Kilgore elected Virginia House GOP leader, succeeding Gilbert

On Sunday, Del. C. Todd Gilbert stepped down as Republican minority leader in the Virginia House of Delegates, and House Republicans elected Del. Terry Kilgore to succeed him. If the GOP wins a majority of the House’s 100 seats this fall, Kilgore would become speaker.

Shenandoah County attorney Gilbert, who was formerly House speaker, is in the running to become the next U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia and had reportedly offered to step down as the party’s leader in the House if Republican delegates chose to hold a leadership election.

Kilgore, R-Scott County, has served in the House since 1994 and was previously House majority leader during Gilbert’s term as speaker in 2022-24. He unsuccessfully challenged Gilbert in 2021 for the speaker’s seat and serves on the Labor and Commerce, Courts of Justice and Rules committees.

“I’m honored by the trust my colleagues have placed in me,” Kilgore said in a statement. “We need disciplined leadership, a unified message and a clear strategy to take back the House. I’m ready to get to work. 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.”

The twin brother of former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, Terry Kilgore represents the counties of Lee, Scott and Wise, part of Dickenson County, and the City of Norton in Southwest Virginia. A long-time commissioner and former chair for the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission, he helped launch InvestSWVA, a marketing campaign to attract business to Southwest Virginia, and has been a prominent voice for building small modular nuclear reactors in Virginia and repurposing abandoned coal mines in the economically struggling Southwest region.

In November, all 100 seats of the Virginia House of Delegates are up for election, in addition to the state’s next governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.

The power balance between the parties has seesawed in recent years, with Democrats controlling both the House and Virginia State Senate, as well as the governorship, from 2020 to 2021. But in the November 2021 elections, Republicans won back the House and the governorship.