By Megan Cullins, contributor
While July is usually quieter for election candidates, Rockingham County School Board member Matt Cross — who’s running for re-election this fall — has had a busy month by landing a second chance at landing a key endorsement and having to pay a state fine for a not filing his campaign fundraising reports on time.
The Virginia State Board of Elections is fining Matt Cross $9,200 for campaign finance violations.
The “Matthew Cross School Board District 3” campaign failed to file its required reports by their due date, according to documents The Citizen received from the Rockingham County Registrar through a Freedom of Information Act request.
During Cross’s first election cycle — starting in 2021 and ending in 2022 — Cross was supposed to submit his campaign finance report by Dec. 2, 2021, showing the donations his campaign raised and how he spent that money. The next report was due Jan. 18, 2022. Both of those reports were filed on March 1, 2022, resulting in a fine of $1,100.
Another set of nine reports were due periodically between July 15, 2022, and July 15, 2025. The documents from the registrar’s office shows that Cross filed all nine of those finance reports earlier this month on July 17.
Fines for those late reports totaled $8,100. The fines from these two election cycles total $9,200 that Cross’ campaign owes to the Virginia State Board of Elections.
The Cross campaign received two reminders before each filing due date. The Cross campaign was sent 22 reminders since 2021 to file his reports.
Cross declined to comment for this article.
The Virginia State Department of Elections allows campaigns to file information and reports online through Committee Electronic Tracking System (COMET) or other approved vendors.
All campaigns need to file a Statement of Organization which includes information like name, address, email address, phone number, the office and position the candidate is campaigning for, and information regarding the campaign’s treasurer.
If any part of the Statement of Organization is changed, the campaign “must file an amended Statement of Organization within 10 days of any change to a candidate’s campaign committee information (e.g., a change in address, change of treasurer, etc.) through the COMET program and send signed copies to the appropriate office(s),” according to Virginia State Department of Elections.
Rockingham GOP will re-vote to endorse Cross
Meanwhile, Cross will get another chance to secure a Rockingham County Republican Party group’s endorsement after the group declined earlier this summer to support any candidate in the 3rd District school board race.
The Rockingham County Republicans, as a result of actions at its July 16 meeting, will now reconsider endorsing Cross during the organization’s Aug. 7 meeting. This comes after the group declined to endorse him at its April meeting when Cross made his pitch to the county Republican group. The organization also declined to officially throw its support behind Hilary Irons, who is also running for the 3rd District school board seat, during a meeting in June. The third candidate in the race, Lauren Mullen, has not sought the Republicans’ endorsement.
That district covers Grottoes, Melrose, Keezletown, Massanetta Springs, Cross Keys and Port Republic, and while the school board race is non-partisan, political organizations can back candidates.
Now, the Rockingham County Republicans will revisit making an endorsement in the race after approving a motion at their July 16 meeting that overturned a party bylaw.
The group’s bylaws say that any political candidate who has sought endorsement from the party but did not obtain it, may not be granted a revote, but any bylaw may be overturned “by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of those members of the County Committee who are present and voting,” according to Article 12 of the Rockingham County Republicans bylaws. As long as “the amendment has been given in writing to all members at least seven days prior to such meeting.”
That’s what happened July 16.
One Republican at the meeting, Sandee Emswiler, made a motion to reject Matt Cross’ second attempt for endorsement as being invalid. Emswiler’s motion argued that only voting members in District 3 — the area in which Cross is running — were notified about Cross’ new request but not all party members received that notification.
Twenty voting members from District 3 had joined the party since Cross initially sought the group’s endorsement in April. These people paid the dues to the County Republicans and were able to vote after two meetings. Every voting member of the party goes through this process.
Party chairman Daryl Borgquist declared the motion out of order, but after an appeal, the motion moved forward to voting and was approved, according to the meeting minutes.
Committee member Theodore Whitelow motioned to suspend the endorsement bylaws and to officially endorse Cross.
“The endorsement policy was approved in 2024 as an addition to the bylaws, that he did not believe the bylaws could be suspended, and that it would require more than a simple majority vote to amend them in addition to prior notification of seven days,” said Matt Dale, according to the party’s meeting minutes.
Once again Borgquist declared the motion out of order but was overruled by an appeal which moved the motion to vote. The motion was approved.
A final motion was made to have the Rockingham County Republican Women recall their endorsement of Hilary Irons.
“The county committee has no authority to dictate the Republican Women who they can and cannot endorse. They are governed by their own bylaws under the Federation of Republican Women,” said Dan Cullers, a member of the committee.
The Republican group later amended the motion by replacing the word “call” with “request” in its effort to urge the Republican Women to not endorse Irons. The new version of the motion passed.
The Rockingham County Republicans Executive Board met the following weekend. The board found that “participation in the endorsement process and vote is strictly limited to members of the committee who reside in the jurisdiction a candidate is running to represent,” according to the bylaws approved in July 2024.
The board found that the consideration to nullify Cross’ failed endorsement vote in April was in order. Because there is no candidate currently being endorsed by the county Republicans, they are accepting Cross’ application for endorsement.
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