"Virginia Senate Democrats escalated their attacks on Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s appointments to three embattled public colleges on Tuesday, notifying the leaders of their governing boards that they may not recognize appointees whom a Senate committee has rejected or risk removal from their positions.

A trio of Senate Democratic leaders — Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax; Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas; and Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Mamie Locke, D-Hampton — also directed George Mason University Rector Charles “Cully” Stimson to recuse himself from board discussions and actions related to investigations of the university or its president, Greg Washington, by President Donald Trump’s administration.

They cite 'an apparent conflict of interest' in Stimson’s roles as rector and senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, which has encouraged the investigations and called on the federal government to withhold funding for the university.

The letters further fuel an intensifying legal and political battle between Senate Democrats and Youngkin, who they say has worked closely with the Trump administration in investigations that led to the forced resignation of University of Virginia President Jim Ryan and pressure on Washington to step down at George Mason, where he serves as the university’s first Black president. The Republican governor also appointed three members to the VMI Board of Visitors three days before it voted in late February not to renew the contract of Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins, the first Black superintendent in the institute’s history," reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. 

Photo: George Mason University President Greg Washington, left, talks with Rector Charles “Cully” Stimson on Aug. 1. Washington has refused a Trump administration demand that he apologize for the university’s DEI practices. Michael Martz, Times-Dispatch.