Virginia Thomas

Virginia "Ginni" Thomas ( Lamp; born February 23, 1957) is an American attorney and conservative activist.

During the summer after her freshman year, Thomas worked at the national headquarters of Ronald Reagan's 1976 campaign for president.

That fall, she transferred to the University of Nebraska (and subsequently Creighton University) to be closer to a boyfriend.

She received a Bachelor of Arts in political science and business communication from Creighton (1979) and a Juris Doctor from the Creighton University School of Law (1983), after a hiatus working as a legislative aide for Representative Hal Daub.

When Daub took office in 1981, Thomas moved to Washington, D.C., and worked in his office for 18 months.

After completing law school in 1983, she had an internship at the National Labor Relations Board and worked one more year for Daub in Washington as his legislative director.

From 1985 to 1989, she was employed as an attorney and labor relations specialist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, attending congressional hearings where she represented the interests of the business community.

In 1987, she married Clarence Thomas, who became an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1991.

Her conservative commentary and activism have made her a controversial figure, especially because spouses of Supreme Court justices typically avoid politicking.

Thomas began her career working for Republican Hal Daub while he was a member of the United States House of Representatives.

After Thomas graduated from Creighton University School of Law, she worked for the United States Chamber of Commerce.

She later worked for the United States Department of Labor and as an aide to Republican Dick Armey while he was a member of the House of Representatives.

That year, her husband (whom she had married in 1987), Clarence Thomas, was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to fill the open seat on the U.S. Supreme Court left by the retirement of Justice Thurgood Marshall.

She attended the contentious U.S. Senate confirmation hearings and supported her husband as he was accused of sexual harassment.

During the confirmation hearings, several Democratic senators questioned whether her job with the Labor Department could create a conflict of interest for her husband if he were to be seated on the Supreme Court.

After her husband was confirmed by a vote of 52 to 48, she described the televised scrutiny and confirmation process as a "trial by fire".

Her next job was as a policy analyst for Representative Dick Armey, who was the House Republican Conference chairman.

In 1989, she became manager of employee relations at the Chamber of Commerce.

In 1991, Thomas returned to government service in the Legislative Affairs Office of the U.S. Department of Labor, where she argued against comparable-worth legislation that would have mandated equal pay for women and men in jobs deemed to be comparable.

Her advocacy included arguing against the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993.

In 2000, Thomas joined The Heritage Foundation, where she was a liaison between the conservative think tank and the George W. Bush administration.

By 2000, she was working for The Heritage Foundation, where she collected résumés for potential presidential appointments in the George W. Bush administration when the Supreme Court was deciding Bush v. Gore.

She continued to work at The Heritage Foundation during the administration of George W. Bush, serving as White House liaison for the think tank.

In 2009, Thomas founded Liberty Central, a conservative political advocacy nonprofit organization associated with the Tea Party movement.

In late 2009, Thomas established the nonprofit lobbying group Liberty Central to organize conservative activists, issue legislative scorecards for U.S. Congress members, and be involved in elections.

The group was aimed at opposing what Thomas called the "leftist tyranny'" of President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats, and "protecting the core founding principles" of the nation.

Thomas's lobbying activities were raised as a potential source of conflict of interest for her husband.

She founded Liberty Consulting in 2010.

Thomas supported Donald Trump during his presidency, offering the administration recommendations on individuals to hire through her work with the conservative Groundswell group.

Thomas was interviewed by Sean Hannity on his Fox News show Hannity in June 2010.

Asked about potential conflicts between her Liberty Central activities and her husband's position, Thomas replied that "there's a lot of judicial wives and husbands out there causing trouble. I'm just one of many."

Following Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election, she repeatedly urged Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows to take steps to overturn the result.

Thomas also emailed state lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin, urging them to ignore the results of the 2020 presidential election and vote instead for an alternate slate of electors.

She made an early social media endorsement of the Trump rally that preceded the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol before the violence took place, and she later apologized for contributing to a rift among her husband's former Supreme Court clerks concerning that riot.

Thomas grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, the youngest of four children born to Donald Lamp, an engineer who owned his own firm, and Marjorie Lamp, a stay-at-home mother and conservative activist.

Her parents were Republicans and members of the John Birch Society, an anti-communist and conservative political advocacy group.

Thomas attended Westside High School in Omaha, where she was a member of student government, the debate club, and the Republican club.

While she was in high school, her ambition was to be elected to Congress.

She enrolled at Mount Vernon College for Women in Washington, D.C. because of its proximity to the Capitol; one of her classmates was Susan Ford, daughter of then-President Gerald Ford.

While a student, she interned in the office of Nebraska Congressman John Y. McCollister.