An outside group funded by GOP billionaire and Christian Right activist Richard Uihlein is running radio attack ads to influence this year’s race for attorney general in Virginia.
The incumbent, MAGA Republican Jason Miyares, is facing Democratic nominee Jay Jones, a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, in the November election.
Americas PAC, an outside political action committee bankrolled by Uihlein’s Restoration PAC, is spending $163,840 on ads claiming that Jones, who is African American, supports undocumented criminals more than he does their victims.
The ad warns that:
Virginia Democrats put dangerous criminals first, victims last. Virginia Democrats oppose deportation of violent illegal alien criminals…. Democrats like Jay Jones stand with criminals not victims…. Democrats supporting violent criminals. Democrat Jay Jones — too dangerous for Virginia.
The message — that Democrats are “soft” on crime and undocumented immigrants are dangerous — is one that Uihlein’s groups have used in other races. Notably, in the 2022 reelection campaign of Senator Ron Johnson (R–WI) against another African American, former Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, a Uihlein-funded PAC attacked Barnes for purportedly wanting to defund the police and allow criminals to walk free, a charge he rejected.
Democratic supporters lambasted the GOP for being racist in calling Barnes “different” and “dangerous” and sending out a pro-Johnson direct mail piece to voters with a photo of Barnes manipulated to portray him with darker skin than he actually has.
Last year Restoration PAC similarly slammed Vice President Kamala Harris in her run for the presidency with a digital ad showing Americans who had been murdered by undocumented immigrants, claiming that she had done nothing to stop the flow of immigrants into the U.S., and accusing her and President Biden of being responsible for their deaths.
In response to the attack ad, the Jay Jones campaign told the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD):
It’s no surprise that Trump-aligned billionaires are already on the attack on behalf of Jason Miyares, who has always put appeasing Trump and ultra-wealthy donors ahead of what’s best for hardworking Virginia families. These ads have made one thing clear: if reelected, Miyares will be instrumental to enacting Trump’s destructive agenda in Virginia.
The ad also follows a strategy to target Black voters, which the Christian Right used in their successful effort to flip Virginia to Republican control in 2021, when Miyares was first elected.
E.W. Jackson, a Council for National Policy (CNP) Gold Circle member, told Christian Right activists at a 2022 CNP meeting that microtargeting Black precincts with ads on “Black and urban radio stations” contributed to the GOP’s success in the state, as CMD reported. Jackson is a Virginia-based minister and lawyer, and founder of the conservative political organization STAND (Staying True to America’s National Destiny).
Given their “common worldview,” Jackson argued that CNP activists and donors should invest in efforts to mobilize the Black community to vote for Republicans across the country, just as his groups did in Virginia. He defined that “worldview” as anti-abortion, against same-sex marriage, and in favor of “vigorous law enforcement to protect people… to protect babies.”
Uihlein’s Political Operation
Restoration PAC and the Uihleins were among the largest donors to pro-Trump organizations in the 2024 election.
Uihlein and his wife Elizabeth, who live in Lake Forest, Illinois, own ULINE, a private shipping and packaging company based in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. He is an heir to the Schlitz beer brewing company, and with his wife, is among the largest donors to Wisconsin Republican Party committees and candidates.
In the first half of 2025, Americas PAC received 98% of its revenue from Uihlein’s flagship super PAC, Restoration PAC. Restoration PAC spent $42.7 million in the 2024 election cycle and has spent $75 million overall in federal races since it was established in 2015.
Restoration PAC is one in a constellation of groups run by right-wing operative Doug Truax and fueled by Uihlein cash that includes the Foundation for the Restoration of America, the Voter Reference Foundation, and Fair Courts America.
Uihlein also distributes tens of millions of dollars through his family foundation to support right-wing litigation centers and far-right advocacy, policy, media, and youth groups.
Richard and Liz Uihlein personally spent $143.5 million on federal races in the 2024 election cycle, largely on super PAC ads attacking Democrats and supporting Trump’s reelection, along with other Republican candidates.
The Uihleins were the fourth largest donors in 2024 federal races, after billionaires Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX; Timothy Mellon, scion of the eponymous banking family; and Miriam Adelson of the Las Vegas Sands corporation.
The Uihlein-funded attack ads targeted at federal candidates have focused heavily on the myths of widespread immigrant crime and noncitizen voting. The nature of these TV and digital ads, including ones against Harris and senators Tammy Baldwin (D–WI) and Jon Tester (D–MT), are discussed in the CMD analysis of Uihlein’s 2024 spending, not just through his super PACs but through his foundation as well.
Americas PAC
Americas PAC has a mailing address in Marion, Iowa, but is run by Texas political consultant Tom Donelson. Donelson was the longtime political consultant for the late Richard Nadler, a conservative political theorist and pundit from Kansas who served as president of Americas Majority.
Donelson registered Americas PAC with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) as a super PAC in 2014. As an independent expenditure committee, it can accept unlimited contributions to advocate for the election or defeat of specific candidates.
Virtually all of the funding for Americas PAC since its inception has come from Richard Uihlein or his Restoration PAC ($3.97 million in 2022, and $3.25 million in 2024).
Miyares Aligned With RAGA
Since Miyares first ran for Virginia attorney general in 2021, he has raised $16.6 million, $4.6 million of which came from the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), including a $2-million contribution this June.
The far-right pay-to-play group and its corporate funders have been the focus of extensive research and reporting by CMD.
In 2024 Miyares joined a lawsuit with other RAGA members to stop the Biden-Harris administration from extending the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Miyares calls the more than 525,000 DACA residents of the U.S. “illegal immigrants.” But while they are not citizens, they are conferred certain rights, such as temporary work permits and protection from deportation for having been brought to the country as children.
Last year Miyares also joined other GOP attorneys general in a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation of smokestack emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants. The Trump administration is pushing to reverse the EPA rule, which would allow fossil fuel-fired plants to release unlimited greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
In addition, Miyares joined other Republican attorneys general in a lawsuit to block a federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services rule that would increase staffing levels in nursing homes, saying that it would be too expensive and cause nursing homes to shut down even though the rule would have exempted certain nursing homes facing a hardship in meeting the staffing requirement.
While Miyares emphasizes the role his office has played nationally, Jones points to issues closer to home. In a recent debate, he accused Miyares of not doing enough to prevent federal workers from being fired by Trump since he returned to office. A recent University of Virginia economic forecast predicts that the state will lose more than 9,000 federal jobs this year and a total of 32,000 jobs due to “federal force reductions and the loss of government contracts.”
David Armiak contributed research to this story.
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