Democrats fired back at Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Mount Jackson, on Friday afternoon after he questioned their leadership in the 2020 General Assembly session. According to statistics available on Virginia’s Legislative Information Site, the delegates have introduced more than 1,700 bills, 149 joint resolutions and 22 house resolutions.
Virginia Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Mount Jackson, will return to Richmond in January to a city with an unfamiliar political landscape. On Election Day, Democrats surged through legislative races, giving them a hold on the government from top to bottom. Since he started his political career in Richmond, Gilbert had the power and luxury of having the weight of the majority behind him. He rose to become the second most powerful Republican in the House, behind Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights.
The floor leader of Republicans in the House of Delegates hasn’t changed, but Del. Todd Gilbert will preside over a GOP minority when the General Assembly convenes in January. Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, the current House majority leader, was chosen minority leader by an estimated 42 Republican delegates and delegates-elect who gathered in Richmond on Sunday afternoon to elect their leadership.
In a night when Republicans lost control of their slim majority in Virginia’s House of Delegates, Republicans representing Shenandoah and Warren counties will return to Richmond next year as members of the minority party. Todd Gilbert, R-Mount Jackson, will lose his position as the majority leader in the House but kept his seat safe after he faced competition for the first time in 10 years, according to the Virginia Public Access Project and Associated Press.
Republicans have held the majority in the House of Delegates since 1999. But as next month’s elections loom, Democrats need to win two seats to flip it. It’s a far cry from the last 10 election cycles, when the Republican Party had maintained majority in the House by at least 10 seats. From 2011-15, the party out-weighed Democrats by more than 30 seats, but the power hold took a turn in 2017 when Democrats picked up 15 seats.
One house district race had both candidates show up to a forum on Thursday night hosted by the Front Royal-Warren County Chamber of Commerce. On paper, the race between Todd Gilbert, R-Mount Jackson, and Democrat Beverly Harrison of Woodstock, to represent Virginia’s 15th house district is the least competitive of the three distract races in Warren County.
Candidates for Virginia’s 15th House District clashed on Wednesday, coming from opposite ends of the political spectrum and employing divergent strategies to get the upper hand on their opponent. ... Beverly Harrison, a Democrat from Woodstock and a former teacher, went on the offensive from the outset, attacking Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Mount Jackson, on everything from his voting record to campaign donors.
The National Rifle Association made a $200,000 donation this week to Virginia House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, an unusually large investment in state politics for the Fairfax County-based gun rights organization. Prior to Tuesday’s six-figure donation, the NRA had made just $13,500 in direct donations to Virginia GOP groups in 2019, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
Taking cues from other states and cities that have implemented them, Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, wants Virginia to establish more programs that encourage people to leave violent lifestyles in order to curb shooting deaths. Weeks after the General Assembly abruptly adjourned a special session called to address gun violence after a mass shooting in Virginia Beach, Gilbert, the House majority leader, filed legislation aimed at boosting what criminal justice professionals call group-violence reduction or intervention initiatives.
The Virginia Tech shootings in 2007 claimed the lives of 32 people. The Virginia Beach shooting in May resulted in 12 deaths. In the 12 years between those mass shootings, more than 3,000 people were killed in shootings in Virginia. Most of those deaths received little attention from politicians.