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RICHMOND — Don L. Scott Jr. has been in the Navy, in law school and in prison, and that unusual path has brought him to the doorstep of someplace completely new:
Scott, 58, of Portsmouth, became the first Black person chosen to become Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates since the body’s origins in 1619, the same year the first Africans arrived in chains on Virginia’s shore.
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The selection of Scott as speaker-designee during a Democratic caucus meeting Saturday, widely expected following the party’s majority win in Tuesday’s legislative elections, sets up the likelihood that Black lawmakers will run both chambers of Virginia’s General Assembly, another historic first. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R), the first Black woman elected statewide in Virginia, presides over the state Senate, where Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) is the first Black woman to serve as president pro-tempore.
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When Democratic senators choose their leadership next week, Sen. Mamie Locke (D-Hampton) is in contention to become the first Black majority leader, which would complete an unprecedented concentration of Black leadership in the former capital of the Confederacy, and possibly in the South.
Virginia Democrats to sweep General Assembly, dealing blow to Youngkin
“It is historic,” former governor L. Douglas Wilder, the first African American elected governor of any state since Reconstruction, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “It’s celebratory, but it’s not an endgame — it’s a beginning in terms of what needs to be done.”
But the transformation of leadership in Richmond is a major symbolic shift in a city that treasures symbolism, where just three years ago the graffiti-covered statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee towering over Monument Avenue became an international icon of racial reckoning in reaction to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
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Today that statue is gone, taken down after 131 years of glorifying the lingering spirit of the Lost Cause. Scott said he understands the stakes if he takes up the gavel in a Capitol where White leaders once prohibited people who looked like him from learning to read or even owning dogs, where for a century after the Civil War policies were hatched to keep Black Virginians from voting and, through “massive resistance,” to shutter schools rather than let Black children learn with White ones.
“I know there were so many other African American leaders … who were probably smarter than me, that were probably as tenacious and persistent as me. But they never got this opportunity because of their color,” he said in an interview Friday. “I carry all of those people with me. I think about those people who every time I walk in the Capitol and I see some of the shrines to some folks who probably owned enslaved people. I’m conscious of those enslaved people … and what they had to go through, and how their humanity was discounted in that very chamber.”
The Democratic caucus on Saturday also chose Del. Charniele L. Herring (Alexandria) as majority leader and Del. Kathy Tran (Fairfax) as the first person of Asian or Pacific Island descent to serve as caucus chairwoman.
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Democrats reveled in the historic nature of their choices on Saturday. “Proudest vote of my life (After Obama)” delegate-elect Joshua Cole said on X (formerly Twitter).
The vote for speaker will not be official until January, when the new General Assembly is sworn in and the full chamber will elect its leader under the new Democratic majority. By tradition, the minority party supports the choice so the vote is unanimous — and top Republicans have already extended praise to Scott.
House Speaker Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) on Saturday tweeted congratulations to Scott, and promised to “work with the incoming Speaker to ensure a seamless transition of the institution.”
Youngkin called to say congratulations late Wednesday, Scott said. Earle-Sears, asked Friday about her fellow history-maker, said in a text to The Post that “the success and comeback of Don Scott is proof that Virginia is not back in 1963,” when her own father faced discrimination. She promised to work with Scott “for the betterment of all Virginians. All means all.”
Troubled past charts unlikely rise to power for Virginia Democrat
Scott’s arrival at this point in his career is as unlikely as it is rapid, coming at the start of just his third term in office.
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Born in Houston, he was raised by a single mother who had six kids and never made more than $28,500 in any year of her working life, Scott said. He stuttered as a child, but tested into gifted programs that saw him bused to White schools in what might as well have been another world.
Scott majored in agriculture at Texas A&M University, then served a stint in the Navy. Next he opted for law school at Louisiana State University, and that’s when he made the greatest mistake of his life. In 1994 during his final year of law school, Scott was arrested by federal agents in Mobile, Ala., for carrying thousands of dollars in drug money tied to a crack cocaine ring, according to court documents.
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Scott maintains he never handled any drugs but made a “bad decision” to help a friend. He pleaded no contest and finished his law degree just in time to begin a 10-year sentence in federal prison. Released after serving fewer than eight years, Scott went to live with an uncle in Delaware who got him a series of jobs and enforced strict discipline. Eventually Scott climbed the ladder at a workforce development company, married a dentist and settled down in Portsmouth.
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With a felony conviction, Scott was prohibited from voting by a Virginia law that’s the most draconian in the nation. The one way out is to appeal directly to a governor — which Scott did, getting his rights restored by Republican Gov. Robert McDonnell about a decade ago.
In 2014, Scott spent six months studying for the Virginia bar exam, passing on his first try. He quickly built up a reputation in Portsmouth for taking — and winning — tough cases. His public stature got him elected to the General Assembly in the blue wave of 2019, which brought two years of Democratic power as the legislature worked with Gov. Ralph Northam (D) to enact sweeping changes — such as abolishing the death penalty, legalizing marijuana and tightening gun control.
When the party lost its House majority in 2021 and Republican Glenn Youngkin was elected governor, Scott and several colleagues ousted Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) as their leader.
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Filler-Corn had been the first woman and first Jew to serve as speaker of the Virginia House. She said Friday that she would be pleased to see Scott make history of his own.
“This is another historic milestone and a victory for Virginians,” Filler-Corn said via email. “We are better as a Commonwealth when our elected leaders reflect the diversity of our communities.”
As minority leader, Scott put a sharper edge on Democrats in the House. He repeatedly tagged the other party for being “MAGA Trump Republicans.” The first week of Youngkin’s administration, Scott took to the floor of the House and questioned the religious faith of the publicly pious governor, saying it wasn’t reflected in his crusade against “critical race theory” and “racial equity.”
Youngkin responded by walking across the Capitol to meet in Scott’s office, a display of power on Scott’s part that stirred whispers around the legislature.
Asked about his provocative approach, Scott made no apology. “Democrats spend a lot of time being right on policy and being wrong on politics … And I think we have to do both,” he said.
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Calling himself a “pragmatic progressive,” Scott said he knows his leadership will only succeed if he can help Democrats — and Republicans — deliver change that improves the lives of Virginians. He said he wants “a reset” with Youngkin, and agrees with the governor that all sides can find common ground on areas such as education, mental health funding and creating good jobs — a message Youngkin delivered in a news conference on Wednesday.
But there are also some areas where Scott is ready to forge ahead with the power of the majority, if necessary. Specifically: beginning the process to seek three constitutional amendments — to enshrine the right to an abortion, affirm the right to same-sex marriage and allow the automatic restoration of rights to people convicted of felonies. In Virginia, amendments are put to a public vote after passing both chambers of the General Assembly with simple majorities in two sessions separated by House elections, which are every two years. The governor is not involved.
Wilder, who has famously confounded his fellow Democrats by occasionally befriending Republicans — such as Youngkin — for the sake of getting things done, said his top advice for Scott would be to deliver results.
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“Being elected the first Black or the second Black or any Black is not what it’s about,” Wilder said. “It’s about being the most effective person. … The people of Virginia will gauge and judge based on performance and levels of competence, not the color of your skin. And there’s no time to rest on laurels.”
Scott, Wilder might be gratified to know, said the same thing: “Race is not as important as it used to be. People want competence.”
And Scott also declared that he isn’t planning to rest on laurels or anything else. His mother — Helen Scott, 88, who still lives in her modest home in Houston — called Friday morning with a simple message, he said: “Don’t get too big for your britches.”
He vowed to keep up the tireless drive to get things done that brought him to this unlikely point in life. Winning a Democratic majority and becoming speaker are not surprises to him, Scott said, because “I planned to win. I expected to win.”
Scott was so sure of the outcome that when the new General Assembly office building opened in Richmond last month, he refused to set foot in the office of minority leader, telling his staff: “I’m going to go into the speaker’s office when we win.”
Scott said the source of his confidence is simple: He’s already hit rock bottom, in prison. Now he has no fear of failure. “As flawed as I am, but also as scarred as I am, but also as strong as I am … the worst thing that ever happened to me would not be losing an election,” he said. “My superpower is being underestimated. You sleep on me if you want to. You’re gonna regret sleeping on me.”
correction
A previous version of this article incorrectly reported the industry in which Del. Don L. Scott Jr. had climbed the ladder before pursuing political office. It was a workforce development company. The article has been corrected.
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