While publicly refusing to accept political contributions from corporate political action committees (PACs), former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee for Governor of Virginia, has raked in huge sums from the executives that run those same corporations.

As a member of Congress, Spanberger took thousands from corporate and special interest PACs via her leadership campaign committee called SPAN PAC. Donations from a PAC funded by Big Tech, Big Pharma, and defense contractors gave Spanberger $10,000 in 2020.

Spanberger pledged to not “accept a dime of corporate money”, though the differentiation is between “corporate PAC money”, which Spanberger has eschewed, and “corporate money,” which could be considered personal donations from corporate executives.

Among Spanberger’s top donors is Silicon Valley tycoon and liberal mega-donor Reid Hoffman who donated $350,000 to her campaign for Governor. According to Restoration News, the Democrat also received $250,000 from healthcare executive Glen E. Tullman, $127,000 from Microsoft’s CTO James Scott, and another $127,000 from California donor and former Kamala Harris backer Shannon Hunt-Scott.

While Hoffman’s $350,000 in donations is an eyepopping amount, it pales in comparison to the half million dollars given directly to her campaign by liberal political group VoteVets.

Earlier this year, local news reported of Spanberger’s campaign contributions, less than 38% of them come from Virginians, with California, Louisiana, and North Carolina donors piling up the cash for Spanberger. One political science professor says the off-year election and the fact that “an American Democrat in North Carolina or California or North Dakota is mad about” President Trump, there aren’t any local races to donate to and “look to Virginia or New Jersey” to donate.

While running for and serving in Congress, Spanberger pitched herself as a moderate, but has shifted considerably left-ward at the same time that she raked in millions from liberal megadonors. Virginia conservatives are warning voters that Spanberger’s California donations could come with California policies that will make the cost of living “even more expensive” in Virginia.

Campaign finance reports from last month show Spanberger having raised $6.7 million in the first quarter, with Spanberger’s Republican opponent Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears raising just over $3 million. The latest reports also show the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees’ “Working Families Fund” donated a quarter million dollars to Spanberger. AFSCME is the nation’s largest union for government workers.

What’s motivating Democrat donors across the country? Spanberger and fellow Virginia Democrats are using President Trump and Elon Musk as foils, taking advantage of Democratic voters’ fears of the Trump agenda.