the only will be conducting done is to do it together. [applause] >> members, please be seated. the oath of office will not be delivered by the chief justice of the supreme court of virginia.

>> speaker designate scott, are you prepared to taste the oath of office? >> i am. >> please raise your right hand and place your left hand on the bible. please repeat after me. i, don scott, do solemnly swear, that i will support the constitution of the united states. and the constitution of the commonwealth of virginia. and that i will faithfully and impartially discharge all the duties incumbent upon me. as speaker of the virginia house of delegates, according to the best of my ability, so help me god.

>>, regulations, mr. speaker. [cheers and applause] speaker scott: good afternoon, virginia! [applause] thank you. thank you all for being here. my first immediate emotion is

just gratitude. very grateful. i know this is god's favor. i know this is god's grace. which is undeserved favor, and i am grateful. i want to thank my family, especially my wife, melanda. wife, stand up. [applause] she thinks she is my campaign manager, stand up, peyton! [laughter] [applause] my little 15-year-old daughter. [laughs] so, y'all, will talk,

without them i would not be here. we couldn't do this without our family, without them allowing us to be away, countless hours, congress might, people pulling in different directions, town meetings, council meetings, committee meetings. so we want to thank our families. and let me congratulate all the new delegates here. congratulations. [applause] i want to say thank you to all of your families as well, because anger they made huge sacrifices for you to be here today. and we don't ever want to forget those exercises. i am trying not to do it. y'all keep cool here cuz my mother is here. helen scott. she is here. raise your hand, helen scott. just raise your hand.

[applause] y'all don't understand -- my mother is 88 -- y'all don't understand, i oher that i will make her sit in here for a little while, because she used to make us go to sunday's will, her choir rehearsal, church, baptist training union after church -- what do you got to go to church after church for? [laughter] and then back to church on wednesdays and then some more choir rehearsal. and then she was a lead singer in the choir, a solo is, so i had to listen to some more singing. than when i go home, she is singing some more! and she is tough, y'all. i have to honor her today. she was orphaned as a child. she raised six children -- [voice breaks]

by herself. i used to tell her, don't worry, god is my father and he will take care of us. so i know i am a little soft right now, but i am really tough. [laughter] speaker scott: [laughs] i got that toughness from her. she used to make my brother and i, she had to work, she had a couple of jobs, so we thought it was normal that kids got dropped off in front of the library before the library opened, and then got picked up in the evening after the library had closed. one thing she knew, we were going to be able to read and read well. and we do. thank you, mom. [applause] i think the other strong woman in my life, my wife, dr. m elanda scott.

y'all, she was a dentist teacher at the university of pennsylvania when i met her. i was struggling. some of you will know my story, i had just come out of jail. we'll talk. she looked at me and didn't see anything that the world sees, she looked at me and saw her expiration, her husband, her friend, her confident. [voice breaks] thank you. thank you. when i was at my lowest, you looked at me and you saw me exactly where i am standing right now. thank you. thank you. [applause] i want to thank my friend and mentor and confidant, chairman

taurean for all of his support, and, most importantly, for nominating me to be here. thank you, chairman taurean. [applause] i am about to tell a secret that i promised i would keep. um -- [laughter] but i am about to tell it. delegate terry austin, a couple of years ago i was going to texas for an aunt's funeral during covid. going through the airport in houston and i see delegate austin, and i yell out, "terry!" lets he always does, he ignored me. [laughter] but thank god his wife was with me. and like most of our lives that protect us from ourselves, she said, terry and pointed at me. he came over and we spoke and we hugged and talked and from that

point on, we've had a great friendship and relationship. i know folks don't believe that cordiality can exist across the aisle, but i am telling you, it can, because we have a great relationship. i want to thank him from the bottom of my heart for standing in for me today and taking my nomination. i appreciate it. thank you. [applause] so i want to just let y'all know, everything that i learned in this house about fighting for what you believe in, and being a leader, i learned from watching delegate todd gilbert. the former speaker and now minority leader. he is a tenacious fighter. y'all are all gonna cringe when he step up to speak so just get ready.

he used to make me do it too. y'all, give it up for my friend, todd gilbert. [applause] up until this point, he has made my transition very easy. i am sure that will some today. [laughter] [laughs] speaker scott: i am grateful and thank you to my colleagues for the trust you have placed in me to leave this -- lede this -- lead this august body. the historic nature of my speakership is not lost on me. this will be the first time in the history of the commonwealth of virginia that we have had a speaker who was as intelligent as this and as handsome as this -- no what y'all laughing at is

true. [laughter] let me stop. but it's an honor and a privilege to be elected by my peers as the first black speaker of the house of delegates. 405 years after the founding of the longest continuous democratic elected body in the western hemisphere. also, coincidentally, 405 years after the first and sleeved people arrived here. not far from where we stand, down the road in hampton roads. so i know i stand on the shoulders of those who came before me. there is something about being the first to do something. i think about the folks that i look up to personally who never got this opportunity, who i

still count as friends, who are brilliant. forgive me, but they are legislators, former legislators, they are jurists, colleagues and peers. they served in this body, african americans. people like kenny alexander, former delegate and senator from norfolk. yvonne miller, former delegate, fierce fighter and senator from norfolk. i think about former delegate joel jones, and my predecessor and mentor and friend from portsmouth, now circuit court judge, delegate ken melvin. all of the guys were brilliant. all of these ladies were brilliant. yet they never had the opportunity to stand where i stand now. in fact, judge melvin told me he never even fathomed getting the opportunity to stand where i am standing now so i don't take this for granted. i have spoken to many of them

over a little while, and one of the things that stood out to me about all of them is the heart that they had. the integrity that they had. the care for their communities that they had. i hope to be able to emulate that. so i know i stand on the shoulders of giants. i can't even imagine what it must've have been like for doug wilder, first black governor of maryland. 1989. or fergie read, first black person elected to the general assembly since reconstruction. for george delmer who was elected during the construction to the general assembly, a black man from portsmouth. and he was a republican. every time i look around this room, i do see this. i see the ghosts of those people who worked here. those black folks who were enslaved here.

whose dignity and humanity was discounted right here in this room. i see those people and i know we, not just i, we carry their hopes and dreams and their posterity. i carry it in my heart. i think about all the people who never got their rights heard by people sitting in this chamber. thank god the, what has turned the page. thank god -- thank god the commonwealth has turned the page. thank god. [applause] i can imagine how proud they would be to see all the people who are now serving in this chamber looking back at me. from different backgrounds, different faith traditions, different races and ethnicities. and so many other things and differences that make our

commonwealth so very rich. talk about diversity. i have a very unique story myself some of you know it, some of you don't, but google me, as the kids say. [laughter] 30 years ago, i went to federal prison. i did an eight year sentence. seven years, eight months, who is counting. [laughter] and i am in awe of how awesome god is. i was standing here, and the remember people, some in rooms like this, telling me my life was over. that i would never be what i thought i could be. but y'all didn't know i had a secret weapon. i had that woman over there, who would come and see me and talk to me and send me letters and send me books and tell me that i was who she thought i was and who god said that i was.

[voice breaks] and she would remind me that i was god's beloved with whom he was well pleased, regardless of current circumstance. and i had this praying grandmother and these praying aunts, and these fake aunts -- they would tell me what to do like they were my aunts. [laughter] they would wrap their hands around me. i had these women who not only prayed for me and took care of me and during the times that i was away, but when i came home. i had one aunt, juice. she would pick me up at 5:00 a.m. to make sure i got to work on time, every day. commitment. 5:00 a.m. every day, to get me to work because i didn't have a car at the time. there are those who will tell you that you should be defined forever by a mistake.

i am here to tell you, do not believe them. god's grace and mercy is sufficient. duty, honor, country, i take those words very seriously, as i know many of you do. we have some great veterans here that serve in this body. you also may not know i was former naval officer. i often think about the sacrifices those in uniform make everyday in foreign lands and in hostile situations. they raised their right hand and they take an oath to put themselves in harm's way. and their families many times don't know not only where they are, but when they will return. and we speak -- as we speak

right now, there are men and women who are standing watch all over this nation. please, as you serve, do not forget them. do not forget them. the decisions that we make here are going to make sure that they come back to a country that has freedom and democracy for which they fight for overseas. do not forget them. [applause] speaker scott: now, enough about me. let's talk about us. y'all know this. the senate was democrat last session, and the house was republican. so everything we got done last year was bipartisan. oh my god! [laughter] it works! we can do it again. and we'll know, because i have been in a couple of fights,

leader gilbert, we know how to count. we are in the 51-49 body. so everything we want to get done, we will have to get done together. we got a republican governor. 51 over here, 49 over there. 21 and 19 over there. can't get much closer. we have got to be able to get some things done. y'all who have been here for a while probably know this but 80% of the things we vote for they were uncontested. it was boring. all good ideas. newsflash, every good idea ain't on the democratic side and every bad idea ain't on the republican side. great ideas come together. sometimes they start out as a bad idea and become a great idea. we fix them and we do it together. so i am looking forward to working with everybody to continue that journey. this is what i promise as speaker. i will allow debate.

i will try to promote stability. no matter how invested we all are on the outcome, no matter how vociferous it may become, sometimes we all get emotionally attached to stuff. that is good. that is why we were elected, because we care. that is where we were elected. so i will not just be the speaker of the democrats, and they will not just be the opponent of the democrats, but i will be the speaker of the house of the commonwealth of virginia. [applause] thank you. [applause]