John Warner will end his three-decade career in the United States Senate next January, the Republican announced Friday in a speech at the University of Virginia.
The 80-year-old Warner, who is the second-longest serving senator in Virginia’s history, said he is ready to see a younger generation of politicians take over. A southern gentleman with a dramatic flair, he declined to endorse a successor.
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Warner said he had thought about whether to seek a sixth term every day for the past six months and only recently decided on retiring.
“I am going to quietly step aside and make the way for others to move forward,” he said.
Warner served in the Navy during World War II and in the Marine Corps during the Korean War. President Nixon appointed him asundersecretary of the Navy in 1969. Three years later, he was elevated to secretary of the Navy.
“I have tried to pay back to the United States military all that it has given me,” he said.
Warner’s political career started in sorrow. He lost the 1978 Republican Senate primary to Richard Obenshain, but Obenshain died soon after in a plane crash. Warner, who was married to superstar actress Elizabeth Taylor at the time, became the nominee and defeated Democratic candidate Andrew Miller.
In the Senate, Warner developed a reputation as a bipartisan moderate.
He opposed GOP candidates he considered too extreme and, most recently, urged President Bush to start pulling American troops out of Iraq by Christmas.
“Sen. Warner is a good friend, a great Virginian, and a true statesman,” Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine said in a statement. “He has been a strong and reliable partner to my administration, and all Virginians should honor his distinguished leadership for our commonwealth and nation.”
Warner served as chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee from 2003 until early in 2007 when the Democrats took over the Senate.
Recently, as ranking minority member, he became an influential voice in the debate over the Iraq war.
The former lawyer said he had not made any firm plans yet for his post-Senate life, though he does not intend for his days to be idle.
“I want to be of service,” said Warner, who attended the University of Virginia’s law school. “Perhaps something in the private sector, perhaps something with a philanthropic organization that can help. I am going to be very active.”
