In a stunning escalation of Virginia’s Republican infighting, Matt Moran — head of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC — has emerged as the central figure blamed for the widening rift between the governor and John Reid, the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor.

After Reid publicly accused Spirit of Virginia of extortion Sunday without naming Moran, his campaign lawyers fired a cease and desist letter directly at Moran Monday evening, accusing him of making “false and defamatory statements” about Reid — and threatening further legal action.

Moran has declined multiple requests for comment.

Meanwhile, pressure is building inside the party for accountability. Several GOP officials are urging the Republican Party of Virginia’s Executive Committee to confidentially review the explicit images that Moran allegedly showed Youngkin — images that reportedly convinced the governor to personally ask Reid to drop out of the race.

The result is a crisis that threatens not only to fracture Virginia Republicans months before Election Day but also to severely damage Youngkin’s national ambitions.

Reid strikes back

The controversy escalated after Reid, a conservative radio host and the first openly gay statewide candidate from either party in Virginia, posted a spirited video Sunday afternoon on X, formerly Twitter.

“I had certainly hoped that we could put the bigotry and ugliness of last week behind us and unify our Republican ticket this year,” Reid said. “But shockingly, once again representatives of my campaign have been told by the leader of Governor Youngkin’s political organization that the attacks on me will continue unless I drop out of the race for lieutenant governor.”

Hours later, Reid’s legal team delivered a cease-and-desist letter to Moran, laying out accusations of defamation, extortion and reckless disregard for the truth.

“It has come to our attention that you provided information accusing our client of owning a Tumblr account containing unsavory images to multiple news organizations,” the letter reads.

“While this account shared a common username with our client’s Instagram, he is not and never has been associated with the account.”

Reid’s attorneys said Moran crossed the line into defamation because the statements were “knowingly untrue,” and warned that “continued publication of these false claims would constitute actual malice.”

In a particularly damning passage, the letter alleged that Moran made direct threats in an April 27 conversation with Reid: “You literally said ‘him getting out of the race is the only way it stops.’”

The lawyers further argued that Moran’s accusations gave rise to defamation and defamation per se, noting that falsely alleging Reid was linked to criminal behavior “is so egregious that it is assumed to harm the plaintiff’s reputation without further need to prove harm.”

They demanded Moran “immediately cease and desist” from making or publishing any additional false claims, and instructed him to preserve all documents related to the case, including communications with consulting firms and journalists.

GOP officials demand action

As the legal drama escalated, some Republican officials across the state voiced alarm at Moran’s handling of the situation — and called for transparency.

In a joint email sent to Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Mark Peake obtained by The Mercury, Rick Buchanan, chairman of the 5th Congressional District GOP Committee, and John Massoud, his counterpart in the 6th District, urged the party leadership to allow members of the State Central Committee’s Executive Committee to review any alleged evidence confidentially.

“As leaders of the Republican Party of Virginia, we are very concerned about our upcoming elections,” Buchanan and Massoud wrote. “Accusations have been made about our Lt. Governor nominee that are very serious. People are lining up on each side behind either the accuser or the accused, yet the evidence behind the allegations being made have not been forthcoming.”

They stressed the need for unity, warning, “In order for us to win this November, this affair must be put behind us. … Giving us the actual facts will make that possible.”

In a phone interview Tuesday, Buchanan went even further, telling The Mercury that Youngkin must fire Moran to salvage party unity.

“Either way we come out of this, it has caused a lot of turmoil within the party,” he said. “And I am very disappointed that the governor would listen to (Moran) without knowing the facts.”

Amid the unfolding controversy, an event scheduled for Wednesday at Atlas 42 in Henrico County featuring the full Republican statewide ticket — with Youngkin billed as a special guest — was abruptly canceled.

But Reid, undeterred, confirmed in a text message Tuesday that he still plans to go forward with the rally, even without his running mates.

Former Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling also weighed in Tuesday afternoon, saying the episode had derailed what was supposed to be the GOP’s first show of unity heading into the fall.

“The Republican Party of Virginia was supposed to hold its first ‘Unity Rally’ in Henrico County tomorrow evening,” Bolling wrote in a Facebook post, “but that was before Governor Glenn Youngkin accused John Reid, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, of posting sexually explicit photos on a Tumblr site bearing his name and called on him to withdraw from the campaign.”

Bolling noted that Reid has consistently denied the allegations, and said the central question — whether Reid was ever associated with the explicit Tumblr account — remains unresolved.

“To date, no one has been able to prove, or disprove, if this was, in fact, Reid’s site,” Bolling wrote. “Although no one has yet explained why anyone would have created this site, which has existed since 2014, to make Reid look bad. Reid was not even a public figure in 2014.”

Moran silent as criticism mounts

In a text message Tuesday, Moran declined to comment.

But Virginia GOP figures like Casey Flores, founder of the Richmond chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, the nation’s largest Republican organization dedicated to representing LGBTQ conservatives, made clear that Moran’s position is becoming untenable.

“I think that this is blowing back on Governor Youngkin and Matt Moran more than they ever expected,” Flores said in a phone interview.

Flores accused Moran of trying to “scuttle anything that doesn’t make him money” and said his actions were now damaging the party’s broader chances.

“In the age of Trump, people really don’t care about all this, even if the accusations against John Reid were true, which they are not,” Flores said. “Firing Matt really is the only appropriate thing for Governor Youngkin to do.”

Moran, 36, has been a fixture in Virginia politics for over a decade. After managing one rural delegate’s campaign and serving as a legislative aide for another, he rose quickly — first as spokesman for then-House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, then as chief of staff to Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights.

He later joined Youngkin’s administration as director of policy and legislative affair — but notably without taking a salary from the state. Instead, Moran stayed on leave from two consulting firms he had ownership interests in: Creative Direct and Link Public Affairs.

Critics said the arrangement created serious conflicts of interest.

“There’s certainly a cause for him to try to make money, both within the administration and outside of Spirit of Virginia through his other companies,” Scott Pio, chairman of the Loudoun County GOP Committee, said in a phone interview.

Pio, whose committee hosted a rally for Reid in Sterling Monday evening, suggested that Moran’s dual loyalties allowed him to shape Virginia policy while benefiting financially.

“Since Matt doesn’t have a statewide client, he decides to throw this bomb,” Pio said, referencing the Reid controversy, which blew up just days after Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity dropped out for health reasons last week.

He also argued that firing Moran was a necessary step to rebuild trust: “Youngkin being a businessman, he should know when to hire and fire quickly. He should not keep people around that are being inappropriate.”

Youngkin’s 2028 calculus and GOP damage control

Even before the Reid episode, Moran’s unpaid status within the administration had drawn scrutiny. In 2022, Youngkin’s chief counsel Richard Cullen in an interview with The Washington Post defended Moran’s arrangement, saying, “He would have been the hottest guy in Richmond (for lobbying). But Matt did the opposite and to his financial detriment.”

Moran declined an interview request for the same story but at the time issued a statement through Youngkin’s press office defending his arrangement.

“I am on leave from all companies and as a result do not have clients with business before the governor or state government,” Moran said. “I formalized this arrangement with counsel’s office and I am fully committed to my service to the governor and the people of Virginia. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to serve the governor and work on behalf of the commonwealth.”

His statement did not explain why he chose to forgo a state salary.

Now, however, political observers say Moran’s continued presence could be politically fatal — not just in Virginia, but nationally, as Youngkin positions himself for a possible 2028 White House run.

David Richards, a political science professor at the University of Lynchburg, said the scandal “has done tremendous damage” to Youngkin and the GOP in Virginia.

“It reveals a real limit to Youngkin’s power in the state GOP and has exposed an ugly underbelly of the Republican party here,” Richards said. “Someone in Youngkin’s circle will have to take the fall. It does not look like Reid will bow out.”

Youngkin addressed the controversy publicly for the first time Tuesday during a press event at the Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in Arlington.

Speaking to reporters, Youngkin said he reached out to Reid last Friday morning because the allegations involving explicit social media content had become a distraction.

“Let me just quickly comment that one of the one of the reasons why I called John last Friday morning was because these kinds of situations where there is just a historical recognition that social media and explicit, explicit social media content like this is a distraction,” Youngkin said.

“It’s a distraction for campaigns, and it’s distraction from people paying attention to the most important issues, and here we are today talking about fentanyl and saving lives, and the distraction is present, and that’s why I called him on Friday morning, and that’s why he and I had a very serious personal conversation.”

Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee, broke her silence on the controversy surrounding her running mate Tuesday evening, releasing a statement that sought to both acknowledge the tension and pivot back to her own campaign.

Quoting former President Abraham Lincoln — and the biblical verse he referenced — Earle-Sears opened with a call for unity.

“President Lincoln said, ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ Those biblical words from Matthew 12:25 embody the positive mission of our campaign — to unite and inspire Virginians of all backgrounds,” she said.

Earle-Sears acknowledged that the ongoing focus on Reid had derailed that effort.

“This week, focus on the lieutenant governor nominee distracted from that mission and cannot continue,” she said. While making clear that she would not be calling on him to step aside, Earle-Sears emphasized that the decision belongs solely to Reid: “John Reid is the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. It is his race, and his decision alone to move forward. We all have our own race to run.”

Reid, meanwhile, remains defiant and shows no sign of abandoning the ticket.

Bolling said the lack of leadership at the top of the ticket is compounding the party’s problems. He noted that the dispute has prompted Reid to accuse Youngkin of trying to persecute him because he is a gay man — a candidate, Bolling said, “the governor never wanted on the Republican ticket.”

Bolling warned that the stakes for Republicans this fall are too high to let the dispute linger.

“One thing is for certain,” he said. “This dispute cannot continue if Republicans, who were facing an uphill election year to begin with, are to have any chance of winning in November. This debacle must be resolved, one way or the other.”