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Jim Gilmore

James Stuart Gilmore III (6 October 1949-) was the Republican Governor of Virginia from 17 January 1998 to 12 January 2002, succeeding George Allen and preceding Mark Warner.

Biography[]

James Stuart Gilmore III was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1949, and he served in the US Army stateside and in West Germany from 1971 to 1974. He served as Commonwealth's Attorney in Henrico County from 1987 to 1993, as Attorney General of Virginia from 1994 to 1997, and Governor from 1998 to 2002; Gilmore promised to hire 4,000 additional public school teachers and to cut taxes. As a result, the "achievement gap" between white and black students fell and students' average test scores rose, but the state's "rainy day fund" fell to $900 million. Gilmore also created a public holiday commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. and increased funding for Black colleges and universities, while also supporting the preservation of sites from African-American history. He briefly sought the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2007 and 2016 and was heavily defeated in his 2008 bid for the US Senate. From 2019 to 2021, he served as Donald Trump's Ambassador to the OSCE.

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