and we were talking about what we wanted to do. Now I get to say this is what I promised you I was going to do— promises made, and now it’s promises delivered. I said I was going to hold some of the biggest pharmaceutical companies accountable, and we’ve gotten record settlements. I said I was going to attack our unacceptable levels of violence, and we’ve lowered our addiction deaths and our violent crime rate. So now we get to argue what we have done protecting Virginians, and I think it’s a remarkable record that the fantastic team at OAG has been able to accomplish for Virginians.”
VS: What criticisms of your administration do you think are unfair, and what is your response to the Democrats who keep saying you need to stand up to the President?
Miyares: “I think it tells me they fundamentally don’t understand what this office is. This office, again, is who wears that badge. It’s not a partisan tool to score political points. I feel like they should be running for U.S. Senate or Congress if they want to engage in what’s happening on Capitol Hill. But your job is the safety of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. You have to work with the state police on almost a daily basis. You’re working with prosecutors from all over the state on a regular daily basis — and I would argue that it tells me they don’t understand the mission of this office. The mission of this office is protecting Virginians. Period, full stop.”
VS: In a world where the Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger wins, and you win, how would you envision that dynamic?
Miyares: “First of all, Winsome Sears is going to be our next governor. But if you look at my record as a legislator, I’ve always been able to work where I can find areas of agreement, and that’s how I operate. But I really look forward to working with Governor Winsome Sears.”
VS: What do you think of your Democratic challengers, Shannon Taylor and Jay Jones?
Miyares: “I think they should be running for attorney general in California. I think both of them have shown they’re not serious candidates who do not understand the role of this office. You have one candidate who championed cashless bail and literally carried the bill to end qualified immunity for police officers who risk their lives every day, not for politicians, not for anybody else in government, but for those who, every day have to put on a bulletproof vest to go to work. That’s de facto defunding of police. And you have another individual who is a proud member of the progressive prosecutor network, which, in every place or locality that has had that, you’ve had victims ignored, victims put on the sidelines and not paid attention to. So I think they would be great candidates in California, I don’t think, in a common-sense state like Virginia, once they see their records, they’re going to take them seriously, to put them in the role and to wear that badge.”
“Now I get the joy of spending the next six months asking them to rehire me to continue to protect them.”
In the final stretch, Miyares is betting his record will resonate — and he’s ready to make his case to Virginians.
“Every day, as your attorney general, I go to bed at night thinking, and I wake up in the morning, how am I going to keep Virginians safe and be the people’s protector. And what I’ve said is, at the end of the day, despite all this conversation, it’s about who wears that badge. I put that in my pocket every day, and I’m mindful of the fact that many refer to me as Virginia’s top cop. I have to work with law enforcement every day. It’s the honor of my life. But you have to have somebody as an attorney general who is going to take your family’s safety as their number one priority. That’s something I feel like I’ve done since day one. I think the results speak for themselves. I’m really confident that our record is one that Virginians appreciate. And so now I get the joy of spending the next six months asking them to rehire me to continue to protect them.”
*This interview was slightly edited for clarity.