WASHINGTON, DC – This week, Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones sat down with Legal AF’s Michael Popok to discuss Trump’s State of the Union address and how Democratic AGs are holding his administration accountable.

“We say in Virginia, as this state goes, so goes the nation, and we had a remarkable night back in November,” AG Jones said. “We picked up 13 seats in our legislature. Now we have a very solid Democratic majority in our general assembly which I think will inspire people as we move into 2026 and really lay a nice sort of blueprint and foundation for what is possible for other states who are in a situation where they’re looking to push back on the federal overreach that has plagued us since Donald Trump returned to office.”

Key highlights:

• “For us in Virginia, we’re feeling [Trump’s actions] acutely. It’s why we’ve been very very laser focused on finding ways to protect consumers, whether it be going after health care companies who are overcharging people, protecting the elderly from scams so that their life savings aren’t drained from them unknowingly. The list goes on and on. But you finally have people in office here in Virginia who are going to use the law to protect people as it’s designed to do and not enrich a certain few  because you know that’s what the president and his friends you know are sort of directing you to do.”
• “[Trump] can do a lot of that, that chirping, but the proof is in the pudding and people are hurting. And it’s not just here in Virginia. It’s not just the states that are close to Washington, DC. These are nationwide policies. These are global policies that are impacting regular Americans…”
• “We were only reacting and responding to the needs of our communities and being dynamic and reflexive in, in sort of coming up with solutions and I think that is what you didn’t hear from the president last night in his speech. There were no solutions about how to tackle affordability, there were no solutions about how to make people’s lives better.”
• “But the reality is that people across America are struggling. People are worried about the cost that they’re seeing […] and they’re looking for relief, and they’re looking for leaders who are going to step up. And if there’s any lesson that I hope people across the country who are on the ballot in 2026 will take, it’s that finding ways to make life more affordable will have electoral success because people are hungry for solutions there […] That’s what we promised people in 2025 and in 2026 we’re delivering on those results.”
• “These partnerships [between Democratic AGs] are so strong, this group of people is incredibly special and they are all dedicated public servants who are looking for ways to be creative, to be dynamic, and to do the best for their states and for this country because we all swear this oath when we take office that we’re going to abide and uphold the laws of our states and the Constitution of the United States. You’re not getting that from the White House. You’re not getting that from members of Congress. You’re not getting that from these cabinet secretaries.”
• “Attorneys general are the front line and to join these ranks is not lost on me about how important it is in this moment. But we get to really deliver results for people here in the United States who are really really fed up with what they’ve been seeing you know in particular for this last year. “
• “I’ll do everything I can to make sure we have more Democratic attorneys general across the country because people in the United States deserve leadership that’s going to be working for them and not for Donald Trump.”

###