On Tuesday, Virginia’s Democratic members of the House of Delegates put forward a resolution aimed at creating a task force to scrutinize the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and evaluate whether the historic institution should continue to receive state funding.
This initiative represents the latest effort by Virginia Democrats to reinstate and enhance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies across the state. These policies had largely been dismantled following the election of President Donald Trump in 2024.
Virginia Republican Congressman Rob Wittman expressed concern to Fox News Digital, stating, “This undermines VMI and its mission. It’s detrimental to the Commonwealth of Virginia, to VMI as an institution, and to the many outstanding military and community leaders it has produced.”
Republican officials are pointing fingers at Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger and the renewed DEI initiatives, criticizing them as ideological moves that threaten the stability of the country’s oldest state-supported military academy.
“It’s just appalling that they would consider this path,” Wittman remarked. “But that seems to be the direction things are headed in Richmond.”
Wittman, who is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, represents regions including the Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula, and parts of the Virginia Peninsula. He attended Virginia Tech University, where he was part of the corps of cadets, maintaining a friendly rivalry with VMI.
VMI was founded in 1839, making it the oldest public senior military college in the country. VMI has had several notable graduates, including sitting Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, and Lt. Gen. John “Dan” Caine, Trump’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz attended VMI. (Adam Gray/Getty)
Wittman was not the only member of Congress who voiced concerns about the potential Democratic-driven demise of the nation’s first state-funded military college.
Congressman Pat Fallon, R-TX, also serves on the House Armed Services Committee and pointed to newly elected Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger as the culprit of the threat to VMI.
“Less than a month in office as governor of Virginia, Abigail Spanberger has shown a commitment to turning the commonwealth into California,” Fallon told Fox News Digital. “The left’s renewed focus on VMI is not intended to benefit our military.
“Instead, it’s yet another avenue to tear down an institution that has developed exceptional leaders and statesmen who have made significant contributions to our nation, such as George C. Marshall, Mike Waltz, and the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, whom I had the privilege of serving with in the Air Force,” Fallon added.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger speaks during inaugural ceremonies at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Steve Helber/AP)
In 2021, then-Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam ordered a state-sanctioned investigation into VMI’s DEI structure. An investigation which specifically looked for racism and sexism. The audit came in President Joe Biden’s first full year in the White House, when DEI policies were running rampant at universities and corporations across the country.
One of Spanberger’s first acts since being elected was appointing Northam to VMI’s Board of Visitors.
“To appoint disgraced former Governor Ralph Northam, a man of poor moral character, to the Board of Visitors at VMI is an insult to our nation’s oldest state-supported military school and the leaders it produces,” Fallon told Fox News Digital. “He has no business overseeing VMI, and leftists like Spanberger can’t help themselves from advancing their radical, far-left agenda.”
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam ordered an investigation into VMI in 2021.
Spanberger has received sharp criticism for many of the liberal policies she has implemented in her short time in office, including an executive saying local and state law enforcement are no longer required to cooperate with ICE, a reversal from a previous order issued by former Republican governor Glenn Youngkin.
“Screw any and all of you who lied to low-information voters and sold Abigail Spanberger as some kind of moderate,” Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, posted to social media. “She’s been in office like 6 hours and is already trying to turn Virginia into Minneapolis.”
George W. Bush speaking to cadets at the Virginia Military Institution in 2002. (Photo by PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Should the legislation introduced in the Virginia House of Delegates make it to Spanberger’s desk, it is possible that the military institution will not survive if state funding is revoked.
“There is no logic, there is no logical reason why you would do this,” Wittman told Fox. “If you have issues with VMI, many of those have played out in years past, the institution has done everything that the General Assembly has asked for them to do.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Spanberger, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News. Story tips can be sent to Preston.Mizell@fox.com and on X @MizellPreston
