Did you hear? John Warner, the former Republican senator from Virginia, endorsed Hillary Clinton today.
This is noteworthy as a former Republican official endorsing the Democratic nominee, but some more context makes this a bit less surprising.
First off, it’s unclear that Warner is a Republican in any meaningful way.
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He’s not in office anymore, and so he’s not caucusing with any party or running on any ticket.
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Warner lives in Virginia, which doesn’t have party registration, and so he is not a registered Republican.
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In the last high-profile general election contest where Warner spoke up, Virginia’s razor-thin Senate race in 2014, Warner endorsed the Democrat, Mark Warner, over GOP nominee Ed Gillespie.
- Since leaving office, Warner has cut checks to only one House candidate and one Senate candidate: $1,000 to Mark Warner in 2010, and $1,000 Democratic Rep. Alan Mollohan in 2012. On the GOP side, John Warner contributed $391.25 in catering to George Allen in 2012, and $2,700 in this year’s presidential primary to Jeb Bush.
Warner, as a senator, wasn’t much of a party guy, as Jim Geraghty points out. Warner in 1994, opposed Oliver North, who was the GOP nominee for the Senate.
Another noteworthy detail about the man endorsing Hillary Clinton: He now works at a K Street lobbying firm, where he has been a registered lobbyist, whose corporate clients include foreign companies, who were lobbying on the same side as Chinese state-owned companies.
So, a more accurate description of today’s endorsement may be, Jeb Bush-supporting Democratic Lawyer/Lobbyist Endorses Clinton.”
Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
