Name: Jason Miyares
Race: House of Delegates, 82nd District
Party: Republican
Website: JasonMiyares.com
Biography: Del. Jason Miyares is an example of President Ronald Reagan’s “Shining City on the Hill.” His story begins with his mother, Miriam Maria Miyares, who fled communist Cuba in 1965 with the clothes on her back and no idea from where her next meal would come. She legally immigrated to the United States and instilled in her three sons a passionate love of the freedom and democracy of America. Miyares grew up in Virginia Beach, attending local public schools and growing up in a middle-class household that emphasized the values of hard work, love of country, and service above self.
In November of 2015, he won the open seat to the 82nd District for the House of Delegates by the widest margin in the district’s history while becoming the first Cuban-American ever elected to the Virginia General Assembly. Jason Miyares has brought commonsense conservative leadership and accountability to Richmond while fighting for fiscal discipline and government transparency.
In the House of Delegates, he serves on the General Laws, Courts of Justice and Transportation Committees, where he has advanced legislation on coastal flooding, improving education, transparency in government and regulatory reform.
In 2019, Miyares advanced landmark legislation that makes it easier for small business owners to provide childcare services as a benefit to their employees. A former prosecutor (assistant commonwealth’s attorney) for the City of Virginia Beach, Miyares worked to keep our most violent criminals off our streets and our families safe. Prior to his service in the Virginia House, he served as a Senior Advisor to former Congressman Scott Rigell.
Del. Jason Miyares’ passion is building the right environment in Virginia for job creation, flooding mitigation, restoring funding for Virginia Beach public schools, fiscal discipline and government transparency and repealing burdensome regulations that are hurting Virginia small business owners.
As delegate, Jason Miyares brings common-sense conservative leadership and accountability to Richmond, while fighting for fiscal discipline and job creation. He also serves on the Board of Veterans Services (BVS) and is Chairman of the Commission on Economic Opportunity for Virginians in Aspiring & Diverse Communities (the Opportunity Commission) focusing on opening barriers of economic opportunities for all Virginians.
In 2018 and 2019 he was recognized as “Legislator of the Year” from the College Affordability and Public Trust for his work on transparency and affordability in higher education. The year before, in 2018, Del. Jason Miyares was recognized as “Legislator of the Year” from the Hampton Roads Military Officers Association of America for his “outstanding and dedicated service” to Virginia’s military veterans.
Miyares attended elementary and high school in Virginia Beach, graduating with a bachelor’s in business administration from James Madison University and is a graduate of the College of William & Mary School of Law, where he served on the Honor Council. He is the past president of Cape Henry Rotary where he was a Paul Harris Fellow, Past Chairman of the Hampton Roads Young Republicans, Founding Member of the Hampton Roads Federalist Society, Member of the Virginia Beach Bar Association, and a member of Galilee Episcopal Church. He lives in Virginia Beach, with his wife Page Atkinson Miyares, an owner and broker at Atkinson Realty, a third-generation family owned business in the North End, their three daughters and their very lovable Golden Retriever, Buckley.
Del. Jason Miyares is proud to have the endorsements of over 20 current and past local elected Virginia Beach officials and scores of additional community leaders and business owners.
Why should residents re-elect you to the Virginia House of Delegates?
My story is an example of what I call the “American Miracle.” My mother fled communist Cuba in 1965 with the clothes on her back and no idea where her next meal would come from. Almost fifty years to the day that she fled Cuba, a country where the government has no consent of the governed, she was able to vote for me to represent her in the Virginia General Assembly. From my childhood, I was instilled with a deep love of freedom and democracy of America and a desire to give back to this nation that gave the Miyares family a wonderful second chance. I’ve never forgotten where I came from, how I was raised or whom I represent.
This sense of gratitude and service infuses every aspect of my service to Virginia Beach as their Delegate. “Service above self” is the mission statement of my office and one we carry every day serving our community. Virginians are fundamentally a good and decent people, and want a government that is responsive, lives within its means, and is accountable.
Every day as your Delegate, I work to make Virginia Beach the best place to raise a family, start a business and create jobs. As a former Virginia Beach prosecutor, keeping violent criminals off our streets and our families safe is a top priority.
In my time in Richmond, I’ve worked for hardworking taxpayers by pushing for government to be more accountable and transparent. I’ve supported the right polices for creating jobs by lowering taxes and reducing regulations on small businesses and delivered the second-largest tax cut for middle class families in Virginia history in 2019.
As a product of Virginia Beach public schools, and with my own daughters in our public schools, supporting our local schools isn’t policy, it’s personal. We passed a 5% raise for teachers in 2019, the fourth teacher pay raise in six years passed by the General Assembly. I promised when I first ran to increase funding for Virginia Beach public schools and did so with an additional $45 million in our state budget just for our local school system.
Skyrocketing health care cost are hurting too many middle-class families. Making healthcare more affordable remains a top priority, including working to increase options for affordable healthcare while protecting those with pre-existing conditions. I also voted to make it easier for small businesses to obtain affordable coverage for their employees and for individuals to purchase catastrophic healthcare plans.
Finally, in a time where our politics has become so coarse and petty, I’m a firm believer that civility is not weakness. It is an honor to serve and to represent this wonderful community thoughtfully and deliberately in Richmond. My hope is to continue my season of service another two years and respectfully ask for your vote on November 5th.
What is the biggest issue facing your district, and how do you plan to address it?
As the product of Virginia Beach public schools, I want to continue to build and improve our educational opportunities for Virginians. Virginia Beach was recently ranked the best city to live in America, primarily because of our low crime rate, great schools and low unemployment. It is critical we have leaders who will continue to make safe streets and keep education and job creation a top priority.
In addition, flooding is one of the biggest long-term challenges facing the entire region. I’m a proud patron of the “Hurricane and Flooding Protection Act”, which has garnered widespread bipartisan support. This legislation would enable Virginia to work directly with the Army Corp of Engineers on some of the needed mitigation projects that will protect Virginia Beach from long term flooding for decades to come.
Finally, during a time when so many in the general public are losing their faith in their elected leaders, it is so important that we raise the level of civility and discourse in our society. I always want to be available to you and if there is ever a constituent concern please call 757-353-4696, which comes to my cell phone. My goal is to always be accessible and available to those I represent.
What was the most important vote taken in the Virginia General Assembly in 2019, and why?
The single biggest item we vote on in the General Assembly is the state budget. Unlike Washington, D.C., in Virginia we balance our budget every year and we did so in 2019 without raising taxes. Our budget included a teacher pay raise of 5% this year, the fourth teacher pay raise in six years. We voted to block over $1.2 billion in higher taxes and instead provided $1 billion in tax relief to Virginia’s middle-class families and lowered taxes for years to come. We voted for legislation to give Virginians more choices in healthcare insurance, lower healthcare premiums, and lower overall healthcare costs. We also put forth close to $130 million in new money to cover flooding mitigation projects for local communities.
Other than the budget, I’m proud to advance landmark legislation that makes it available, for the first time, for small businesses owners to provide onsite childcare services as a benefit to their employees; transparency and accountability for higher education; and veteran advocacy.
Please stay in touch with me, either by contacting me at 757-353-4696, visiting my website jasonmiyares.com or follow me on Facebook!
