Former Speaker and current House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, put his name into the running to become the next United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia.
“It’s kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Gilbert said during an interview with Virginia Scope earlier this week. “I think everybody in Richmond who knows me knows that I have the heart of a prosecutor.”
Gilbert is the leader of the House Republican caucus during a year in which all 100 seats are up for election. Democrats currently hold a 51-49 majority.
“I’m certainly conflicted about leaving one role to assume another potentially, but I don’t have control of the timing of a new administration,” Gilbert said. “I was a prosecutor in four different jurisdictions over 14 years, and certainly, criminal justice policy has been at the core of my service in the General Assembly since I got there.”
Gilbert was first elected to the House in 2006. He says that before that, he was a prosecutor in Shenandoah County, waiting for the Commonwealth Attorney position to open up so that he could run for that position.
However, when his predecessor in the House announced his retirement, Gilbert didn’t want to pass up the opportunity in front of him.
“Those opportunities don’t come very often in your life, and so I took the opportunity, and I’ve been grateful that I’ve had the opportunity,” he said. “But much like that, this circumstance is very similar – an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up without checking to see if I would be a viable candidate.”
Gilbert would not comment on whether anyone from the General Assembly or the governor’s office has put in a good word for him with United States Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.
Traditionally, the state’s senators make recommendations to the White House on nominations for United States Attorneys and District Judges, and these recommendations carry a lot of weight.
Gilbert said that he has met with members of Kaine and Warner’s staff.
Now, he is just waiting to find out if Trump will nominate him.
If he never gets the call, Gilbert says he will remain in the House of Delegates. He has already filed the paperwork to run for reelection in November.
“I would look forward to continuing to [be in the House] if this other thing doesn’t work out,” Gilbert said. “I love serving the people that I represent and serving in the legislature. This could take a while for me to find out, and if it doesn’t work out, I would be thrilled to continue serving in the House of Delegates, if my constituents will have me.”
Gilbert also says he enjoys leading his caucus, but he would leave it up to the members to decide if they want him to currently remain as leader if Trump nominates him.
“I equally love the role of leading our caucus, and I’m gonna have to leave it to my caucus to consider whether or not my interest elsewhere is going to be distracting to our collective purposes in the interim,” Gilbert said.
If Trump selects him and the Senate confirms it, Gilbert says his focus would be on prosecuting criminals, which is what he already knows how to do.
“As a long-time career prosecutor, I would want to apply those skills and well-honed instincts to help make Western Virginia a safer place to live,” Gilbert said. “Certainly, we have our challenges with various types of crime – drugs, fraud, violent crime, abuse of children, human trafficking, gang related crimes – there’s certainly plenty to do and that they’re already doing out there in the Western District, and I would just very much like to be a part of leading that effort.”