Summary
Incumbent Senator Mark Warner first won election in 2008 getting 65% of the vote over former governor Jim Gilmore. In 2014, during the Tea Party movement, Senator Warner won re-election with 49.1% of the vote defeating former chairman of the Republican National Committee Ed Gillespie by 0.8%. Warner is running for a third term.
Dr. Daniel Gade is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, professor, and public policy leader running to serve the Commonwealth of Virginia in the U.S. Senate. Gade has served in President George W. Bush’s administration, working on veteran issues and military healthcare, and has since served on several national-level policy councils, including the National Council on Disability and the VA Advisory Committee on Disability Compensation.
OnAir Post: US Senate – VA 2020 Election
News
The apparently comfortable margins of victory for both former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Mark R. Warner (D) in Virginia on Tuesday extended an 11-year record of dominance for Democrats in statewide races and cemented the commonwealth’s status as reliably blue.
But at the local and regional level, a different dynamic holds — as evidenced by Republican strength in three close congressional contests driven by rural and military voters energized by support for President Trump.
The results suggest how much the state mirrors the nation as a whole, becoming more polarized and less attuned to the old “Virginia way” of consensus politics, said Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.
“This was an intensified partisan vote,” Rozell said.
Republican Daniel Gade has conceded the Senate race to incumbent Sen. Mark Warner.
“I will never stop fighting for our country and for the Constitution which sustains it, but this race is over,” Gade posted on his official campaign website. “I concede and call on all of my supporters to recognize state and federal results with peace and unity.”
Warner won a third term in the U.S. Senate. He is a top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, was governor of Virginia from 2002 to 2006.
Sen. Mark Warner has scored a resounding victory as the incumbent in Virginia’s Senate race, defeating Republican candidate Daniel Gade, according to the Associated Press. The win marks Warner’s third Senate term.
A Republican has not taken a Virginia U.S. Senate seat in Virginia since 2002, when John Warner (no relation to Mark Warner) was re-elected to a fifth term. However, in the 2014 election, Warner won the office by a very narrow margin — about 1% — against Republican political operative Ed Gillespie. No one expected the race to be that close.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia has won a third term to office.
Warner defeated Republican challenger Daniel Gade on Tuesday in a low-key race whose outcome was never in doubt.
Democrats have not lost a statewide election in Virginia since 2009. Warner is a former governor and current vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He had a massive cash advantage and scared off well-known Republicans from running against him.
– November 1, 2020
Sen. Mark Warner continued his “Get Out the Vote” campaign and the Star City was one of his several stops on Saturday morning for his final push to garner support.
Roanoke’s mayoral candidates also talked with voters and while they differ on their top priorities, both agreed that making your voice heard is important
“This is a big election. This is a major election. Not only locally but across this country because we are a divided country right now and we need to come together,” Mayor Sherman Lea said.”
Senator Mark Warner is making his final push for re-election and is making stops all around the commonwealth.
Warner made a stop on October 31, at IX Art Park in Charlottesville. He’s urging all Virginians to get out in vote in record numbers. Warner says no matter the outcome on Tuesday, he believes that the country is ready for this election to pass and return to normalcy.
“I think that just so many people are ready for this election to be over,” Warner said. “Hopefully come Wednesday or Thursday, when all the votes are counted the whole country can just exhale.”
Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Warner will begin a two-day tour in Southwest Virginia on Thursday ahead of the November 3 election.
Warner will make stops in Galax and Marion on Thursday, with stops in Bristol, Lebanon, Bluefield and Pulaski on Friday.
The Marion stop on Thursday will see Warner tour the Emory and Henry College School of Health Sciences, discussing the healthcare workforce in southwest Virginia with school leaders.
| Christopher Newport Univ. | 10/15 – 10/27 | 908 LV | 3.4 | 57 | 37 | Warner +20 |
| Washington Post | 10/13 – 10/19 | 908 LV | 4.0 | 57 | 39 | Warner +18 |
| Roanoke College | 9/30 – 10/12 | 602 LV | 5.4 | 55 | 38 | Warner +17 |
| Christopher Newport Univ. | 9/9 – 9/21 | 796 LV | 3.3 | 52 | 39 | Warner +13 |
| VCU | 8/28 – 9/7 | 693 LV | 6.2 | 55 | 38 | Warner +17 |
| Roanoke College | 8/9 – 8/22 | 566 LV | 4.1 | 55 | 34 | Warner +21 |
– October 12, 2020
WASHINGTON (ABC7) — The biggest political race in Virginia is for a seat in the U.S. Senate.
Incumbent Democrat Mark Warner is running for a third term. Republican challenger Daniel Gade is hoping to replace him.
ABC7 Northern Virginia Bureau Chief talked to both for one-on-one interviews.
“Why do you believe you deserve a third term,” Barber asked Warner.
“I spent 30 years in business before I went into public service and I went into public service because I wanted to get stuff done and I brought a bi-partisan approach,” said Sen. Warner who was a telecommunications executive before he became Virginia’s Governor and U.S. Senator.
“Your opponent has accused you of not wearing a mask at functions. What would you say to those criticisms — the way the Republicans have handled this pandemic,” asked Barber of Gade.
“Yeah neither, well first off it shouldn’t be a partisan issue, I mean this is a global pandemic,” said Gade. “As serious as the deaths are, in some sense, is the fact our economy has ground to a halt.”
October 3, 2020 (01:29:00)
At Wednesday’s debate, held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic, Gade tried to gain ground by attacking Warner as a career politician who flip-flops on key issues.
“The same old stale ideas aren’t working for Virginians,” Gale said.
Warner pitched himself as a business and tech-savvy moderate who is well-known to Virginians. He dismissed Gade’s attacks as theater.
“President Trump has been shown by the Washington Post to have committed over 20,000 lies in his tenure. It appears my opponent is actually trying to catch up with him today,” Warner said.
September 24, 2020 (55:40)
The three debates will have the two candidates discuss various issues facing Virginians and other Americans, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and healthcare prices.
The first debate is slated for Sept. 23 and will be hosted by the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce and NBC4 Washington.
Warner and Gade are scheduled to debate again on Oct. 3 in Norfolk, where the event will be hosted by Norfolk State University and a yet undecided media partner. The Norfolk debate will be focused on issues surrounding race and justice
Richmond will be another location for a debate between Gade and Warner, where the event will be hosted by the AARP and WTVR on Oct. 13.
A poll released this week by the Virginia Commonwealth University L. Douglas Wilder School of Government shows presidential candidate Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner leading by double-digit margins in the commonwealth.
The Richmond-based university conducted a telephone poll of just over 800 adults from Aug. 28 to Sept. 7.
The results show Democratic nominee Biden ahead of President Donald Trump by 14 percentage points (53% to 39%).
Va. Sen. Mark Warner showed a 17-point lead over his GOP challenger Daniel Gade in a recent VCU poll.
Warner, a Democrat who has represented Virginia in Congress for more than a decade, is ahead of his Republican challenger Daniel Gade by 17 percentage points (55% to 38%). The poll had a margin of error of 5.17 percentage points for all adults sampled and 6.22 percentage points for likely voters.
Mark Warner’s favorable rating is 51%, up 14 points since May, while his unfavorable rating rose from 21% in May to 26% in August. Daniel Gade, his Republican challenger, is largely unknown with two-thirds of likely voters (67%) not knowing enough to have an opinion of him. Positively, his favorable rating of 20% doubles his unfavorable rating of 10%.
“Senator Warner has a comfortable margin at this point with a healthy lead, a positive favorable rating, and an opponent in Daniel Gade, who is largely unknown to most voters. Gade’s hope lies in his low unfavorable rating and the opportunity to define himself if he can reach the voters.”
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) joined Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) in introducing comprehensive broadband infrastructure legislation to expand access to affordable high-speed internet for all Americans.
The Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act will seek to address the digital divide by investing $100 billion to build high-speed broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved communities. The legislation in the House of Representatives is led by House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-SC) and members of the House Rural Broadband Task Force.
“The current health crisis has only underscored what we already know: that too many households across the country lack reliable access to broadband,” said Sen. Warner. “In Virginia alone, it’s estimated that more than 700,000 Virginians lack access to broadband, making it harder for families to access essential services during these unprecedented times. Access to broadband helps communities meaningfully participate in the digital economy. Individuals can apply for a job or submit a college application, families can connect with their health care providers without having to travel long distances, and teachers and students can advance and supplement their online learning. Accessibility to broadband is vital to increasing digital literacy, achieving economic stability, and advancing education, and this critical legislation will help bridge the gap for communities that still need access to this critical technology.”
Republican nominee for US Senate Daniel Gade is challenging Mark Warner to five debates. Virginians deserve to hear the difference between the tired ideas of a career politician and the new, fresh visions of a lifelong servant leader. Daniel Gade is demanding these 5 debates be spread throughout the entire Commonwealth, including Southwest, Tidewater, Richmond, Southside, and Northern VA.
“Virginians deserve to hear the difference between Mark Warner’s do-nothing career and a fighter who can actually get things done in the Senate for Virginians,” said Daniel Gade. “I am thrilled to challenge Warner to these 5 debates that will cover real issues such as affordable healthcare, quality education, well-paying jobs, individual liberty and much more. As a warfighter and a professor, I look forward to debating Warner on the battlefield of ideas.”
Mark Warner
Current Position: US Senator since 2009
Affiliation: Democrat
Former Position(s): Governor from 2002 – 2006
Senator Warner was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2008 and reelected to a second term in November 2014. He serves on the Senate Finance, Banking, Budget, and Rules Committees as well as the Select Committee on Intelligence, where he is the Vice Chairman.
During his time in the Senate, Senator Warner has established himself as a bipartisan leader who has worked with Republicans and Democrats alike to cut red tape, increase government performance and accountability, and promote private sector innovation and job creation. Senator Warner has been recognized as a national leader in fighting for our military men and women and veterans, and in working to find bipartisan, balanced solutions to address our country’s debt and deficit.
For more information, go to the Mark Warner post.
Daniel Gade
Current Position: Professor, American University
Affiliation: Republican
Candidate: 2020 US Senator
Dr. Daniel Gade is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, professor, and public policy leader running to serve the Commonwealth of Virginia in the U.S. Senate. During more than 20 years of military service, he was awarded the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, and two Purple Hearts. Daniel graduated from West Point in 1997 and served in multiple locations in the United States and Korea.
Gade has served in President George W. Bush’s administration, working on veteran issues and military healthcare, and has since served on several national-level policy councils, including the National Council on Disability and the VA Advisory Committee on Disability Compensation.
For more information, go to the Daniel Gade post.
Issues
Source: Campaign site
Governance
Daniel Gade
Limited Government
We must return to a fiscally responsible government that promotes individual freedom. Powers not given to the federal government explicitly in the Constitution are reserved to the people or to the States. Government overreach should be called what it is: tyranny. It’s past time to rein in government overreach and return to Constitutional government
Mark Warner
Transparency
On the Senate Budget Committee, Warner was appointed chairman of a bipartisan task force on government performance in 2009. Warner was a lead sponsor of the 2010 Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), which imposed specific program performance goals across all federal agencies and set up a more transparent agency performance review process.
On May 21, 2013, Warner introduced the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (S. 994; 113th Congress), DATA. “The legislation requires standardized reporting of federal spending to be posted to a single website, allowing citizens to track spending in their communities and agencies to more easily identify improper payments, waste and fraud.” On November 6, 2013, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee unanimously passed DATA.
On January 27, 2014, a version of the White House Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) marked up version of the bill was leaked. This White House version “move[s] away from standards and toward open data structures to publish information” and “requir[es] OMB in consultation with Treasury to review and, if necessary, revise standards to ensure accuracy and consistency through methods such as establishing linkages between data in agency financial systems…” Senator Warner’s responded with the following statement: “The Obama administration talks a lot about transparency, but these comments reflect a clear attempt to gut the DATA Act. DATA reflects years of bipartisan, bicameral work, and to propose substantial, unproductive changes this late in the game is unacceptable. We look forward to passing the DATA Act, which had near universal support in its House passage and passed unanimously out of its Senate committee. I will not back down from a bill that holds the government accountable and provides taxpayers the transparency they deserve.”
On April 10, 2014, the Senate voted by unanimous consent to pass the bill, which was then passed by the House in a voice vote on April 28, 2014.
Civil Rights
Daniel Gade
Protect Individual Liberties and Civil Rights
Our civil rights include the right to live in accordance with our religious principles, the right to unrestricted free speech and exchange of ideas, and the right to protect ourselves by keeping and bearing arms. This is the only way to ensure equal protection and justice for all, regardless of race, class, or creed.
Mark Warner
Gun laws
On April 17, 2013, Warner voted to expand background checks for gun purchases as part of the Manchin-Toomey Amendment.
In 2017, he called himself a strong supporter of second amendment rights and vowed to advocate for responsible gun ownership for hunting, recreation, and self-defense.
In January 2019, Warner was one of forty senators to introduce the Background Check Expansion Act, a bill that would require background checks for either the sale or transfer of all firearms including all unlicensed sellers. Exceptions to the bill’s background check requirement included transfers between members of law enforcement, loaning firearms for either hunting or sporting events on a temporary basis, providing firearms as gifts to members of one’s immediate family, firearms being transferred as part of an inheritance, or giving a firearm to another person temporarily for immediate self-defense.
Economy
Daniel Gade
Promote Free Market Systems
Markets that are free of government interference or crony capitalism are engines of economic growth and prosperity for all. Low individual and business taxes, decreased regulation, and free and unfettered trade is the key to further improvement in the standard of living for all Americans.
Mark Warner
Between 2010 and 2013, Warner invested considerable time and effort in leading the Senate’s Gang of Six, along with Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA). Together, Chambliss and Warner sought to craft a bipartisan plan along the lines of the Simpson-Bowles Commission to address U.S. deficits and debt.
Although the Gang of Six ultimately failed to produce a legislative “grand bargain”, they did agree on the broad outlines of a plan that included spending cuts, tax reforms that produced more revenue, and reforms to entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security—entitlement reforms that are opposed by most Democrats. Although President Obama showed interest in the plan, leaders in Congress from both parties kept a deal from being made. In 2011, the bipartisan Concord Coalition awarded Warner and Chambliss its Economic Patriots Award for their work with the Gang of Six.
Minimum wage
In April 2014, the United States Senate debated the Minimum Wage Fairness Act (S. 1737; 113th Congress). The bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938(FLSA) to increase the federal minimum wage for employees to $10.10 per hour over the course of a two-year period. The bill was strongly supported by President Barack Obama and many Democratic Senators, but strongly opposed by Republicans in the Senate and House. Warner expressed a willingness to negotiate with Republicans about some of the provisions of the bill, such as the timeline for the phase-in. Warner said that any increase needs to be done “in a responsible way.”
Finance
From the start of his Senate term, Warner attempted to replicate in Washington, D.C. the bipartisan partnerships that he used effectively during his tenure as Virginia governor. In 2010, Warner worked with a Republican colleague on the Banking Committee, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), to write a key portion of the Dodd-Frank Act that seeks to end taxpayer bailouts of failing Wall Street financial firms by requiring “advance funeral plans” for large financial firms.
In 2013, the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress gave Sens. Warner and Corker its Publius Award for their bipartisan work on financial reform legislation.
In 2018, Warner became one of the few Democrats in the Senate supporting a bill that would relax “key banking regulations”. As part of at least 11 other Democrats, Warner argued that the bill would “right-size post-crisis rules imposed on small and regional lenders and help make it easier for them to provide credit”. Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren have stated their opposition to the legislation.
Military
Daniel Gade
Maintain a strong national defense
The power to declare war resides in Congress, not the Executive. Since the end of World War II, Congress has shirked this responsibility. I believe that we should commit troops only a) in defense of a vital national interest b) when there is a defined end state and c) when military force is the only remaining option. Military families shouldn’t be the only ones having dinner table conversations before their loved ones go to war. I am opposed to the open-ended commitment of troops around the world.
Mark Warner
Defense
In 2011, Warner voted for the four-year extension of the USA PATRIOT Act. In 2011, he engaged Northern Virginia’s high-tech community in a pro-bono effort to correct burial mistakes and other U.S. Army management deficiencies at Arlington National Cemetery. In 2012, he successfully pushed the Navy to improve the substandard military housing in Hampton Roads.
Also in 2012, he pushed the Office of Personnel Management to address chronic backlogs in processing retirement benefits for federal workers, many of whom live in Washington’s northern Virginia suburbs. Warner was successful in pushing the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand access to PTSD treatment for female military veterans returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In August 2013, Warner was one of twenty-three Democratic senators to sign a letter to the Defense Department warning of some payday lenders “offering predatory loan products to service members at exorbitant triple digit effective interest rates and loan products that do not include the additional protections envisioned by the law” and asserting that service members along with their families “deserve the strongest possible protections and swift action to ensure that all forms of credit offered to members of our armed forces are safe and sound.”
Warner was awarded the Distinguished Public Service Medal by U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, the Navy’s highest honor for a civilian, for his consistent support of Virginia’s military families and veterans.
Democracy
In June 2019, Warner and Amy Klobuchar introduced the Preventing Adversaries Internationally from Disbursing Advertising Dollars (PAID AD) Act, a bill that would modify U.S. federal campaign finance laws to outlaw the purchasing of ads that name a political candidate and appear on platforms by foreign nationals in the midst of an election year.
Healthcare
Mark Warner
On a video in his senate office, Warner promised Virginians, “I would not vote for a health-care plan that doesn’t let you keep health insurance you like.” [33]
He voted for the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA, commonly called Obamacare), helping the Senate reach the required sixty votes to prevent it from going to a filibuster. (As there were exactly 60 Democratic Senators at the time, each Democrat can be said to have cast the deciding vote.) He and 11 Senate freshmen discussed adding an amendment package aimed at addressing health care costs by expanding health IT and wellness prevention.
In January 2019, Warner was one of six Democratic senators to introduce the American Miners Act of 2019, a bill that would amend the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to swap funds in excess of the amounts needed to meet existing obligations under the Abandoned Mine Land fund to the 1974 Pension Plan as part of an effort to prevent its insolvency as a result of coal company bankruptcies and the 2008 financial crisis. It also increased the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund tax and ensured that miners affected by the 2018 coal company bankruptcies would not lose their health care.
Start ups, Saudi Arabia
Warner was the original Democratic sponsor of the Startup Act legislation and has partnered with the bill’s original author Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) to introduce three iterations of the bill: Startup Act in 2011, Startup Act 2.0 in 2012 and Startup Act 3.0 in early 2013. Warner describes the legislation as the ‘logical next step’ following enactment of the bipartisan JOBS Act.”
In 2015, Warner criticized the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, saying: “I’m concerned in particular with some of the indiscriminate bombing in Yemen … [Gulf states] need to step up and they need to step up with more focus than the kind of indiscriminate bombing.”
In June 2017, Warner voted to support Trump’s $350 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
In May 2018, Warner voted for Gina Haspel to be the next CIA director.
In 2016, American foreign policy scholar Stefan Halper served as an FBI operative and contacted members of the Donald Trump Presidential campaign. In May 2018, Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned Republican lawmakers that it would be “potentially illegal” to reveal the identity of Stefan Halper.
