Jim Gilmore | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2019 | |
| United States Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe | |
| In office July 2, 2019 – January 20, 2021 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | Dan Baer |
| Succeeded by | Michael R. Carpenter |
| 68thGovernor of Virginia | |
| In office January 17, 1998 – January 12, 2002 | |
| Lieutenant | John Hager |
| Preceded by | George Allen |
| Succeeded by | Mark Warner |
| Chair of theRepublican National Committee | |
| In office January 18, 2001 – December 5, 2001 | |
| Preceded by | Jim Nicholson |
| Succeeded by | Marc Racicot |
| 38thAttorney General of Virginia | |
| In office January 15, 1994 – June 11, 1997 | |
| Governor | George Allen |
| Preceded by | Stephen Rosenthal |
| Succeeded by | Richard Cullen |
| Commonwealth's Attorney forHenrico County | |
| In office January 1, 1988 – January 15, 1994 | |
| Preceded by | L. A. Harris |
| Succeeded by | Toby Vick |
| Personal details | |
| Born | James Stuart Gilmore III (1949-10-06)October 6, 1949 (age 76) Richmond, Virginia, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Education | University of Virginia (BA,JD) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | www |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1971–1974 |
| Unit | 650th Group,Military Intelligence Corps |
| Awards | Joint Service Commendation Medal |
James Stuart Gilmore III (born October 6, 1949) is an American politician, diplomat and former attorney who served as the68th governor of Virginia from 1998 to 2002. A member of theRepublican Party, Gilmore also chaired theRepublican National Committee in 2001 and served as theU.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe during thefirst Trump administration.
A native Virginian, Gilmore graduated with aBachelor of Arts and aJuris Doctor from theUniversity of Virginia, and then served in theU.S. Army as acounterintelligence agent. He was later elected to public office as a countyprosecutor and theAttorney General of Virginia before being elected Governor of Virginia in1997. After his gubernatorial tenure ended in 2002, Gilmore unsuccessfully ran for theU.S. Senate in2008 and for the Republican nomination forPresident of the United States in the2008 and2016 elections.[1][2]
In November 2018, Gilmore was nominated by PresidentDonald Trump to serve as the U.S. Representative toUnited States Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a position which carries the rank ofambassador.[3] His nomination was confirmed by avoice vote of theU.S. Senate on May 23, 2019.[4] Gilmore was sworn in on June 25, 2019[5] and presented his credentials to OSCE Secretary GeneralThomas Greminger on July 2, 2019.[6]
Gilmore was born inRichmond, Virginia, the son of Margaret Evelyn (née Kandle), a church secretary, and James Stuart Gilmore Jr., a grocery store meat cutter.[7] He graduated fromJohn Randolph Tucker High School in 1967, and received aBachelor of Arts degree from theUniversity of Virginia in 1971, where he was classmates withGeorge Allen, who would later precede Gilmore as Governor of Virginia.
Gilmore met his future wife,Roxane Gatling, at aJefferson Literary and Debating Society club meeting in the Fall of 1974 while he was a law student and she was an undergraduate.[8] During her senior year, Gatling became ill with a serious recurrence ofHodgkin's disease. Jim Gilmore accompanied her to herchemotherapy treatments and hospitalizations.[8] The couple married in on August 6, 1977, and had two sons, Jay and Ashton Gilmore.[8][9][10]
In 1971, Gilmore volunteered to serve in the United States Army after attending college, receiving training and preparation for service in theMilitary Intelligence Corps at the newly createdUnited States Army Intelligence Center atFort Huachuca in Arizona. Gilmore also received rigorous foreign language education at the United StatesDefense Language Institute in Monterey, California. Gilmore then worked for three years in the early 1970s, in the 650th Military Intelligence Group. Serving inWest Germany during theVietnam War and fluent inGerman, he served as aU.S. Army Counterintelligence Agent.[11]
Gilmore attended theUniversity of Virginia School of Law, once again classmates with future fellow Virginia governor George Allen, graduating with hisJ.D. degree in 1977. A decade later, he was electedCommonwealth's Attorney inHenrico County and went on to be re-elected in 1991. In 1981, Gilmore ran for theVirginia House of Delegates in the32nd district, however he lost the general election.[12] In 1993, he was elected Virginia's attorney general, defeatingDemocratic nominee William D. Dolan III by more than 10 percentage points (958,982 to 749,565 votes).[13] Gilmore resigned in 1997 to run for governor.
In1997, Gilmore faced then-Lieutenant GovernorDon Beyer andReform Party candidate Sue Harris Debauche in a bid to succeedGeorge Allen as governor. Gilmore campaigned heavily on the twin promises of hiring 4,000 new teachers inpublic schools and phasing out Virginia's personal property tax on automobiles.[14] Gilmore was elected, winning 56% of the vote to Beyer's 43%.[15]
In his first year as governor, Gilmore pushed for car tax reduction legislation that was eventually passed by the Democratic-controlledGeneral Assembly. The legislation reduced car taxes on all cars valued less than $1,000, and phased out the tax on auto values over $1,000 as follows: 12.5% reduction in 1998; 25% reduction in 1999; 47.5% reduction in 2000; 70% reduction in 2001; 100% reduction in 2002. Beginning in 2001, Virginia's economy slowed and tax revenues flattened. In addition to a downturn in the national economy in 2001, Northern Virginia's economy was severely impacted afterterrorists flew a hijacked airplane into the Pentagon inArlington, Virginia, onSeptember 11, 2001, resulting in the closure of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport for 23 days. Despite the economic downturn, Gilmore insisted on advancing the car tax phase out from a 47.5% reduction of each taxpayer's bill in 2000 to the scheduled 70% reduction in 2001. Gilmore signed an executive order, which was passed by the General Assembly, reducing state spending by all agencies, except for education, to keep the state's budget balanced during the economic downturn. Democrats criticized the spending reductions and car tax cut. According toThe Washington Post, "Virginia's politicians struggled to balance car-tax relief against demands for public services."[16] When Gilmore left office in January 2002, the state's "rainy day fund," or revenue stabilization fund, had fallen to $900 million.[17]
In April 1998, Gilmore's first trip abroad as governor was to Germany with his Secretary of Commerce, Barry Duval. They sought to expand jobs and investment with German companies who at the time had invested more than $2 billion and 10,000 jobs in the Commonwealth. During his tenure, Gov. Gilmore was focused on creating jobs by leading several trade missions to: South America in 1999 (Argentina, Brazil, Chile); Asia in 2000 (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan); Europe again in 2001 (Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland). Mr. Gilmore, since leaving office, has also traveled to Pakistan, Australia, and Peru. He also traveled to Israel when he was Attorney General of Virginia in the early 1990s.
The Gilmore Administration implemented new Standards of Learning reforms in Virginia's public schools. The Standards of Learning prescribed a uniform curriculum inmathematics,science,English andsocial studies and instituted new tests at the end of the third, fifth and eighth grades, as well as end-of-course tests in high school, to measure student achievement. During Gilmore's term, Virginia's public school students' scores increased on these state tests as well as nationally normed tests.[18]
In 1999, Gilmore proposed and signed into law legislation that reduced tuitions at public colleges and universities by 20%. Gilmore also commissioned a Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education that studied accountability and governance of public colleges and universities. Gilmore's Commission authored the first blueprint for decentralized regulatory and administrative authority to some universities in return for agreements to meet agreed upon performance objectives.
Gilmore also proposed and signed into law Virginia's first stand-aloneMartin Luther King Holiday. Prior to this proposal, Virginia had observed a combinedLee-Jackson-King Day that recognizedRobert E. Lee,Stonewall Jackson andMartin Luther King on the same day each year. Gilmore and his wife hosted a historic reception in the Governor's Mansion forCoretta Scott King and announced a technology partnership between Virginia and theKing Center for Nonviolence. Gilmore also proposed and funded a new African-American History Trail in Virginia and called upon the StateBoard of Education to include a more diverse range of historical figures in Virginia's Social Studies curriculum. Test scores during Gilmore's term showed a narrowing of the "achievement gap" between minority and white students. Gilmore significantly increased funding for two of Virginia's historically black universities,Norfolk State University andVirginia State University.
Gilmore created the nation's first state Secretary of Technology, a position first held byDonald Upson. Together they established a statewide technology commission, and signed into law the nation's first comprehensive stateInternet policy.[19]
During his term, 37 people wereexecuted in Virginia. Gilmore granted executiveclemency to onedeath row inmate on the basis ofmental illness. In another well publicized case, hepardonedEarl Washington Jr., a former death row inmate, afterDNA tests, ordered by Gilmore, implicated another person. Gilmore also ordered DNA tests in the case ofDerek Rocco Barnabei; the tests confirmed Barnabei's guilt and he was executed.
As governor, Gilmore signed into law legislation establishing a 24-hour waiting period and informed consent for women seeking anabortion, as well as a ban againstpartial birth abortion. Gilmore increased funding foradoption services. He also signed into law a bill that bannedhuman cloning. In 1998, Gilmore went to court to try to prevent the removal of a feeding tube of a car crash victim, the former Kentucky news anchor Hugh Finn, who had suffered from a persistent vegetative state for several years.[20] Gilmore lost his petition that removal of a feeding tube was not removal of artificial life support because it amounted to starvation of an infirm person who could not feed himself and Finn was allowed to die, upholding his wishes as he had expressed them to his family while he was working on developing a living will when still in good health that he wished not to be kept alive in such a state. As Attorney General of Virginia, Gilmore had defended a legal challenge to Virginia's first parental notification law for minors seeking abortions.
TheVirginia Constitution forbids any governor from serving consecutive terms, so Gilmore could not run for a second term in 2001. He was succeeded byDemocratMark Warner, who took office in early 2002.
A "Draft Gilmore for President" group was formed in August 2006 encouraging Gilmore to run forPresident of the United States.[21]On December 19, 2006, Gilmore announced he would form anexploratory committee to "fill theconservative void" in the race. On January 9, 2007, Gilmore officially filed papers with theFederal Election Commission to form the Jim Gilmore for President Exploratory Committee.[22]
Gilmore said he represented "the Republican wing of the Republican Party" in the race for the 2008 Presidential nomination; the comment mirrored the slogan used byHoward Dean when seeking theDemocratic nomination in the2004 election, who lifted the slogan from SenatorPaul Wellstone. Gilmore officially announced his candidacy on April 26, 2007.[23]
In the first quarter of 2007 Gilmore raised $174,790, the second lowest of any of the major-party candidates.[24] Gilmore hosted only one fundraiser in the first quarter due to a late exploratory announcement.
On July 14, 2007, Gilmore announced that he was ending his campaign. Gilmore said that it would be "impractical" to run, citing the difficulty of raising enough money to be competitive in early-voting statesIowa,New Hampshire, andSouth Carolina.[25]
In an interview withPolitico, Gilmore said that he had been approached to run for the Senate seat ofJohn Warner, who had announced that he would retire at the end of his term in 2009. By the end of the summer, many media outlets, most notablyThe Washington Post, thought it would be a foregone conclusion that Gilmore would jump into the Senate race. Gilmore's successor as governor, Mark Warner, had already announced in September, and 11th District CongressmanTom Davis had informally announced his candidacy a few days after Mark Warner's announcement.
Gilmore lobbied strongly for choosing the party's nominee at a statewide convention rather than a primary, claiming that a convention would cost only $1 million versus the $4 million required to run a primary campaign. This was no small consideration, as the race for the Democratic nomination essentially ended with Mark Warner's entry into the race. It was understood that Warner would use his considerable wealth to self-finance his campaign. It was thought that a convention would favor Gilmore, since most of the delegates would come from the party's activist base, which is tilted strongly to the right. A primary was thought to favor Davis due to his popularity in voter-richNorthern Virginia; Davis is a moderate Republican, and most Republicans in Northern Virginia tend to be more moderate than their counterparts elsewhere in the state. On October 13, 2007, the state party's central committee voted 47–37 to hold a convention rather than a primary. With this decision, Gilmore said he was seriously considering a run for the Senate.
Gilmore formally announced his candidacy via aYouTube video on November 19, 2007.[26] He said that he was running to give Virginia "a strong and steady hand" in the Senate.
Gilmore faced a challenge from his right in State DelegateBob Marshall ofPrince William County. Marshall charged Gilmore with being too soft on abortion. However, at the convention Gilmore won the nomination by a margin of only 65 votes out of 3,000 cast.
In the November election, Gilmore was heavily defeated, winning only 34 percent of the vote to Warner's 65 percent. Gilmore only carried four counties in the state –Rockingham,Augusta,Powhatan andHanover. In many cases, he lost in many areas of the state that are normally reliably Republican.[27] This was the worst showing for a Republican Senate candidate in Virginia sinceChuck Robb defeated Maurice Dawkins with 71 percent of the vote in 1988.
On July 7, 2015, Gilmore told theAssociated Press that he planned to announce his candidacy for the2016Republican presidential nomination in the first week of August 2015. On July 29, Gilmore filed his candidacy for President of the United States with theFederal Election Commission.[28][29][30] He announced his candidacy via aninternet video clip the next day.[1] The same evening, he appeared onSpecial Report with Bret Baier as the "center seat" where panelistsCharles Krauthammer, Julie Pace, and Steve Hayes questioned him on a variety of issues.[31]
According to his campaign website, Gilmore's main issues that he would address if elected president include preserving the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, immigration and border re-enforcement, healthcare reform, and restoring America's economy.[32]
Gilmore was consistently one of the lowest-polling candidate in the 2016 GOP field.[33] He rarely registered more than 1% in a national poll, often polling at 0%, and sometimes was not offered as a choice. This resulted in his polling at 0.0% inThe Huffington Post aggregate poll,[34] and lack of showings in the earlierReal Clear Politics aggregate poll.[35] Gilmore failed to qualify for all but two of the "undercard" lower-tier debates. He was the only commonly polled candidate to be left out of more than one undercard debate.[36] Gilmore insisted that he was "not going anywhere" and would continue to run.[37]
On January 26, 2016, after being denied participation in five consecutive debates, Gilmore was invited back for the "undercard" debate on January 28, his first debate since August. This was the last debate before theIowa caucuses. The "undercard" debates were discontinued after the Iowa Caucuses.[38]
In the2016 Iowa Republican caucuses, Gilmore received 12 votes, not earning him any delegates. He then received 133 votes in the New Hampshire primary. Gilmore indicated he intended to continue his campaigninto South Carolina.[39] However, he suspended his campaign a week before that primary, on February 12, 2016.[2][40]
During his term as governor, Gilmore chaired the Congressional Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce.[41] The Commission was charged with the task of making recommendations to theUnited States Congress on Internet taxation. The Commission's Report to Congress opposed taxation of the Internet.[42]
Gilmore served on the board of Windmill International, a government contractor previously accused of trying to secure fraudulent contracts in Iraq. His service on the board was not mentioned in his campaign filings, as required. Gilmore was never accused of wrongdoing regarding fraud committed in Windmill International's name.[43]
From 1999 to 2003, Gilmore chaired the Congressional Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction, nicknamed theGilmore Commission.[44] It presented five reports to PresidentsBill Clinton andGeorge W. Bush, and to Congress each December 15 from 1999 through 2003.
From January 2001 to January 2002, Gilmore was the Chairman of theRepublican National Committee.[45]
Gilmore is the President & CEO of the Free Congress Foundation,[46] aconservative think tank which was founded byPaul Weyrich. Gilmore has re-branded the Free Congress Foundation into the American Opportunity Foundation.
Gilmore has also served as Chairman of theNational Council on Readiness & Preparedness, ahomeland security program focused on community involvement and public/private partnerships.[47] He is also President ofUSA Secure, anon-profit homeland securitythink tank based inWashington, D.C.[48]
From 2005 to 2017 he served on the board of directors of theNational Rifle Association.
In 2021, Gilmore was interviewed,[49] by contributors Christopher Lim and Kendall O'Donnell from the UK-based think-tankThe Bruges Group on his time asUnited States Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the European Union,US - China relations, and theBiden Administration's foreign policy. Gilmore criticised theG7'sB3W programme, saying there was "zero discussion of [B3W] in the United States", and described President Biden's relationship with European allies as "a lot of public messaging, to be polite, and a lot of talk, to be not so polite". Gilmore was praised for "asking hard-hitting, pertinent questions that need to be asked of the Biden Administration", and "reaffirming [his] place as one of theGOP's premier foreign policy minds"
Gilmore was considered for the position ofUnited States Ambassador to Germany by thefirst Trump administration,[50] but ultimately not chosen. In November 2018, Gilmore was nominated as the next U.S. Representative to theOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe with the rank of ambassador.[3] He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 23, 2019.[4] Gilmore took his oath of office on June 25, 2019[5] and presented his credentials to OSCE Secretary GeneralThomas Greminger on July 2, 2019.[6]
Archival Records
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Attorney General of Virginia 1994–1997 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forGovernor of Virginia 1997 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theRepublican Governors Association 2000–2001 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theRepublican National Committee 2001 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forGovernor of Virginia 1997 | |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of Virginia 1998–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by Kate Byrnes Acting | United States Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe 2019–2021 | Succeeded by Courtney Austrian Acting |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former Governor | Order of precedence of the United States | Succeeded byas Former Governor |
|  | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
