A leader of an unconstitutional Virginia militia is on record laying out a dangerous vision for “county militias.” Two leaders of the militia are also the subjects of a Virginia National Guard investigation.
Alexandra Griffeth and Daniel Abbott are staff sergeants in Virginia’s National Guard. Both are also leaders in the Campbell County Militia, a self-styled vigilante group that claims the commissioners of Campbell County, Virginia, passed a resolution supporting their militia. The 2020 resolution said the county wouldn’t form a militia itself. Instead, it would support efforts by county citizens to form one. The commissioners straddled this line since the county attorney correctly informed them that they lacked the constitutional ability to create and mobilize a county militia. The resolution does state that the militia is intended to be “a barrier against a tyrannical government.” On the Campbell County Militia website, Abbott claims his group is “formally recognized” by the county and is the “the largest constitutional militia in the nation.”
Abbott’s stated goal, while still serving in the National Guard, is to build a division-level military force throughout Virginia to counter government legislation and policies. The U.S. government “is the greatest threat to our safety and security,” according to Abbott, and in response to this perceived threat, he and others in the world of militias want the movement to grow fangs.
Abbott and Griffeth are two noncommissioned officers in the National Guard who have sworn to protect the U.S. Constitution and the government it authorizes. Abbott was named “noncommissioned officer of the year” at the Virginia Army National Guard’s 2023 Best Warrior Competition in March 2023. Similarly, Griffeth is a combat engineer and infantryman who is one of the state’s best shooters, having successfully competed in marksmanship competitions. Not surprisingly, Griffeth plays a leadership role in the militia’s tactical training.
The Virginia National Guard is investigating the militia leaders, according to Military.com, as Army rules prohibit activity that threatens or advocates overthrowing the government. Ultimately, Abbott and Griffeth could be booted from the military for their antigovernment activities.
County militias are part of an alarming trend on the extremist right. They bring together the incorrect beliefs that counties can raise their own armed forces, that checks and balances should be narrowed down to an armed standoff between branches of government, and that counties can nullify or ignore state and federal laws, policies and rulings. The county militias, which are not lawful entities at all, bring together several right-wing conspiracy theories that place power in local, rural counties. This plan to create an army to oppose one’s own elected officials is not an American achievement. It is an attack on democratic institutions that, once lost, are very hard to regain.
At a meeting for new members, Abbott explicitly described the plan to build an army, county by county, in Virginia. The 104 Virginia counties he mentioned had previously passed Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions, which sought to counteract gun control laws from Virginia’s statehouse. It is worth quoting in full:
Well, what if 104 counties each had a 100-member constitutional militia? I think a hundred’s a really low estimate. I’ve got almost 500 on my roster in Campbell County, [Bedford County Militia’s] 300 and something. I think 100 is a very low estimate. But just for the sake of round math, let’s use 100. Times 104 counties, that’s 10,400 men in arms. That seems like quite a bit.
What if we factored in the sheriff’s departments? I think we should. I think in most places, the sheriffs are red-, white- and blue-blooded. They believe in America. And if I think, if they had real support, sheriffs, not state police, I think that they would back the people. So, let’s say there’s 50 deputies per county. Now we’re talking about 15,000 men in arms, the rural part of the state.
Well, for perspective, I work for the Virginia Army National Guard. The strength for the Virginia Army National Guard is about 7,000. Now, all of a sudden, that monopoly on force that government maintains doesn’t really exist. Can they make a threat against the 15,000-man unit? No, they can’t. And that’s if we assumed that every single member of the Virginia Army National Guard were bootlicking communists and would carry out any order that was issued to them, which they’re not. I promise there’s at least one same thing with the Virginia State Police. They’re way under strength. Their own strength is supposed to be 1,800, and they’re not, they’re shy of 1,100, so they’re way under strength.
Abbott seeks to raise an army to check his own elected representatives and to undermine the very Constitution, with its checks and balances, that those in militias so often say they revere. He boils down political checks and balances to sheer force.
Abbott and Griffeth not alone
Abbott’s words are no empty boast. He and others have been building up a network of militias in Virginia, including an epicenter of militia activity around Lynchburg, Virginia, where there are now several such militias, including Campbell, Bedford, Amherst, Appomattox and the newly created Lynchburg Constitutional Militia. There is also a Lynchburg Regional Militia Cooperative, and Abbott presided over the Lynchburg Constitutional Militia’s first “muster,” or public meeting, in October 2024, wearing a colonial officer’s uniform. This plays into militias often framing themselves as the modern-day versions of colonists engaging in the American Revolution.
Beyond Lynchburg, Abbott and others have teamed up to organize militias by counties or congressional districts across the state. Bob Herget, the founder and leader of York County Poquoson Community Missions, has stated publicly that Abbott is organizing the western part of the state and the 11th Congressional District, while Herget organizes the eastern part. York County Poquoson Community Missions was originally called York County Poquoson Constitutional Militia. Herget switched the name after the local sheriff suggested they drop the word “militia.”
Herget has been accused of working with the local school board to film school events to see if they are too progressive. Herget’s militia is also working closely with Tactical Civics, which acts like an ideological finishing school for the York militia. Herget has called their Tactical Civics contact their “professor” to the militia’s “high school students.” This also reveals how deeply Tactical Civics, a relatively new antigovernment and anti-democratic group, is making inroads into the Virginia antigovernment scene.
The severity of the county militia movement was unveiled recently when the FBI arrested Brad Spafford of Isle of Wight County in southeastern Virginia, CBS News reported. He was arrested for allegedly possessing an unregistered short-barrel rifle, and a huge arsenal was found while the search warrant was being executed. According to the Anti-Defamation League, Spafford is a member of the Southampton County Militia. When federal agents entered Spafford’s home, an arsenal was found that included “150 homemade improvised explosive devices” that were assessed as pipe bombs, as well as other explosive material. Spafford has also argued that political assassinations should make a comeback. The Southampton militia’s public website has recently been taken down.
Constitution, military policy against county militias
Common among militias is the idea that all citizens are members of the militia, and that the militia is an institution that predates the Constitution, giving their organizations a false veneer of a formidable group that possesses authority. The militia, simply by asserting its presence, seems to be the only legitimacy they require.
In an age when public confidence in political institutions has plummeted, militia leaders like those in Virginia are trying to occupy the field and assert their legitimacy as one of, if not the most, important institutions in the United States, even though their claims, which often reference statutes and the U.S. Constitution, in fact have no legal basis. As Georgetown University’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Prevention (ICAP) argued in a letter to Campbell County, there are several statutes, as well as the Virginia Constitution’s Strict Subordination Clause, that prohibit such militias. ICAP points out that counties do not have the power to muster or approve militias, which is a power of the state.
U.S. military policy also does not permit its members to engage in extremism. “Active participation in extremist activities,” one Army memo reads, “can be prohibited even in some circumstances in which such activities would be constitutionally protected in a civilian setting.”
Hatewatch reached out to Abbott and Griffeth via email for comment on the Virginia National Guard’s investigation but did not receive a response before publication.
The Campbell County militia is one of the first so-called “county militias” that arose in the wake of COVID-19 and after Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions in many Virginia counties. Several counties, most notably Bedford and Campbell, also wrote resolutions supporting county militias, though these resolutions are often vague and do not seem to mention specific, existing militias.
The growth of such militias, which often include veterans, raise alarms about extremism in the military and how it can spread beyond the armed forces into the daily lives of Americans.
Image at top: The Campbell County Militia, a self-styled vigilante group that claims to be “formally recognized” by Campbell County, Virginia, commissioners, also boasts of being “the largest constitutional militia in the nation.” (Credit: SPLC)