Government | Politics 2024: RICHARD CULLEN

Richmond insider Richard Cullen was an early pick by Gov. Glenn Youngkin to serve on the political newcomer’s cabinet when he took office in 2022, and he has remained a prominent figure in the executive branch since.

Before joining the Youngkin administration, Cullen was a senior partner at McGuireWoods, Virginia’s largest law firm. There, he served as chairman for more than a decade and represented a slate of high-profile clients, including former Vice President Mike Pence, former Gov. Doug Wilder, former Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones, and Jonnie R. Williams Sr., the businessman whose relationship with former Gov. Bob McDonnell led to a federal corruption conviction later overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Cullen’s service hasn’t only been in the private sector, though. From 1991 to 1993, he was the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and he spent seven months as attorney general of Virginia in the late 1990s after then-Attorney Gen. Jim Gilmore stepped down to run for governor. 

A graduate of Furman University and the University of Richmond School of Law, Cullen serves as board chair for the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.