Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore plans presidential run

Jim Gilmore says he’s planning to announce a run for the GOP presidential nomination.

Gilmore said he’ll announce the first week in August.

Gilmore, 65, served one term as Virginia’s governor, from 1998 to 2002, and was the chairman of the Republican National Committee in 2001.

He will likely be the 17th major declared Republican candidate, most of whom have greater name recognition and better financing than Gilmore.

“I bring to the table experience that others don’t have”, Gilmore said in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

In addition to being a ex- intelligence officer in the Army during the Cold War, Gilmore was governor during the September 11 attack on the Pentagon in Northern Virginia.

“Gilmore briefly sought the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, but dropped out citing a lack of funding”.

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, noted in a tweet that is a record for the number of presidential candidates for a single political party.