Mark Rankin Herring (born September 25, 1961)[1] is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 47th Attorney General of Virginia from 2014 to 2022.

A Democrat, he previously served in the Senate of Virginia since a 2006 special election, representing the 33rd district, made up of parts of Fairfax and Loudoun counties.

[4] Raised by Jane Rankin Herring,[5] a single mother, he graduated from Loudoun Valley High School in 1979 and worked in construction and many other jobs to pay for college.

[1][8] He served in elected office on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors from 2000 to 2003,[8][9][10][11] and was the town attorney for Lovettsville, Virginia, from 1992 to 1999.

On November 2, 2021, Herring lost his reelection bid to Republican challenger Jason Miyares, a Virginia House delegate.

"[26] Reaction to the announcement was mainly along party lines, with Democrats mostly praising the move and Republicans mostly criticizing it as violating his oath of office.

[27] The National Organization for Marriage has called for Herring's impeachment, claiming that the Virginia attorney general is obligated to defend all state laws against challenges.

A few days after the controversy began over a blackface picture appearing on Ralph Northam's page in a 1984 medical school yearbook in the context of the 2019 Virginia political crisis, Herring admitted to an incident in which he also wore blackface:In 1980, when I was a 19-year-old undergraduate in college (at the University of Virginia), some friends suggested we attend a party dressed like rappers we listened to at the time, like Kurtis Blow, and perform a song.

"[32] As attorney general of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Mark Herring took the case for Obamacare to the United States Supreme Court.