Updated June 2 with new information from Gilbert on timing of his announcement.
Virginia House Republicans have made an unusual out-of-cycle leadership change.
House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, and Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Scott County, has been elected to replaced him.
Generally, parties elect their legislative leaders after the election, so the timing of this switch is unusual. However, Gilbert said Monday that he had told the caucus May 22 that he would step down as soon as they could hold elections. It also comes as Gilbert is one of several Republican under consideration to be named the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, the top federal prosecutor in the western half the state, and as both parties head into a fall election where all 100 seats in the House of Delegates will be on the ballot. Democrats currently hold a 51-49 advantage.
Gilbert posted a meme from the “Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy in which the elven queen Galadriel says, “I will diminish and go into the west.”
Gilbert later posted more formal congratulations to Kilgore: “Leading our caucus in various capacities has been the honor of my lifetime. I wish Leader Kilgore all the best and look forward to helping in any way I can.”
Kilgore, elected in 1993, is the second longest-serving member of the current House of Delegates, exceeed only by Robert Orrock, R-Caroline County, who was elected in 1989. Kilgore served as House majority leader when Republican were last in the majority and Gilbert was the speaker. After Republicans lost their majority in 2023, Kilgore challenged Gilbert for the leadership post but lost.
In a statement Sunday, Kilgore said: “I’m honored by the trust my colleagues have placed in me. We need disciplined leadership, a unified message, and a clear strategy to take back the House. I’m ready to get to work.”
He also referred to what the Republican statement called “the importance of unity and urgency.” In the statement, Kilgore said: “We have no time to waste. The 2025 elections are around the corner, and we need to operate like a team ready to win. That starts now.”
Kilgore’s election as House minority leader puts him in line to become speaker of the House should Republicans win the House this fall.
Traditionally, senators made recommendations to the president, even if they are from a different party. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Democrats, have recommended both Gilbert and Robert Tracci, a former deputy assistant U.S. attorney general under President George W. Bush, former chief counel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, a former commonwealth’s attorney in Albemarle County and now a senior assistant attorney general in the office of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.
The three Republican U.S. House members whose congressional districts overlap with the Western District recently took the unusual, but not unprecedented, step of convening their own search and interviewed at least four possible candidates, including Gilbert and Tracci along with Culpeper County deputy commonwealth’s attorney Maggie O’Cleary and Pulaski County commonwealth’s attorney Justin Griffith (no relation to Rep. Morgan Griffith). The House members have not disclosed who they have recommended to Trump, raising the prospect that he might nominate someone not recommended by the two senators.
Republican legislators contacted Sunday emphasized the upcoming elections. “The message today is the Republican House Caucus is fixed on winning and getting back into the majority under the experienced leadership of Terry Kilgore,” said Del. Wendell Walker, R-Lynchburg. “A 32-year veteran of Republican politics, Kilgore understands how to win, the issues we can win on.”
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