Democratic Sen. Mark Warner has won reelection to a fourth term representing Virginia in the U.S. Senate, with the race called quickly in his favor over Republican challenger Bert Mizusawa, a retired U.S. Army major general.
Mizusawa had campaigned largely on reducing the tax burden on Virginians, but Warner’s long tenure in the seat, which he has held since 2009, proved decisive once again. In his previous reelection, Warner won with more than half the vote.
Following the call, Warner posted a message of thanks to voters. “Thank you, Virginia! I’m honored and grateful to continue serving as your United States Senator,” he wrote on social media.
Iran war featured heavily in campaign
Throughout the race, Warner was a vocal critic of U.S. involvement in the war in Iran, calling it “a war of choice chosen by Donald Trump in the Middle East, where our record has not been great.”
During a September appearance on Morning Joe, Warner laid out a detailed critique of the administration’s handling of the conflict.
You know, they wanted to change the regime. Well, they killed the last guys, but the current guys are worse than before. We don’t have any activity to get the enriched uranium. It would have required 15,000 troops on the ground getting those canisters out while the Iranians were bombing us. They still have missiles and drones. We turn down Ukrainian technology, which could have taken down Iranian drones at $5,000 a pop. We’re spending $2.5 million per missile to take down some of those, some of those drones.
And clearly we’ve got $4.50 gas, we’ve got $6.40 diesel. And I don’t see any scenario, even if the president declares victory tomorrow, where at the end of the day, Iran is not going to extract some kind of toll coming from oil and natural gas that will come out of that area. This war is a disaster on every front. The American people know it. It’s driving up inflation, you know, mortgage rates at 7%.
Warner added, “And candidly, I have not heard any plan at all on how to extract ourselves. That’s a disaster.”
Exit polling from the Virginia race found that two-thirds of voters said the war in Iran was important to their vote, underscoring the issue’s weight in the outcome.
