RICHMOND — Todd Gilbert knows he makes a certain impression on people.
He’s a big guy — 6-4 or 6-5, “depending on how full of myself I am that day,” he says. For years, his bald head, scowl and goatee, combined with a cutting wit, were powerful weapons of intimidation in Gilbert’s role as a top Republican debater in Virginia’s House of Delegates.
Wp Get the full experience.Choose your plan ArrowRight
But this year, Gilbert, 51, took on a far more nuanced job as speaker of the House — keeping the parliamentary gears turning for others to engage in the kind of debates he used to dominate.
The ascension in January of the longtime former prosecutor marked a return to power for Republicans after two years of a Democratic House majority. Along with the more high-profile election of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Gilbert’s new position created a clear change in the state’s political direction.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Gilbert took over Jan. 12 from former speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax), the first woman to hold the job. Where she was a liberal from the deep blue D.C. suburbs, Gilbert is a rural conservative from the Shenandoah Valley town of Woodstock — a part of Virginia that had seen its power in Richmond wane in recent years.
With the state Senate still under Democratic control, Gilbert emerged over the course of the General Assembly session as a key ally of Youngkin, who arrived as a political newcomer with few connections to the legislature.
Va. Gov. Youngkin promises quick action on bill to make masks optional in schools
The two men confer on an almost daily basis, aides say, and Gilbert’s leadership of the 52-to-48 GOP majority in the House has been the clearest conveyance of the governor’s agenda — advancing tax cuts, attacking the concept of racial equity in education programs and seeking greater state control over school curriculums. Democrats in the Senate shut down most of the policy efforts, and the General Assembly session wrapped up Saturday without a deal on taxes and the budget. Lawmakers will have to return to finalize a spending plan.
But Gilbert pragmatically steered the House away from some far-right talking points that might have fired up the base but stood little chance once they got to the Senate. He said before the session that restrictions on voting and abortion would not be major priorities, and only a handful of related bills survived the committee process, which the speaker controls. The Senate, as expected, finished them off.
Aside from one high-profile slip at the beginning, Gilbert has won plaudits for throttling back his snarky side to keep the House from going off the rails in partisan bickering.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
“I think he’s been fair,” said Del. Marcus B. Simon (D-Fairfax), who had long been one of Gilbert’s top adversaries in floor debates. “I’ve surprised myself winning some arguments on [procedural points]. I think he does want to be fair on that stuff.”
That’s because Gilbert views it as the speaker’s priority to keep order. “I do hope we have the kind of relationship where, on the Democratic side, if it comes to it, we can have cooler heads prevail,” he said in an interview. “But I’ve also been the guy who kind of ratcheted things up, too … and I don’t shy away from that. I did not come into public service to shrink from things that I thought were important or that needed to be said.”
***
Story continues below advertisement
Gilbert’s debut in the new role did not go smoothly. On Jan. 12, hours after taking the dais at the beginning of the legislative session, Gilbert set off a furor by sending a tweet as then-Gov. Ralph Northam (D) wrapped up his final speech to the legislature. Alluding to Northam’s efforts at racial reckoning after a blackface scandal, and to Youngkin’s impending swearing-in, Gilbert wrote:
Advertisement
“Ralph Northam is leaving office as his own lost cause, condescendingly lecturing us all from some assumed moral high ground because he read the book ‘Roots’ and then went on a non-stop reconciliation tour. Saturday can’t come fast enough.”
It was the kind of partisan jab that Gilbert was famous for from the back row of the House when he was GOP majority leader but was widely condemned as inappropriate for a speaker sitting behind the governor. Gilbert didn’t exactly apologize, but Republicans have privately acknowledged that the incident was a bad look, and Gilbert hasn’t issued any more hot-take tweets.
New Virginia House speaker's tweet about Northam sparks partisan fire
“He’s been very measured. He’s definitely not been the Todd Gilbert he was when he was majority leader. He’s really grown into the role as speaker,” said Del. Terry G. Kilgore (R-Scott), who before the session challenged Gilbert for the top job. The two sat down together and resolved their ambitions, with Kilgore opting to replace Gilbert as House majority leader.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Gilbert has dialed it back so far that he shows few flashes of personality while presiding over the House, keeping things moving with clipped — even terse — efficiency.
When he does show his dry sense of humor — a theatrical shrug, a raised eyebrow, holding up his fingers as devil horns when a delegate referred to Senate Bill 666 — the surprise can draw gales of laughter.
Gilbert was a prosecutor in Lynchburg when he began serving in the House in 2006. He rose quickly, becoming a trusted lieutenant to two previous speakers — William Howell (R-Stafford) and Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights).
Though the tussle of politics seemed to come naturally, Gilbert said he wasn’t especially interested in the field when he was growing up. His childhood ambition was to become a lawyer — or, more specifically, a prosecutor.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
“It’s a really boring thing to want to do as a child,” he said. “My mom would probably suggest that I just like to argue.”
An only child, Gilbert was born in East Texas — he remains a Dallas Cowboys fan — but his family moved often during his first few years as his father rose in management at poultry processing facilities. They had stops in Virginia, Louisiana and Texas before settling for good in the Shenandoah Valley, and Gilbert reckons the travel kept him from developing any regional accent. His mother was a high school typing teacher, which he said explains why he is a stickler for precision in letters and documents.
Gilbert participated in a model General Assembly during high school, serving as a delegate alongside a classmate who served as a senator: Jill Holtzman, who today represents Fauquier County as state Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (R).
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
He was “really funny,” Vogel remembered in an interview. “Pencil thin, full head of hair, really athletic.” She still marvels, she said, at how Gilbert has changed over time. “He has grown into this imposing figure. I see him now and I’m always so … impressed by how he slowly grew into and embraced this new chapter in his life as a successful attorney and very successful legislator.”
After majoring in government at the University of Virginia, Gilbert earned a law degree at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He had worked on Republican George Allen’s successful campaign for Congress while at U-Va., landing an internship with Allen’s office in D.C. But rather than continue down the politics path, Gilbert headed home from law school to look for work as a prosecutor, which he found in Lynchburg.
“I got to jump right into doing trial work, which sort of fit with my sense of righteous indignation about crime,” he said.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Gilbert was happy on the prosecutor track when a longtime local delegate suddenly decided to retire from the General Assembly. As the young chairman of the area Republican committee, Gilbert was recruited to run for the seat and took the leap. He won, and his life bent in a new direction.
It was in Richmond that Gilbert met Jennifer Wishon, a television reporter covering the legislature. They married and now have two young sons. Wishon went on to become senior Washington correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network until stepping down late last year.
Gilbert’s courtroom skills proved a significant asset in the General Assembly. He could play the heavy in floor debates and committee meetings, pressing Democrats with tough questions and drawing blood with verbal jabs.
In Virginia, abortion furor hits new heights as both sides double down
In 2019, it was Gilbert’s prosecutorial questioning that led Del. Kathy Tran (D-Fairfax) to defend a late-term abortion bill in a way that attracted nationwide conservative ire. The uproar spread to the Executive Mansion when Northam, a pediatrician, attempted to address the issue in a radio interview with remarks that fueled GOP allegations that Democrats were supporting infanticide.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
That controversy prompted someone to supply a right-wing website with a racist photo from Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook page, nearly causing the governor to resign.
Gilbert and Kilgore teamed up with Youngkin’s administration in another bare-knuckled political fight this year, threatening to withhold routine confirmation of nearly 1,000 appointments to state boards and commissions that Northam had made in his last year in office. The move was in retaliation for the Senate failing to confirm Youngkin’s pick of a former Trump official as natural resources secretary, and while most of the appointees were finally confirmed, 11 were left out — a political sore spot throughout the General Assembly session.
But while Gilbert cultivates his public persona as partisan tough guy, he can seem quite different outside the House chamber. Unfailingly polite and deferential to colleagues, Gilbert has formed friendships on both sides of the aisle — in part through a reputation for straight dealing.
State Attorney General Jason S. Miyares is a fellow Republican who, until winning office last year, represented Virginia Beach in the House of Delegates. He recalled being a freshman lawmaker years ago and deciding that he was going to vote in committee to overhaul the state’s redistricting policies — not a popular stance at the time among Republicans, who controlled the legislature and had power over redistricting.
“You hear the horror stories” of being punished for defying leadership like that, Miyares said. “But Todd Gilbert said, ‘If this is a vote of conscience for you, I understand. You need to follow your conscience and do what you think is right.’ And I was just a little freshman, but he heard me out.”
Democratic Del. Kathleen J. Murphy (Fairfax) has an unlikely friendship with Gilbert — despite disagreeing politically on “almost everything,” she said. Murphy recalled being new to Richmond, needing to file a bill and being told to go find Gilbert, that he could help.
“He said, ‘Everybody thinks I’m fierce, but I’m a teddy bear,' ” she said. Gilbert then patiently advised her how to draw up the bill so it would be as strong as possible. When the bill went on to be defeated anyway, she returned to Gilbert in mock anger. “Teddy bear? You’re a grizzly bear,” she told him. But they’ve been friends ever since. “He’s a good person, that’s the bottom line,” she said.
***
One of Gilbert’s most significant roles this session has been partnering with Youngkin, who had no prior experience in state government. Many of Youngkin’s advisers are also new to Richmond, with a handful of notable exceptions — including policy adviser Matt Moran, a top staffer for Cox and Howell when each was House speaker.
Youngkin sought out Gilbert shortly after being elected, traveling to Gilbert’s house and visiting with him and his family for a couple of hours, Moran said. “Their relationship is strong and genuine and personal,” he said. Both men are a similar height, both played basketball, both have sons named Grant.
“The speaker and the entire House Republican caucus have been indispensable” for Youngkin, Moran said, delivering consistent votes for the governor’s policy and budget agendas. Gilbert held his 52-vote caucus together for virtually every vote, which is unusual, he said. “I mean, it was down the line, a demonstration of the shared priorities.”
Many of those policy areas were undone by Democrats in the Senate, but Gilbert said his priorities are rooted in a philosophical outlook that won’t be shaken. If Republicans can extend their majority to the Senate in elections next year, Gilbert will be aggressive about putting his worldview into action.
“I’ve just always believed very strongly in the individual as being much more important than the collective,” he said.
Democrats “will speak about rights very often, you know, that you have a right to this or a right to that, a right to health care, a right to shelter,” Gilbert said. “And I believe that every time a right is attributed to someone, that basically it’s ensuring that they are entitled to someone else’s labor. And I don’t think you’re entitled to someone else’s labor. I think the only inherent right you have in this world is to be free, and that everything else is a responsibility.”
Laura Vozzella contributed to this report.