CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Jay Jones says Jason Miyares is “too weak” to stand up to Donald Trump. Miyares says Jones is soft on crime.

With less than two months until Election Day, and Jones holding a 7-point lead over Miyares in the most recent polling, the two Commonwealth candidates for attorney general have stepped up their attacks on each other.

And Jones picked up a bit more fuel for his fire last week when Trump forced out the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District, and Miyares appeared at a campaign rally with former DOGE boss Vivek Ramaswamy.

“Jason continues to let Donald Trump run roughshod over Virginia,” Jones told Cville Right Now. “Whether it be the attacks on our federal workforce, these tariffs that have destroyed our regional economies, the ‘Big Bill’ that is literally closing healthcare facilities in Virginia as we speak, the assault on our higher education institutions, the list goes on and on and on and on. This is just yet another instance where Jason’s too weak and too scared to stand up to the president and do his job.”

The Trump administration forced out Erik Siebert after Siebert determined there was not sufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges against New York attorney general Letitia James, a political rival of Trump’s.

“It’s deeply, deeply distressing to see this happen now for a second time in as many weeks in Virginia and Jason Miyares has been absolutely silent on this, after cheering the appointment and nomination of Erik Siebert just in January,” Jones said. “The refusal to prosecute someone’s political opponent? He was doing his job and Jason can’t even step up and say that we’re not supposed to let the president go ahead and do this and to talk like this.”

That’s a central theme for the Jones’ campaign, and one that appears to be resonating with prospective voters. The most recent polling out of Christoper Newport University’s Wasson Center had Jones leading Miyares, 48-41%.

The same poll showed 58% of respondents disapprove of Trump’s work as president.

The latest campaign finance disclosures also show an uptick in fundraising, with Jones outpacing Miyares for the first time in this race, though – as an incumbent – Miyares still holds a sizeable cash-on-hand advantage.

“Our campaign is fueled by Virginians across this Commonwealth who are ready for an Attorney General who’s going to fight for them every single day and not one who is just bending at the knee to Donald Trump as he attacks our economy and our livelihoods and our rights and freedoms,” Jones told Cville Right Now. “Our fundraising shows that our message and our plans that we rolled out, whether it be lowering costs or stopping fentanyl or keeping our community safe, are resonating with Virginians. I think that people know exactly what is at stake this year in these elections and they’re stepping up in record numbers, from a financial standpoint, to make sure that we have an attorney general who’s going to work for us and not Washington, to work for us and not Donald Trump, and somebody who’s finally going to put the working families of Virginia first.”

Miyares’s campaign has focused on calling out Jones’s for what it says is a history of being soft on crime, pointing to – among other things – Jones support of civilian review boards to help oversee police and the short length of his tenure as an assistant attorney general in Washington D.C.

“Soft Jay Jones has worked to let criminals out of prison early, weaken our law enforcement agencies, opposed tougher sentences for repeat drug dealers, pushed for no cash bail which allows violent criminals back on our streets quickly, and advocated for policies that make our kid’s schools less safe,” Miyares’s press secretary Alex Cofield said in a statement released in August. “Now that he wants to be Virginia’s top cop, Soft Jay is trying to hide his dangerous record because people know he can’t be trusted to keep Virginians safe.”

(Miyares’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. Miyares rescheduled a Tuesday morning appearance on WINA Morning News and is set to appear on Wednesday.)

Responding to Miyares’s “soft on crime” talk, Jones pointed voters to his public safety plan, published on his website on Aug. 9, which aims to curb violent crime, support victims, get illegal guns off the street and protect children.

Jones’s plan includes creating a drug trafficking unit in the AG’s office to combat the fentanyl crisis, and a child safety unit.

“I am the son of violent crime prosecutors and judges and I’ve got two young boys,” Jones said “I have always believed and always been taught that keeping their community safe is the most important responsibility of any Virginia leader and it doesn’t matter if you’re federal state or local. That’s why I supported the largest public safety funding increase in the history of this Commonwealth, which Jason voted against, and cracked down on sex offenders and gangs and human trafficking while I was in the general assembly.”