Virginia Attorney General election, 2021 (June 8 Democratic primary)

• Building Safer, Stronger Communities For All Virginians

Attorney General Mark R. Herring is working every day to promote safe, successful communities in every corner of the Commonwealth, where justice, equality, and opportunity are guaranteed for all Virginians. He has advocated for substantial reforms to address disparities and inequities throughout the criminal justice system including cash bail reform, expanding opportunities for record expungement, growing Virginia’s reentry programs, and ensuring accountability and transparency in policing. He has also become the leader on marijuana reform in Virginia by calling for decriminalization, which passed during the 2020 legislative session, and continuing the fight for full legalization.

Attorney General Herring has brought together law enforcement, community leaders, the faith community, and others to find common ground, identify solutions, and ensure the safety of our communities and the equal and fair treatment of all our citizens. He and his team led an ambitious 21st century policing training initiative that helped hundreds of officers receive training on critical skills like implicit bias control, de-escalation, and crisis intervention training. He has also advocated for policing reforms that will reduce brutality and abuses of power by law enforcement, increase transparency, accountability, justice, and equality. These include enabling the Attorney General to conduct “patterns or practice” investigations; making it easier to remove bad officers from the law enforcement profession; creating a “duty to intervene” for law enforcement officers; modernizing, standardizing, and elevating the rigor of police training; among others.

Attorney General Herring is leading the way in transforming how Virginia works to prevent and responds to sexual and domestic violence. He eliminated Virginia’s backlog of 2,665 untested rape kits, as part of a $3.4 million project, that resulted in 851 new profiles added to the national DNA database, 354 “hits” sent back to localities for review, and at least 2 charges, with more anticipated. He chaired Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s Task Force on Combating Campus Sexual Violence, which helped make Virginia a national leader on the issue. He has helped implement Lethality Assessment Protocol, an innovative tool to prevent domestic violence and homicide, in dozens of communities around the Commonwealth.

Attorney General Herring has been recognized as one of Virginia’s foremost authorities in responding to the heroin and opioid crisis that continues to affect so many families in Virginia and around the country. He has relentlessly pursued a comprehensive strategy that emphasizes education, prevention, and treatment alongside enforcement and cracking down on dealers and traffickers who profit off addiction and threaten Virginians’ lives. He has also gone after opioid manufacturers and distributors for their role in creating and prolonging the opioid crisis by putting profits over human lives. He and his team have prosecuted more than 75 cases against heroin dealers and traffickers involving more than 375 pounds of heroin and fentanyl, which is about 1.69 million doses worth about $17 million on the streets.

Even in the NRA’s home state, Attorney General Herring has stood up to the gun lobby and has defended Virginia’s new gun safety measures in court, like the proven-effective one-handgun-a-month law and Virginia’s expanded background checks. He has built a record of achievement in reducing gun violence, prosecuting more than 100 cases involving illegal guns and gun violence. He has also led effective projects to reduce gun violence using public health and violence interruption models.

• Combating the Heroin and Opioid Epidemic

Attorney General Herring has been recognized as one of Virginia’s foremost authorities in responding to the heroin and opioid crisis that is touching so many families in Virginia and around the country. Because he understands that we can’t just arrest our way out of this problem, he has relentlessly pursued a comprehensive strategy that emphasizes education, prevention, and treatment alongside enforcement against dealers and traffickers who profit off addiction.

Attorney General Herring launched an unprecedented five-point plan to address the crisis which includes legislation, education, prevention, enforcement, and collaboration. He was recognized with the “Bronze Key Award” from the McShin Foundation for his commitment and effectiveness in addressing substance abuse.

Attorney General Herring and his team have been relentless in cracking down on the dealers and traffickers who profit off addiction and threaten Virginians’ lives. He and his team have prosecuted more than 75 cases against heroin dealers and traffickers involving more than 375 pounds of heroin and fentanyl, which is about 1.69 million doses worth about $17 million on the streets.

Because education and prevention are key to solving the problem, Attorney General Herring created “Heroin: The Hardest Hit,” an award-winning documentary and a companion website www.HardestHitVA.com which serves as a one-stop shop for education and prevention materials. The film is now mandatory viewing in health education classes around the state, and the office is even educating middle schoolers on the dangers of heroin and prescription drug abuse.

The General Assembly passed two lifesaving pieces of legislation brought forward by Attorney General Herring, one to make Naloxone, a lifesaving overdose reversal drug, available without a prescription and available to all law enforcement officers and first responders, and one to create the state’s first “Good Samaritan” safe reporting law to encourage people in the presence of an overdose to call 911. Those two measures have saved thousands of lives since their enactment. This year, he helped expand Naloxone access to community organizations and nonprofits.

Attorney General Herring secured the donation of more than 80,000 drug disposal kits to get unused prescriptions out of medicine cabinets before they can be abused. He has partnered with the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District to create the Hampton Roads Heroin Work Group, and he and his team are active members of multiple heroin task forces around the state.

• Keeping Our Children Safe

Attorney General Mark R. Herring recognizes that nothing is more important than the safety of our children. That’s why he has made Virginia a national leader in the use of innovative technology to protect children and catch perpetrators, and led a bipartisan effort to expand the reach of Virginia’s efforts. He and his team have helped put hundreds of child predators behind bars through aggressive prosecutions and digital forensics work.

Attorney General Herring and his team have worked more than 250 cases against child predators, secured jail sentences of more than 500 years, and examined more than 2,000 computers, phones, and other devices in 400 different cases. He made the services of the office more readily available and accessible to state and local law enforcement agencies and invested in a mobile computer forensics lab so technicians can analyze child pornography at the scene of the crime.

Attorney General Herring’s Office has invested in cutting edge technology that makes it easier for investigators to identify child victims and rescue them from dangerous situations. Virginia is one of only about 5 states to utilize this powerful technology, which has led to additional arrests, more than 4,000 pieces of evidence, more than 1,000 tips, and more than 200 active investigations.

Attorney General Herring has partnered with South Dakota Republican Attorney General Marty Jackley to launch the bipartisan Campaign for Child Rescue, a joint effort by child welfare advocates, law enforcement agencies, and the high-tech sector to promote new technology to make investigations easier, to build stronger cases, and to identify and rescue children from dangerous situations.

Attorney General Herring and his team have been integral to high-profile child pornography and child exploitation prosecutions including a cross-country child sex ring, a former youth hockey coach in Northern Virginia, and a former school teacher in the Richmond area.

• Reducing Gun Violence

Attorney General Herring has stood up to the gun lobby and a legislature that is beholden to it. He has built a record of combating gun violence and has taken strong stands in favor of common sense gun safety measures.

Attorney General Herring has assembled a team of prosecutors to crack down on felons with firearms and gun runners. He and his team prosecuted more than 100 gun crimes, including violent crimes, in both state and federal court.

Attorney General Herring has formed strong working relationships with law enforcement partners, especially in Washington, DC and Maryland, as well as building relationships with local, state, federal, and interstate law enforcement partners.

To address domestic homicide using a gun, Attorney General Herring has built a comprehensive program for training law enforcement and members of Virginia communities in the use of Lethality Assessment Protocol to save lives.

To crack down on gun running out of Virginia, he has fought for the reinstatement of Virginia’s “one handgun a month” law and mandatory background checks on all gun sales including those at gun shows.

Attorney General Herring has worked with the Virginia faith community to demand gun manufacturers implement gun safety technology and joined with the Attorneys General of Washington D.C. and Maryland to write a letter to those manufacturers requesting information on their safety measures.

• Protecting Our Environment

Attorney General Mark R. Herring has fought for clean air and water, open spaces, clean energy, and to hold polluters accountable. He has been a consistent voice for progress in developing clean energy and addressing climate change because of Virginia’s unique vulnerability to climate change and sea level rise.

In 2016, Attorney General Herring secured the largest environmental damages settlement in Virginia history. He has also brought successful enforcement actions against polluters who damage Virginia waterways.

He has made Virginia the first Chesapeake Bay state to successfully defend the Bay cleanup plan in court against a legal attack by out-of-state special interests and attorneys general from states as far away as Alaska.

As part of the “Green 20,” Attorney General Herring is working with a group of his fellow attorneys general who have committed to address climate change, protect progress made in recent years, and promote cleaner energy. Attorney General Herring is defending President Obama’s Clean Power Plan in court because it is an ambitious, achievable, and lawful roadmap for enjoying the health, environmental, and economic benefits of cleaner air. He has opposed the Trump Administration’s attempts to withdraw the Clean Power Plan and kill pending litigation regarding its lawfulness.

In official opinions, Attorney General Herring has clarified and confirmed the ability of the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and the authority of local governments to regulate “fracking.” Working with then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Attorney General Herring has helped grow solar, wind, and renewable energy sectors in Virginia, including new solar projects that will power state government facilities.

Attorney General Herring fought in court to defend Virginia’s conservation easement tax credit program, and spoke out strongly in opposition to President Trump’s proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and Chesapeake Bay Program.

• Defending Women’s Rights

Attorney General Mark R. Herring has been an unwavering advocate for Virginia women on issues of economic fairness, reproductive justice, and more. Along with Governors Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam, he has been a brick wall against Republican attacks on a woman’s reproductive freedom, and has fought in court to defend a woman’s access to comprehensive healthcare services including abortion and birth control. In his own office, he has taken unprecedented steps to elevate women in leadership positions, build an inclusive workforce, and promote pay equity.

Attorney General Herring reversed dangerous and incorrect legal advice from his predecessor that had closed at least one women’s health clinic and threatened the closure of more through medically unnecessary and intentionally burdensome regulations. Because of his correct legal advice in what the Washington Post called “a watertight official legal opinion,” the Virginia Board of Health protected women’s health clinics from expensive and medically unnecessary retrofits that would have closed many Virginia clinics that offer abortion services.

Attorney General Herring successfully fought alongside his colleagues in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt to strike down Texas’s onerous, medically unnecessary targeted regulations of abortion providers (TRAP).

He also led a multi state coalition defending access to healthcare on the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

• Fighting for Justice and Equality for all Virginians

Promoting Diversity
Attorney General Mark R. Herring believes our Commonwealth’s diversity is one of its greatest strengths. He has had a front row seat as his home county of Loudoun has transformed itself and become more economically dynamic as it became more diverse and welcoming. He understands that immigration has been a source of economic and cultural benefit for Virginia for more than 400 years and is working each and every day to make sure that new Virginians are welcome here.

Attorney General Herring has been an outspoken advocate for minority communities, launching www.NoHateVA.com as a resource and seeking additional tools to protect those who are vulnerable from hate crimes and to hold perpetrators accountable.

Attorney General Herring was a national leader in fighting former President Trump’s unconstitutional Muslim ban, successfully arguing that the ban was unconstitutional and based on religious bigotry and winning the nation’s first preliminary injunction against the ban.

In 2014, Attorney General Herring determined that Virginia DREAMers who were protected by DACA could qualify for in-state tuition and pursue an affordable education in their home state. Since then, hundreds of Virginia students have been able to pursue an affordable education in their home state.

Attorney General Herring is working to strengthen the relationships between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve, especially in communities of color, by providing additional training on 21st century policing skills like implicit bias, helping departments recruit more diverse officers, and encouraging positive interactions between officers and young people.

And he has worked to build a world class team of lawyers that reflects the diversity of the people they serve, including appointing the first African-American woman to serve as Chief Deputy Attorney General of Virginia.

Fighting For Equality
Just 12 days into his term, Attorney General Mark R. Herring took the historic step of joining the fight for marriage equality, winning at the district court and appeals court before the United States Supreme Court let the decision stand, bringing marriage equality to the Commonwealth within 10 months of his taking office. Attorney General Herring is the first state attorney general to successfully argue that his state’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples should be struck down as unconstitutional.

Attorney General Herring wrote an official advisory opinion that said Virginia public schools can protect LGBT students, teachers, and employees from bullying, discrimination, and harassment. He also ended a policy of the previous administration that barred Virginia colleges and universities from establishing LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination policies.

Attorney General Herring proposed and fought for an updated definition of “hate crime” to include LGBT Virginians, and for additional tools to prosecute suspected hate crimes. He signed an amicus brief in support of transgender students being able to receive an education in a comfortable environment. And he worked with then-Governor Terry McAuliffe to craft an Executive Order barring state contracts to companies who do not have LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination policies, mirroring President Obama’s federal executive order.

• Promoting Economic Opportunity

Attorney General Mark R. Herring is a pro-business, pro-opportunity attorney general, working everyday to make sure Virginia remains the best state in America to live, work, learn, and raise a family, or to start and grow a business. His background in the private sector, as both a small business owner and an attorney serving Northern Virginia’s business and professional communities, gives him a unique perspective on how to help Virginia businesses thrive.

Attorney General Herring is helping to build safe, successful communities in every corner of the Commonwealth. He is spearheading the state’s response to the heroin and opioid crisis, combatting gun and gang violence, and transforming the way Virginia works to prevent and respond to sexual and domestic violence.

In an increasingly global economy, Attorney General Herring is working to create a Commonwealth where businesses, entrepreneurs, and talented workers from around the world feel welcome to start, grow, or work at a Virginia business. He has championed common sense immigration reforms, given the children of immigrants who have only called Virginia home an opportunity to pursue an affordable college education in Virginia, and sought new tools and resources to combat hate crimes.

Attorney General Herring and his team have worked on legislation to help Virginia prepare for the growing “sharing economy,” and to combat “patent trolls” that force Virginia businesses into expensive litigation over bad-faith claims of patent infringement. ^[28]

Jay Jones was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2017 representing the 89th District. A lifelong resident of Norfolk, Jay’s call to public service was generations in the making.

The descendant of slaves, Jay’s family has been in Norfolk since the early 20th century. His grandfather, Hilary H. Jones, Sr., was a pioneering Civil Rights attorney in Norfolk and became the first Black member of the Norfolk School Board. In 1969, he was appointed to the State Board of Education, the first Black to be named to the board in the history of Virginia.

Jay’s father, Jerrauld C. Jones, is one of the few Virginians to serve in all three branches of state government. He was a member of the General Assembly from 1988 – 2002, served as Director of the Department of Juvenile Justice under Governor Mark Warner and is now a Circuit Court judge. His mother, Lyn Simmons, is currently a judge on the Norfolk Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court after a long career as a violent crime prosecutor and attorney in private practice.

Like his forebears before him, Jay is dedicated to ensuring his community and commonwealth embraces everyone, no matter who you are, where you come from, or what you look like.

As a member of the House of Delegates, Jay fought to expand Medicaid, increase minimum wage, and give teachers a raise. He also gave voice to progressive energy and environmental policies that improve the lives of all Virginians while preserving our air, water, and land. A tireless legislator, Jay championed legislation known as the “Ashanti Alert,” a bill to establish a missing persons alert for adults in the Commonwealth. The “Ashanti Alert” was used as the model for a bill that eventually became federal law. He has also sponsored legislation to deconcentrate poverty in urban communities, achieve a fair regulatory scheme for our public utilities, and create an earned income tax credit in Virginia.

Jay currently serves on the House Appropriations, Transportation, and Counties, Cities, and Towns committees, having previously served on the General Laws and Finance committees. He is the chairman of the House Transportation subcommittee on Motor Vehicles. Jay also serves on the Commission on Youth, the Criminal Justice Services Board, and the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation.

Jay completed his undergraduate studies at the College of William and Mary, where he was a double major in government and history. Jay worked in finance in New York before returning to the Commonwealth to obtain his law degree at the University of Virginia.

Jay currently practices law in Norfolk, where he is a partner with Bischoff Martingayle P.C.

Jay and his wife Mavis reside in the Larchmont neighborhood of Norfolk. They are members of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception. ^[28]