Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin (R), who has been rolling out cabinet picks ahead of his Jan. 15 inauguration, on Tuesday announced his choices for veterans and agriculture secretaries.

       Youngkin nominated Craig Crenshaw for secretary of veterans and defense affairs and Matt Lohr for secretary of agriculture and forestry.

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       Crenshaw, president of government contractor Claxton Logistics Services, served in the Marine Corps, retiring as a major general, according to Youngkin’s transition team. His service included stints as commanding general and director of logistics plans and policy for the Marine Corps and vice director for logistics at the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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       Youngkin picks Richmond insider Richard Cullen, businessman Jeff Goettman for key Cabinet posts

       Lohr, raised on a family farm in the Shenandoah Valley, served four years in the House of Delegates until then-Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) made him commissioner of the state’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in 2010. Lohr served as chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service under President Donald Trump.

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       Youngkin also named two top officials who will work under those secretaries: Daniel Gade as commissioner of the Department of Veterans Services; and Joseph Guthrie as commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

       An Army veteran who lost a leg in combat in Iraq, Gade waged a failed bid to unseat Sen. Mark R. Warner (D) in 2020. He taught at U.S. Military Academy for six years before retiring as a lieutenant colonel, going on to co-found The Independence Project, which benefits veterans and their families.

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       Guthrie, who owns and has operated a beef cattle and hay farm in Pulaski County, is a senior instructor at Virginia Tech, his alma mater, where he has taught courses in business management, finance, communications, and leadership in the agricultural technology program since 2007. He has a master’s degree in agricultural economics and international trade from Massey University in New Zealand, where he studied as a Fulbright Scholar.