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A trio of Republicans from Northern Virginia are seeking the GOP nomination to battle Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, who’s seeking a fourth term.
Warner, 71, has said this will be his last campaign to seek reelection.
The candidate who wins the Aug. 4 primary will face a tough challenge against Warner, who has a big campaign war chest and won by double digits in the 2020 election.
“What you see in Virginia is really quite different than the Democratic challenges in other parts of the country,” said Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington.
Farnsworth pointed out that Warner is more moderate than many Democrats, but hasn’t faced pressure from the left, unlike other Senate candidates in Maine and Michigan.
Warner has no primary opponent.
“He has a huge cash advantage and the three Republicans who have announced that they plan to challenge him are all struggling to raise money and get public attention in an environment where Democrats are very much looking at a tail wind nationally,” Farnsworth said.
President Donald Trump’s low approval rating, combined with the Iran war and rising consumer prices, has created a challenging political environment for many Republicans, he said.
Who are the GOP candidates?
All three Republicans seeking the Senate nomination in Virginia have either military backgrounds or have worked for the federal government.
Kim Farington is a certified public accountant who has decades of experience working for the Defense Department, Office of Personnel Management, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the White House.
After leaving the government, she founded a small business focused on financial management and cybersecurity.
Farington has stressed the need for financial reform and addressing economic issues like inflation, as well as reducing the size of government and strong border security.
Bert Mizusawa is a retired Army major general who commanded a unit in Afghanistan and has worked in various positions in the federal government, including as an adviser to the CIA director.
Mizusawa has stressed issues linked to national security, foreign policy and military readiness, highlighting his decades of public service.
Early in his career, Mizusawa served as a staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
David Williams also has a military background. He served in the Navy and then the Marine Corps and was deployed twice to Iraq.
Williams went on to a diplomatic career, working for the State Department and later the CIA.
He is now in private business and has cited the need for prudent fiscal management, cutting taxes and reducing the size of the federal government.
The challenge of challenging an incumbent
Campaign finance reports indicate that of the three GOP candidates, Mizusawa has raised the most money, followed by Farington and Williams.
Mizusawa has raised close to $376,000.
Their funds are dwarfed by the more than $25 million raised by Warner.
Farnsworth said Republicans had a tough time finding a prominent GOP candidate to challenge Warner.
“There is no member of Congress running. There is no candidate who’s run a statewide election in the past who’s running,” Farnsworth said, noting former governors, lieutenant governors or former attorneys general often run in Senate races.
Warner’s closest challenge came in 2014, when the former chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) Ed Gillespie nearly defeated him.
Gillespie lost by less than 1% of the vote.
But this year, Virginia doesn’t appear to be in play, as Democrats try to regain the majority in the Senate.
Democrats are focused most intensely on Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, as they try to regain power.
They also can’t afford to lose in Michigan, where there’s a tough fight for the Democratic Senate nomination, and like Virginia, its primary is on Aug. 4.
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