Republicans nominate Miyares for Virginia attorney general, governor race still being counted

(The Center Square) – Virginian Republicans have chosen Jason Miyares to represent their party in the November attorney general election, but votes are still being tallied to determine the candidate for governor.

“I am honored to have earned the trust and support from voters all across the commonwealth,” Miyares said in a statement. “Now the movement continues to restore integrity to the office of the attorney general by replacing [current Attorney General] Mark Herring with a leader who will focus on keeping violent criminals behind bars, supporting our law enforcement officers and keeping our neighborhoods safe.”

In his statement, Miyares accused Herring of using his office to advance a political agenda and said the attorney general should instead be focused on enforcing the law fairly.

Virginia Republican Party Chairman Rich Anderson congratulated Miyares on the nomination and thanked each Republican candidate.

“It gives me great hope for the future of the Republican Party of Virginia to see so many quality Republican candidates running for office,” Anderson said. “It is now time for Republicans to unite behind our nominee. It’s time to take back Virginia!”

Miyares will run against the Democratic nominee, which will be chosen in the party’s June 8 primary. Herring is running for re-electing.

With all the votes in, the party is still tallying the results for the nomination of the candidate for governor. Rather than choosing a candidate through a primary, Republicans opted to nominate their candidates through a convention process.

Any registered Republican in the state was able to register as a delegate for the convention, but the party allocated a specific number of delegate votes to different regions. This means a delegate’s ballot will not necessarily count as one whole vote. For example, if a region has 10 delegate votes and 20 ballots, then each ballot will count as a half of a vote.

Tallying is expected to be completed by Tuesday or Wednesday. The party is using a ranked voting system, which means every delegate ranks his preferred candidates in order. In each round, the last place candidate will be eliminated and his votes will go to whichever candidate was listed as the delegate’s next choice. The process continues until one candidate surpasses 50% of the total vote.

The Democratic candidate for governor will be chosen through a primary on June 8. Polls show that former Gov. Terry McAullife is a heavy favorite for the nomination.

Virginia’s election for attorney general and governor will be Nov. 2.

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