Another US Republican, former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, has entered an already overcrowded race for the White House.

On Wednesday, Gilmore joins 16 other Republicans hoping to win the GOP nomination for the 2016 US presidential election.

The former army intelligence specialist, attorney, prosecutor and Virginia attorney general becomes the 17th Republican candidate to enter the race.

The 65-year-old filed his paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission, but he says he intends to officially announce his campaign in the first week of August.

Gilmore served as Virginia governor for one term from 1998 to 2002 and was also the chairman of the Republican National Committee.

“I bring to the table experience that others don’t have,” Gilmore told the Richmond Times-Dispatch earlier this month.

Gilmore briefly joined the fight for the Republican nomination in 2007, but he failed to raise the money needed to continue the race till the end.

Wealthy individuals and corporations have begun to replace powerless people as direct beneficiaries of the US political system and the Constitution, according to a recent study published by the New York Times.

The Koch brothers and other wealthy conservatives planning to spend nearly $1 billion in the run-up to the 2016 election have invited four leading Republican candidates – Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker – to have a chance at their blessing.

The Koch annual summer conference is scheduled to begin on August 1 and continue up to August 3, according to a report published by the POLITICO, a news organization based in Virginia.

The billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch wield significant financial and political influence on US politics, both directly and indirectly, via various advocacy and lobbying organizations.