Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, whose success with working-class voters helped set in motion his party’s resurgence in the Old Dominion, has been tapped to deliver the keynote speech at the Democratic convention this month.
Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign announced Wednesday that Warner will address the convention on Aug. 26, the second day of the four-day event. It is the party’s strongest overture yet to a Southern state that hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964.
Warner, a moderate who won the governor’s mansion in 2001 by cutting into the traditionally Republican rural voter base, is now the front-runner in a U.S. Senate race against his predecessor in the governor’s mansion, Republican Jim Gilmore.
The selection holds significance for the political careers of both Warner and current Gov. Tim Kaine, rumored to be on the vice-presidential short list.
Since experts say it’s unlikely — though not implausible — that the Democratic Party would place two Virginia politicians in key speaking roles at the convention, the move appears to diminish Kaine’s chances of being selected as Obama’s running mate. The so-far unannounced VP pick is set to speak the following evening.
For Warner, the speech indicates that the Democratic Party is investing heavily in him as a leader. The same keynote address in 2004 vaulted Obama to national prominence and set the stage for his White House bid.
“That, of course, does show [Warner’s] significance, and the role he will play in the Senate, and the role he will play nationally, in being someone who is going to help direct policy,” said Mame Reiley, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee’s Women’s Caucus and Warner’s former political director.
Warner’s keynote speech can be a “two-edged sword,” said Ana Gamonal, spokeswoman for Gilmore. She doubted that he could match the oratorical skills of speakers like John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Obama, and questioned whether a speech to a convention of hard-core Democrats would “put to rest this claim that he is bipartisan.”
“What could he possibly say to 20,000 hard-line liberal Democrats that will resonate as bipartisan to the working families of Virginia,” she said.
Polls show Obama and his opponent, Republican Sen. John McCain, are running essentially neck and neck in Virginia.
