Virginia

‘Podunk’: GOP hopeful for U.S. Senate denigrates small town paper rather than answering questions about Super PAC

Published

2 years ago

May 22, 2024

‘Podunk’: GOP hopeful for U.S. Senate denigrates small town paper rather than answering questions about Super PAC

Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Hung Cao again failed to address critical questions about spending by the Unleash America super PAC when asked by a conservative talk show host on Tuesday, May 21.

But he did continue his attacks on the story that prompted critiques from members of his own party.

Instead of explaining why the money raised by the super PAC did not go to Virginia Republican candidates for state office in 2023, Cao again called the report that prompted the allegations a “hit job” and referred to the Staunton News Leader, which reported the story, as a “podunk local newspaper” on an episode of the Alec Lace show Tuesday.

The story was published in USA Today as well as The News Leader. The reporter is part of the USA Today Network’s Elections team, covering Virginia elections for the network’s two commonwealth papers, The News Leader in Staunton and The Progress-Index in Petersburg. The story was published in nine other Gannett newspapers across the country.

Skipped out on a local candidate forum, misremembered dates and promises

Cao did not attend a Senate candidate forum last Friday morning, which took take place in Augusta County just outside of Staunton, home of the Staunton News Leader. Staunton is in the Shenandoah Valley, a reliably red part of the commonwealth for Republican legislators in both state and federal offices.

Cao repeated an earlier stated falsehood on the Alec Lace Show, that he was out of the super PAC by May of 2023. In fact, a memo from his Senate campaign legal counsel said that Cao resigned from the PAC on June 15, 2023.

Cao told Lace that he didn’t promise to donate money raised by Unleash America to Republican candidates in Virginia’s 2023 elections. Multiple recordings available online show Cao saying otherwise on conservative talk shows and in newspapers in early 2023.

Cao also told Lace that federal super PACs, such as Unleash America, cannot donate to state-level candidates. In fact, Virginia has no limits on campaign contributions.

A different interview, and a different story

When Cao launched Unleash America in February 2023, the super PAC had one stated goal: To get Republicans elected during Virginia’s 2023 statehouse contests to support Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s agenda, as reported by the Staunton News Leader and USA Today.

The PAC raised $103,489 in individual contributions from around the country, which Cao called a “minimal amount” in an earlier interview with John Fredericks, another conservative talkshow host. Cao’s principal U.S. Senate campaign committee, Hung Cao for Virginia, contributed $45,000 to the super PAC, for a total of $148,489 raised by Unleash America between January and December 2023.

After Republicans lost the House of Delegates in Virginia and failed to flip the Senate, analysis of Unleash America’s expenditures showed no support of any kind, in-kind or otherwise, for Virginia’s Republican candidates.

In that earlier interview with Fredericks, Cao said “a lot of the money was reimbursed.” However, according to Federal Election Commission filings, money raised by Unleash America was paid to people who worked on Cao’s failed 2022 Congressional campaign as well as his current bid for the U.S. Senate.

“Start up costs a lot, you have to have lawyers, you have to have compliance people, you have to have start up fees, so a lot of the money was moved over from the old campaign to keep it alive,” Cao told Fredericks, apparently referring to the cost to launch his bid for the U.S. Senate.

Where did the money go?

About $12,500 of the money donated to Unleash America was spent on legal fees, according to FEC filings.

Another $37,514 from the super PAC was paid to John Ryan O’Rourke. O’Rourke is Cao’s 2024 Senate campaign manager and was his campaign manager during his 2022 bid for Congress. In the same year that O’Rourke received payment from Unleash America, he also received $96,168 from Hung Cao for Virginia, Cao’s Senate campaign committee.

Another $22,867 of Unleash America’s money went to K2 & Co., a communications firm Cao had employed during his 2022 Congressional campaign and also during his 2024 Senate campaign. K2 & Co. was paid $15,000 by Cao’s Senate campaign on October 3, 2023.

The super PAC also paid $29,403 for list rentals, $18,576 for digital fundraising, $6,398 in meeting and lodging expenses as well as bank fees and $3,904 in earmark fees to WinRed, a fundraising arm of the Republican Party.

Federal Election Commission filings show that Unleash America did not contribute any of the $148,489 it raised to Virginia’s Republican candidates in 2023.

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Virginia

Virginia Union’s Curtis Allen makes HBCU history winning Harlan Hill trophy: ‘Kind of crazy’

Published

9 hours ago

December 22, 2025

Press Room

Virginia Union’s Curtis Allen makes HBCU history winning Harlan Hill trophy: ‘Kind of crazy’

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Union running back Curtis Allen made history by becoming the first player from a Historically Black College or University to win the Harlan Hill Trophy as Division II college football’s player of the year.

Allen, in his only season as the Panthers’ starting running back, rewrote the program’s record books and captured the 39th annual award after a dominant campaign.

The senior finished 82 votes ahead of the second-place finisher and broke a 10-year streak of quarterbacks winning the honor, which is Division II’s equivalent to the Heisman Trophy.

Allen set a new Division II single-season rushing record with 2,409 yards in just 12 games, along with a nation-leading 30 rushing touchdowns. He also broke the CIAA single-season rushing mark.

“It really sounds crazy because, you know, I really thought Jada (Byers) won last year, but I thought he was a finalist, but I thought he won,” Allen said. “So for me to actually win it, that’s actually kind of crazy. Because I feel like Jada could have possibly been a better running back than me. I just took what he did and did a little bit, you know better than him.”

Allen also recently won the 2025 Willie Laneir Award for his outstanding performance on the field.

Virginia Union’s Curtis Allen takes home Lanier Award

CBS 6 provides Central Virginia with the most experienced local TV sports coverage in town. Count on Lane Casadonte and Sean Robertson for the most in-depth local sports coverage.

This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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Virginia

Virginia lottery tickets win $400K in Saturday’s Powerball drawing

Published

21 hours ago

December 21, 2025

Press Room

VIRGINIA (WAVY) – Saturday’s Powerball drawing treated Virginia players well as there were six winners which totaled $400,000, including a ticket bought in Richmond that won $150,000.

Virginia Lottery saw an additional five players win $50,000 each, including one winner in Norfolk. The ticket that won $150,000 was bought at:

Publix, 4591 South Laburnum Avenue in Richmond.

The five tickets that each won $50,000 were bought at:

7-Eleven. 14533 Lee Road in Chantilly,
Food Lion, 1859 East Little Creek Road in Norfolk,
BJ’s, 6607 Wilson Blvd. in Falls Church,
Murphy USA, 1860 Stavemill Crossing Lane in Powhatan,
Online, using the Virginia Lottery mobile app.

Powerball drawings are held Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m., with the odds of matching all six numbers sitting at 1 in 292,201,338. No tickets purchased matched all six numbers, raising the jackpot for Dec. 22 drawing to $1.6 billion.

All Virginia Lottery profits, including those from the sale of Powerball tickets, go to K-12 education in Virginia. For more information, visit the link here.

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Virginia

Five Key Takeaways From Virginia’s 80-72 Win Over Maryland

Published

1 day ago

December 21, 2025

Press Room

Five Key Takeaways From Virginia’s 80-72 Win Over Maryland

Virginia picked up another key win on Saturday evening after a 56 point explosion in the second-half marked by stellar shooting from the perimeter. Virginia pulled away to a double-digit lead and hit its free throws late to put the game away. Let’s take a deeper look at some key takeaways in the victory for the Cavaliers.

1. Virginia shoots the lights out in the second half

After struggling in the first half and only making nine of its 33 field goals, Virginia found its groove in the second half. The Cavaliers went 21-33 and were scorching hot from three-point range. The Hoos went 6-11 from beyond the arc, and their best perimeter shooter Jacari White went 3-3 from the three-point line in the second half. How was Virginia able to find its groove? They were sharing the basketball and continuing to find the open man. Virginia had 13 assists on 21 made field goals. Maryland had no answers for the Virginia offense and struggled to slow them down after an impressive showing in the first half. The Hoos had two players who scored double figures in the second half.

2. Chance Mallory gets it done on defense

The young guard didn’t have a great game shooting the basketball, going just 2-9 from the field, but what makes him special is his ability to affect the game in other ways especially defensively. Mallory was a pest on the defensive side of the ball and came up with five steals in the game, which led the team. He also added a block on Saturday evening. To be a small guard, he guards the perimeter extremely well. In days like Saturday when your offense is not hitting on all cylinders and struggling to score, it is a luxury to have a defense you can lean on to get you going. The Hoos have a perimeter player who can lead the charge and help the offense get back in a rhythm.

3. Dallin Hall Ignites

Hall was a go-to player in the second half of the game for the Cavaliers. He finished with 20 points on 8-8 shooting. In the second half alone, he scored 18 points. Hall scored in multitude of ways by driving to the rim, hitting perimeter shots, catch and shoots, and creating offense for himself. He did a little bit of everything and was the main engine on offense for the Cavaliers, especially when their best players struggled to get it going. That is what makes Virginia so good; they have true depth on their roster, and anybody can get theirs. Tonight happened to be Hall’s night.

4. Virginia defense is a problem

As we mentioned earlier, a main part of the defensive effort was Mallory, but he didn’t do it alone. Virginia continued to apply ball pressure and make it tough for the Terrapins to bring the ball up the floor. That led to 19 turnovers by Maryland on Saturday evening. The Hoos turned those turnovers into 22 points. A stat that further brings home their performance is their 15 steals on the evening. Yes, you read that right: 15 steals. Virginia had three different players with at least three steals on Saturday. Mallory, Hall, and Jacari White. Their first-half defense was exceptionally good as they held Maryland to just five made field goals and 21% from the field. They also only made two threes and forced 10 turnovers. When Virginia is playing at that level defensively, they are tough to beat.

5. Virginia is a scary basketball team

They are ranked No.24 in the country for a reason, but the Cavaliers are one of the best teams in the country, and they continue to prove it each night on the floor. After a long break, the first half was rough for the Hoos, but they hung their hat on their defense, which came through in a major way. Then their offense came alive, and the game wasn’t even close. Virginia has one of the better offenses in the ACC, and they have hit 80+ points in 10 of the 11 games played this season. What makes that stat even better is that the scoring isn’t predicted on their best players like Thijs De Ridder, Johann Grunloh, or Chance Mallory. Anybody can be the leading scorer on any given night. In their win over Maryland Eastern, Sam Lewis was the leading scorer with 15 points. Tonight it was Dallin Hall with 20 points on a perfect 8-8 shooting. When you have the depth, defense, scoring prowess, and unselfishness that Virginia has, it makes the team a tough one to play against and stop. Virginia continues to send warning signs to college basketball about how legit they are. Don’t just look at the 10-1 record, but what they are doing in each game and how they play basketball together. This team is legit.