OPINION:
“I don’t want to be a lifelong politician. My view of public service is something you do for part of your life, not all of your life. That’s why I’ve said that if I’m elected to the U.S. Senate, I will serve no more than two terms.”
That’s what centimillionaire telecommunications magnate Mark R. Warner, then Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate from Virginia, proclaimed in closing remarks at a July 20, 1996, candidates’ debate. The incumbent, Republican Sen. John Warner (no relation), went on to defeat his namesake challenger.
That was then, and this is now. Channeling President Nixon’s press secretary Ron Ziegler, Mark Warner’s disavowal of aspiring to be a career politician became “inoperative” six years ago.
Winning the Virginia governorship in 2001 provided Mr. Warner with a launchpad for a second — this time successful — Senate bid in 2008. He has been a predictable Democratic partisan vote ever since.
Eschewing that two-term pledge for a second time, Mr. Warner announced Dec. 2 that he would seek reelection to the Senate for a fourth six-year term. Now 71, Mr. Warner apparently does in fact “want to be a lifetime politician.”
Throughout his three terms in the Senate, Mr. Warner has masqueraded as a moderate — or what he early on dubbed “a bipartisan, radical centrist.” Yet Virginia Republicans, citing data compiled by CQ Weekly, formerly Congressional Quarterly, claimed in 2014, during his first reelection, bid: “97 percent of the time, that’s how often Mark Warner votes with President Obama.”
The Republican claim was rated “true” by PolitiFact. That lockstep party loyalty continued in Mr. Warner’s third term during Joseph R. Biden’s presidency.
It’s also worth remembering that Mr. Warner likely would have lost his 2014 reelection bid to Republican Ed Gillespie had two-time Republican turned Libertarian third-party spoiler Robert Sarvis not been in the race. Mr. Sarvis got 2.4% of the vote in a race decided by 0.8%. (A year earlier, in 2013, Mr. Sarvis’ 6.5% of the vote handed the Virginia governorship to Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who bested Ken Cuccinelli by 2.6%.)
For Virginia Republicans to stand any chance of denying a fourth term to Mr. Warner, who can tap a personal fortune estimated at $215 million, they will have to do better than Army veteran and college professor Daniel Gade, their underfunded sacrificial lamb nominee in 2020. Mr. Warner outspent Mr. Gade by a margin of 4-to-1 and coasted to a 56% to 44% win.
With Virginia state Sen. Bryce Reeves abandoning his short-lived U.S. Senate bid on Dec. 28, citing a “serious family health matter,” Mr. Warner has no serious Republican challenger standing in the way of a fourth term.
If the Republican Party is to have any hope of flipping the seat, there are really only two people on the scene who could go toe-to-toe with Mr. Warner: former Gov. Glenn Youngkin and former state Attorney General Jason Miyares, who lost his bid for a second term in November’s Democrat wave. (Mr. Miyares’ loss needn’t be seen as a career ender, as Mr. Warner himself proved 30 years ago.)
Messrs. Youngkin and Miyares have previously run and won statewide, unlike a trio of perennial candidates and unknowns currently seeking the Republican nomination who stand little to no realistic chance of unseating Mr. Warner.
Just as important, Messrs. Youngkin and Miyares have donor bases and campaign infrastructures already in place, so either could hit the ground running.
Mr. Youngkin previously ruled out a Senate bid, but party elders should press him strenuously to reconsider. He could run on his solid record of job gains, tax cuts and reduced crime during his four years in Richmond. Still, the governor is said to be setting his sights higher — namely, a bid for the presidential nomination in 2028, as suggested by his headlining Republican dinners in Iowa and South Carolina this summer.
Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio might have something to say about that.
At the same time, taking a post in President Trump’s Cabinet would be a serious waste of Mr. Youngkin’s telegenic persona and communications skills, which former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell described as a “rare generational talent.”
With a net worth estimated at $543 million — more than double that of Mr. Warner — Mr. Youngkin, 59, would be able to match the incumbent’s campaign spending dollar for dollar, unlike Mr. Gade.
Just as an aside, another Democrat, Jason Reynolds of Fredericksburg, is running against Mr. Warner in a party primary challenge. The bald, hoodie- and nose-ring-wearing Reynolds apparently thinks Mr. Warner isn’t sufficiently “progressive” (i.e., not far enough left).
Whether coincidentally or as an intentional shot at Mr. Warner, he vows to “introduce legislation that calls for term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court.”
“I am a proud signer of the [Citizens’ Term Limits Petition] and pledge to self-limit to no more than two terms,” Mr. Reynolds wrote on his campaign website.
If either Mr. Youngkin or Mr. Miyares jumps into the Senate race, they should likewise make Mr. Warner’s broken term limit promise an issue in their campaigns.
• Peter Parisi is a former editor for The Washington Times.
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