Griffith and a powerful Republican lobby defeated 14-term incumbent Rick Boucher, a Democrat from Abingdon. Griffith won with 51 percent off the district’s votes to Boucher’s 46 percent. Independent Jeremiah Heaton received about 2 percent of the overall votes.

H. Morgan Griffith

Griffith couldn’t even vote for himself in the Nov. 2 election, because he lives about 2 feet into the Sixth District. That is in Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte’s territory – for now. In interviews before the election, Griffith said he fully expects the Salem area to be back in the 9th Congressional District after redistricting is done to reflect population shown in the 2010 Census.

Reached by phone Tuesday around 11 p.m. at his election night party headquarters at the Holiday Inn in Bristol, Va., Griffith said he believes he was elected because of his conservatism.

“It was clear that in the 9th District people wanted somebody more conservative…Boucher paid more attention to President Obama than people here,” he said.

As far as who will represent Salem, Glenvar and the Cave Spring areas in the House of Delegates in the 2011 General Assembly, that’s still up in the air. In addition to being the delegate from this area, Griffith has also been majority leader of the House of Delegates.

Griffith said he will “have to figure out when to step aside” as a delegate. “Obviously, there will have to be a special election, but we don’t know when.”

Meanwhile, Griffith will also start getting staff for his Washington, D.C., office together, and figure out where he will lay his head while Congress is in session.

“I’m looking for a very sturdy cardboard box,” he quipped. He said he and his wife, Hillary, do not plan to relocate their family of her daughter and their two young sons.

“Hillary and I had made the decision before I won. I’ll have some place to sleep in Washington, but I don’t know that I would call it a place to live,” Griffith said.

So what are his first plans? “I plan to go tomorrow to one of the local high schools in deep Southwest Virginia – I’m not going to announce which one so it won’t be overrun with media,” he said. “I told the principal and government teacher I would be back if I won. I think it’s very important that the students know they share in this government,” Griffith said.

Hillary Griffith was at her husband’s side at the election night party. They left the children at home, he said, “because we felt particularly for the boys it would be hard for them to understand.”

Griffith has been a member of the House of Delegates since 1994. He represents the 8th District. He graduated from Andrew Lewis high School, Emory & Henry College and Washington and Lee University School of Law.

He is a partner in Albo and Oblon, a law firm with offices in many areas of Virginia. When not in the General Assembly, he practices out of his law office on Main Street in Salem.

With two weeks to go for this year’s session of the Virginia General Assembly, Griffith issued a statement Feb. 26 confirming his intent to seek the Republican nomination for the 9th District seat now held by Democrat Rick Boucher of Abingdon.

Griffith also filed his candidate filing fee with Michelle Jenkins, chairman of the 9th District Republican Committee.

Griffith, who is currently House Majority Leader for the House of Delegates, is seeking the Republican nomination for the Congressional seat at the 9th District Republican Convention on May 22 at Fort Chiswell High School in Max Meadows.

The Salem resident said he plans to delay a formal public announcement of his candidacy until after the General Assembly adjourns for the year.

Griffith represents the Eighth District of Virginia in the House of Delegates which includes Salem and part of Roanoke County. Although he does not live in the 9th Congressional District – which includes Craig County – under election rules Griffith can run for that district because of Congressional Redistricting expected after the 2010 Census.

Salem and Roanoke County and other parts of the 6th Congressional District now are represented by Congressman Bob Goodlatte, who, like Griffith, is a Republican.