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Notes -
George Mason U is more conservative than the modal university, but let's not overstate it.
GMU's law school is a well-regarded pipeline to legal jobs in DC. This has given the school a solid network of grateful, connected alumni, and made it a mild bastion for conservative ideas. The law school was renamed for Scalia in 2016, and Koch brothers money followed. For a certain kind of shallow person, that association was all the proof necessary of the school's conservstive bent, which reputation has actually probably done more to lean the school toward the conservative side than would have otherwise happened. (For example, Brett Kavanaugh was given a faculty position there after his confirmation to the Supreme Court.)
The Economics department supposedly has a libertarian bent. There was a minor scandal where it came out that the Kochs were allowed to pick candidates for the department in exchange for their donations.
GMU is the largest public school in Virginia. Despite Virginia's recent reputation as a blue state, it still elects Republicans to lead the state government, and this has kept its political hands at least somewhat tied. But political comprimises are never really respected in American universities -- Youngkin's restrictions have all been challenged in court, and will probably not be respected even if he wins. (It's the same as college administrators across the country admitting that they will work around the recent ban on affirmative action as best they can.)
The school automatically admits top-performing students from across Virginia regardless of anything else, which restricts a certain level of affirmative action admissions gamesmanship in the student body. But I really don't think that makes much of a difference. Selective schools like the Ivies are not especially more woke than broad-body state schools.
GMU is still a university in the modern day, still comprised of a professor class that networks and affiliates across universities, still broadly left, still operating a modern DEI and Title IX regime. That it has carved out some role for conservatives makes GMU one of the more intellectually free schools in the country, but I suspect this is a low bar.
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