“Moderate” Virginia Gov.-Elect Spanberger Surrounds Herself with Team of Radicals

If President Ronald Reagan’s famous line that “personnel is policy” is to be believed, Virginians are in for a rude awakening on January 17 when Governor-Elect Abigail Spanberger takes office. While Spanberger leaned heavily into her reputation as a “moderate” Democrat on the campaign trail in 2025, her early appointments have a decidedly radical bent.

One of Spanberger’s first hires was Stanley Meador as Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security. While most Americans have likely never heard of Meador, they are no doubt familiar with the infamous case of the FBI targeting traditional Catholics as extremist threats, which occurred under his watch.

Before Spanberger appointed Meador on December 4, he led the Richmond FBI field office as the special agent in charge. As whistleblower reports revealed in 2023, Meador’s team compiled and circulated a memo urging federal law enforcement to surveil so-called “radical-traditional Catholics” as potential domestic terrorist threats. The memo defined “radical” Catholics as those who participate in the Traditional Latin Mass and strongly oppose abortion, transgender ideology, and same-sex marriage.

The appointment is setting off alarms for Catholic leaders, including Logan Church, the national political director for CatholicVote.

“It was bad enough when we learned the FBI was surveilling and targeting Catholics simply for living their faith. But now the official who oversaw that disgraceful operation is being promoted,” Church said. “This is not accountability, it’s an endorsement. It tells every Catholic in America that violating our civil liberties isn’t a problem, it’s a pathway to advancement. That is outrageous, and it cannot go unanswered.”

A Catholic Virginia state senator also criticized the appointment. “For this person to be nominated to be Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security, I think, is very concerning,” Republican Glen Sturtevant told ABC 8 News.

Spanberger continued to stock her team with radicals by selecting Sesha Joi Moon, a former adviser to far-left Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), as the new chief DEI officer for Virginia. After incumbent Governor Glenn Youngkin dismantled the state government’s DEI infrastructure, it appears that it will be back with a vengeance under Spanberger.

Moon is the former “chief brand strategist” for the foul-mouthed Crockett and also advised failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who notably refused to concede the election after she lost handily to Brian Kemp. Most recently, Moon headed up the U.S. House Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which closed last year after congressional Republicans zeroed out its budget.

“When every Virginian has the opportunity to reach their full potential, it benefits all of us. Virginia deserves leaders who will make sure our work to grow our Commonwealth’s economy keeps the needs of all Virginians in mind,” Spanberger said in making the announcement.

But a compilation of Moon’s own words shows she holds a deeply flawed and un-American view of the Constitution and is in fact actively hostile toward the United States. 

“DEI… is actually a constitutional mandate,” Moon claimed in one video. In another clip, she praises radical activists in Richmond who tore down a statue of Christopher Columbus and threw it in a river.

“It wasn’t a politician, it wasn’t an organization, the people one night… yanked that joint down and threw it in the water,” she said, giddily sharing her excitement at the destruction of the statue. In another clip, Moon responds “you’re my type of girl” when a fellow activist discusses rewriting the Constitution.

“Watch so much money from this office end up flowing to the worst of the worst activist orgs,” Stu Smith, an analyst for the Manhattan Institute, wrote on X. “Your tax dollars at work.”

Spanberger will have another radical leftist in her ear in the form of Ghazala Hashmi, her lieutenant governor. Though Spanberger didn’t choose Hashmi, she will nonetheless join the chorus of extremist voices influencing the new governor. (Also of note, if Spanberger decides to run for president in 2028 as some political observers predict, it could land Hashmi in the governor’s mansion.)

As a state senator, Hashmi voted for “unrestricted abortion,” “polygamous marriage,” and against “parental review of sexually explicit materials,” according to the Virginia Family Foundation.

Spanberger’s attorney general, Jay Jones, is no better. Jones won despite controversy over disturbing comments about former Republican Speaker of the House of Delegates Todd Gilbert. Speaking about his Republican colleagues in 2022, Jones wrote “I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves” to “send them out awash in something.” He then fantasized about shooting Gilbert and said he wished Gilbert’s wife could watch her children die.

As reported by AMAC Newsline, Jones also texted a colleague that he wanted to see cops killed in the line of duty so they would stop “shooting people.” Spanberger refused to call on Jones to drop out of the race despite public pressure from Republicans and even some Democrats.

By Abigail Spanberger’s own admission, she won election on a message of affordability and economic issues – as dubious as that may seem given that she voted for $7.2 trillion in inflationary spending while she was in the U.S. House. Spanberger has carefully constructed a public image of herself as a pragmatic centrist who rejects the more extreme factions of both parties.

But with her early appointments, that farce is beginning to collapse. No “moderate” would select extremists who support DEI, want to destroy our cultural heritage, and oversaw the targeting of faithful Catholics to be her closest advisers.

Spanberger’s fake moderate charade is a warning to Americans across the country who might fall for moderate messaging by Democrats – they will say what it takes to win, but once in power their true radical colors shine brightly.

Matt Lamb is a contributor for AMAC Newsline and an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.