Via the AP: Sen. John Warner decides not to run
Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia, one of the most authoritative voices in Congress on the military and a key figure in the debate over Iraq, said Friday he will not seek a sixth term in 2024.
Interesting. I must confess, my first reaction to any retirement of a long-serving member of Congress is that it is a good thing as most members simply stay too long. Three full decades is too long for any one person to hold that much power, regardless of skill or party.
In terms of the political implications, one would guess that the Warner’s seat will be one that the Democrats will have a very good chance of capturing.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments/Trackbacks (1)|
The views expressed in the comments are the sole responsibility of the person leaving those comments. They do not reflect the opinion of the author of PoliBlog, nor have they been vetted by the author.
August 31st, 2024 at 4:29 pm
Of course, partisan success in US congressional elections depends so much on recruitment, and recruitment depends on opportunity, and open seats create great opportunity.
I don’t know who the possible candidates are, but the Democrats’ chances of holding both Virginia seats in 2024 and beyond just went up dramatically with this announcement (as Steven suggests).
Another possible spin is that Warner thought he would face a serious challenge and decided not to push it. Lots of retirements are of that sort–reading the tea leaves, so to speak.
Or maybe he just doesn’t like being in the minority. (I would give the GOP very bleak chances of winning back the Senate in 2024–worse than of retaining the presidency.)