The lieutenant governor of Virginia is a

constitutional officer In the United States, each state and territory has constitutional officers who lead the state governments of the United States. These officers may be elected or appointed, depending on the position. The number and powers of state constitution ...

of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The lieutenant governor is elected every four years along with the

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

and

attorney general In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

. The office is currently held by Winsome Earle Sears, who was elected in 2021 and is the first woman of color to hold this position. The governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately and thus may be of different political parties. The lieutenant governor's office is located in the Oliver Hill Building on Capitol Square in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

. The lieutenant governor serves as the President of the

Senate of Virginia The Senate of Virginia is the upper house of the Virginia General Assembly. The Senate is composed of 40 senators representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts. The Senate is presided over by the lieutenant governor of Vir ...

and is first in the line of succession to the governorship; in the event that the governor dies, resigns, or otherwise leaves office, the lieutenant governor becomes governor. In Virginia, the governor is not permitted to serve consecutive terms but the lieutenant governor may do so, and has no term limit. The Lieutenant Governor earns an annual salary of $36,321. The office of lieutenant governor is of colonial origin and can be traced to the Virginia Council of London. The Council was appointed by the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

, and in turn, the Council appointed the Lieutenant Governor or deputy. When the English crown forbade colonial governors' absence from the colonies without leave in 1680, it became the Council's duty to designate or send a deputy who could exercise all the powers of the governor under the written instructions of both the crown and the governor. Virginia's first Constitution, adopted in 1776, provided a Council of State from which a president was annually selected from its members. The president acted as lieutenant governor in the case of the death, inability, or necessary absence of the governor from the government. The Virginia Constitution of 1851 abolished the governor's Council of State and provided for the popular election of the Lieutenant Governor. Shelton Farrar Leake, from Albemarle County, was the first elected lieutenant governor, serving from 1852 to 1856. Constitutionally, the lieutenant governor is president of the

, as is the case with many other lieutenant governors in the United States. Unlike many of her counterparts, the lieutenant governor regularly presides over Senate sessions rather than delegating this role to the

president pro tempore A president pro tempore or speaker pro tempore is a constitutionally recognized officer of a legislative body who presides over the chamber in the absence of the normal presiding officer. The phrase '' pro tempore'' is Latin "for the time being". ...

or majority leader. Since the late 1920s, the lieutenant governor has been one of only three positions that competes in a statewide election in Virginia (along with the governor and attorney general). Because the governor cannot serve consecutive terms, the incumbent lieutenant governor is often considered a leading candidate for governor.

List of lieutenant governors of Virginia

; Parties

Living former lieutenant governors

, there are seven living former lieutenant governors of Virginia, the oldest being

Douglas Wilder Lawrence Douglas Wilder (born January 17, 1931) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 66th Governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994. He was the first African American to serve as governor of a U.S. state since the Reconstructi ...

(served 1986–1990, born 1931). The most recent and most recently serving lieutenant governor to die was John H. Hager (served 1998–2002, born 1936) on August 23, 2020.

References

External links

Lieutenant Governor of Virginia's websiteList of past Lieutenant Governors
{{Lists of lieutenant governors by U.S. state