Ginni Thomas

Virginia Thomas (née Lamp; born February 23, 1957) is an American conservative activist. In 1987, she married Clarence Thomas, who became an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1991. Her activism has drawn scrutiny since spouses of Supreme Court justices typically avoid engaging in political activity.

Thomas received a Bachelor of Arts in political science and business communication from Creighton University and a Juris Doctor from the Creighton University School of Law. She began her career working for Republican Hal Daub while he was a member of the United States House of Representatives. She went on to work 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.

In 2000, Thomas joined The Heritage Foundation, where she was a liaison between the conservative think tank and the George W. Bush administration. In 2009, Thomas founded Liberty Central, a conservative political advocacy nonprofit organization associated with the Tea Party movement. She founded Liberty Consulting in 2010.

Thomas supported Donald Trump during his first presidency, offering the administration recommendations on individuals to hire through her work with the conservative Groundswell group. 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 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. 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–Lincoln (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. Her advocacy included arguing against the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. In 1989, she became manager of employee relations at the Chamber of Commerce.