Key takeaways from Virginia’s attorney general race

Virginia election officials are still counting ballots, but so far, Jason Miyares has about 120,000 more votes than his Republican ticket-mate Winsome Earle-Sears.

While Miyares, the Republican incumbent attorney general, still lost his race by nearly 6 points, it shows at least some voters split their tickets. Miyares’ opponent, Democrat Jay Jones, overcame the scandal that became the focal point of the race, after old text messages from Jones surfaced that suggested a former Republican House speaker should get “two bullets to the head” and the lawmaker’s children should die in his wife’s arms.

NBC News exit polls showed 40% of voters felt those texts were disqualifying — but in the end, it didn’t seem to matter.

That same data shows that most of that 40% voted for Miyares.

But still, experts said Wednesday they feel that we’re witnessing a new age in Virginia politics, in which most voters are willing to excuse otherwise inexcusable behavior — as long as the bad actor is on your side of the aisle.

Jones earned nearly 170,000 fewer votes than Democratic Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, which could suggest the text message scandal had some effect but not enough to cost him the race, which he still won handily by nearly 6 points.

“We will use tonight as a springboard to reject the politics of divisiveness and division and we will build a brighter future for every single Virginian,” Jones said on Election Night.

This race was the most expensive attorney general’s race in American history, and ad spending really took off once the text message scandal emerged.

Stephen Farnsworth of the University of Mary Washington feels that party allegiance is too strong, and given the current environment, he thinks just about any Democrat could have won a statewide race this year.

“The last decade has been marked by a significant decline in what is acceptable behavior.  We now have a very low bar in terms of anything that may be disqualifying,” Farnsworth said.

Outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin suggested Wednesday the text message scandal isn’t going to disappear.

“The next administration is going to have to figure out how to deal with that, because they have law enforcement that they’re going to need to make sure feel good about doing the job,” Youngkin said.

But Jeremy Mayer, a political science professor at George Mason University, doesn’t believe this issue will matter much moving forward.

“With Donald Trump and his admission of sexual assault in the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape, I think we learned we’re in a different world,” Mayer said. “A lot of Republicans in that moment said, ‘Oh, he’s going to lose!’ and the speaker of the House withdrew his support and Trump won. And that tells you something about polarization, and Jay Jones rode that same horse of polarization to victory last night.”

When asked if he thinks the electorate spoke loudly enough Tuesday night or if he thinks the incoming administration will need to address the text messages, Mayer responded: “Did Donald Trump have to deal with the ‘Access Hollywood’ video after he was elected?  He was washed clean in the water of the election, and that’s what happened to Jay Jones.”