The House of Delegates is about to get a new Speaker of the House. And, he's starting out with a strained relationship with the governor.
Shortly after Governor Glenn Youngkin was sworn into office last year, Delegate Don Scott took to the floor of the House of Delegates and delivered a blistering speech criticizing the new governor. Youngkin responded by showing up in person at the delegate's office the next day for a physical confrontation.
"The executive ought not to demean itself and make itself subservient to the legislative any more than the Constitution already does, so that would have been unusual when I was governor," says former Republican Governor Jim Gilmore. "But, at the same time, it shows a gesture of trying to work things out."
Now, that delegate is about to become speaker of the House, and the governor is going to have to find a way to work with him. Former Democratic House Leader David Toscano says the governor needs to put his feelings aside.
"He should be a transactional governor. I mean, you have to work with people who you don't like and don't agree with in order to get things done for your constituency. Otherwise, you don't get anything done," says Toscano. "So, he's going to have to put some of that behind him even if he carries the resentment from what happened before."
The working relationship between Glenn Youngkin and Don Scott will start in December, when the governor sends his legacy budget to the General Assembly.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
