News

Please join former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore as he shares his experiences as ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) on Facebook Live and here via YouTube on March 10th starting at 7:30pm.  DirectLine is sponsored by the Montgomery County Republican Club.

Jim Gilmore, who served as Virginia’s governor from 1998 to 2002, became the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in May 2019. A native Virginian, Gilmore graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Foreign Affairs in 1971.  He enlisted in the U.S. Army and became fluent in German and served during the Cold War in West Germany as a counterintelligence agent.

Following his military service, he returned home to earn a law degree from the University of Virginia. He was later elected to public office as a county prosecutor before being elected in 1993 as Attorney General. In 1998 he was elected as Virginia’s 68th Governor.

Gilmore was a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in both the 2008 and 2016 elections. In November 2018, Gilmore was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as the U.S. Representative to the United States Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a position which carries the rank of ambassador and is based in Vienna, Austria. His nomination was confirmed by a voice vote of the United States Senate on May 23, 2019.

Jim Gilmore was sworn in on June 25, 2019. Ambassador Gilmore and his wife, Roxane, recently returned home from Vienna, Austria to Richmond, Virginia. They raised two sons and recently greeted a new baby granddaughter into the world.