Virginia’s tough-on-crime Attorney General Jason Miyares scored big wins against left-wing “pro-criminal” prosecutors nationwide, doing even better than in 2022 when his political action committee won two-thirds of the races it joined.
His Protecting Americans Action Fund told Secrets on Wednesday that 12 of 14 prosecutors it backed won their races, defeating liberal candidates who favored pro-criminal reforms.
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“We’re really proud of the election results,” Miyares said in an interview. “Winning 12 out of 14 is a great batting average, but it really shows the Grand Canyon chasm between where the public is on public safety and where the left is right now,” added the chairman of the group.
His is the only organization focused on electing conservative local prosecutors around the country. It follows a national model used by PACs helping elect state attorneys general and House members.
At the start of the year, the Protecting Americans Action Fund picked 40 key races and later narrowed that down to 14. It spent $2.5 million on those races, the most expensive occurring in Tampa’s Hillsborough County, where PAAF spent $500,000 to help defeat a prosecutor who was suspended in 2022 by Gov. Ron DeSantis for failing to enforce Florida laws.
“We are in a unique position. We are the only entity that is electing common sense conservative prosecutors across the country and pushing back on these left wing, social justice, oppressive prosecutor networks that are really doing so much damage to so many different communities across the country,” he said.
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Miyares said that PAAF didn’t just fight prosecutors funded by left-wing groups, including some linked to liberal funder George Soros, but it also highlighted the policies Vice President Kamala Harris put into place when she was a San Francisco prosector and later California attorney general.
“It shows the public does not trust the progressive left to keep the public safe. Why? Because progressive left policies on public safety have failed over and over and over again in almost every city or suburb or town they’ve been tried in. They do not work, and the American people recognize they don’t work,” he said.
And, added Miyares, having President-elect Donald Trump at the top of the GOP ticket calling for law and order was a big help in the races PAAF was involved in.
“I think it was a clear contrast at the top of the ticket, and I think that absolutely had an impact down-ballot as well,” said Miyares, who is considering whether he will run for reelection next year or challenge Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears for the top job.
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Miyares, Earle-Sears, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin swept to victory in 2021 in a surprise Republican victory. Virginia term limits governors to four years in office, and Youngkin cannot run for reelection.
Eliminating criminal justice is not criminal justice reform.
Honored to serve as Chairman of Protecting Americans Action Fund, a new group standing up to left wing liberal prosecutors who refuse to enforce the law & prioritize public safety.https://t.co/IlkMvkaslg
— Jason Miyares (@JasonMiyaresVA) March 24, 2022
Miyares created PAAF in 2022, teaming with the local-focused GOP group GOPAC, to promote and elect district attorneys in counties around the nation.
He said the group has helped to play a key role in educating voters about the backgrounds of prosecutors, a job once done by the dying local news industry.
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“It used to be the reporter be down in the courthouse covering cases when district attorneys messed up. That’s gone,” said Miyares. “That’s why groups like PAAF are so important, because part of our job is to hold them accountable when they’re seeking plea deals for child rapists, when they are deciding to not prosecute entire categories of crime,” he said.
“And our job is to remind voters there’s individuals that view themselves as social workers instead of prosecutors, and we’re going to hold them accountable,” said Miyares.