DEI-charged claims fly over contract talks for military school’s leader as lawmaker demands ethics probe

Virginia Democratic lawmakers are raising racially tinged concerns that the Virginia Military Institute’s board might decide against offering a comprehensive contract extension to the historic school’s first Black superintendent.

According to Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., a board member at Virginia Military Institute revealed that at least one member of the Virginia legislature had expressed concerns about the potential non-extension of Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins’ contract, and brought race into the situation.

Cline, whose district runs nearly 200 miles from Roanoke to Winchester and includes VMI, wrote a letter Tuesday to the clerks of the Virginia House of Delegates and Virginia Senate asking for an ethics probe into Sen. Jennifer Carroll-Foy.

Carroll-Foy, D-Prince William, reportedly warned a VMI Board of Visitors member of state funding repercussions unless Wins’ contract is renewed properly.

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 “I am just trying to help VMI,” Carroll-Foy – also a VMI graduate – told the board member.

“Cedric is African American. The leadership of the General Assembly is African American. Your board appointments and budget amendments are in peril. You can fix this by giving Cedric a four-year contract extension,” she said.

Virginia House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, and Senate Leader L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, are both Black. 

The exchange troubled Cline, who said in his letter that “these actions, specifically the direct threats made by [Carroll-Foy] are unbecoming, inappropriate, and ethically questionable.”

“These race-related comments – totally unbecoming of a member of the General Assembly and completely inconsistent with the values of our nation – make plain the leadership in the General Assembly is attempting to exert undue influence on the decisions of the board in exchange for funding priorities of VMI,” Cline wrote in-part in the letter obtained by Fox News Digital.

A source familiar with the situation told Fox News Digital there are other lawmakers besides Carroll-Foy who have connected race or DEI considerations to the contract debate.

A statement from Cline’s office said that the congressman – and former member of the Richmond legislature himself – believes that attempts to “strong-arm members of the VMI board by withholding funding . . . reveal a clear and troubling effort to exert undue influence over VMI’s governance.”

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“The idea that members of the General Assembly would use their positions of power to intimidate VMI Board members by conditioning funding on the extension of the superintendent’s contract is not just inappropriate, it is an outright abuse of power,” Cline said in a statement.

“These comments, wholly unbecoming of a member of the General Assembly and completely inconsistent with the values of our nation, make plain the leadership of the General Assembly is attempting to exert undue influence on the decisions of the Board in exchange for funding priorities of VMI,” he added.

Scott did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that he and former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder – the first Black governor in U.S. history – would like to see Wins’ contract extended.

However, the speaker told the paper that the debate is “not about Gen. Wins’ contract – it’s about whether the school is moving in the right direction.”

Current Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has seen Democrats stymie several of his appointments to collegiate boards of visitors – including counter-antisemitism crusader Kenneth Marcus at George Mason University – said through a spokesman that the members he had previously named to the VMI board have his full support.

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“The governor appointed experienced and strong members to the board of visitors, all deeply committed to VMI and its mission,” spokesman Christian Martinez said.

“He has full confidence the board will act in the best interest of [VMI] and the Commonwealth.”

Two of Youngkin’s 12 VMI appointees were recently removed by state Senate Democrats, the Times-Dispatch reported.

Fox News Digital also reached out to Carroll-Foy and a representative for VMI.

VMI is the oldest state military institution in the country, founded in 1839.

Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson notably taught at VMI in the lead-up to the Civil War.

More recent famous VMI alumni include the late actor Fred Willard, World War II figures George Marshall and Gen. George Patton, award-winning comic Mel Brooks and Col. Douglas Macgregor – a veteran of the historic Battle of 73 Easting and an occasional Fox News guest.