Warner is projected to win in Virginia

Mark Warner, the former governor of Virginia, easily won the state’s open Senate seat, a pickup for Democrats who hope to significantly increase their majority.

 

Warner defeated Republican Jim Gilmore, also a former governor, in the fight for the seat held by retiring Sen. John Warner (R), a five-term senator and one of the chamber’s most respected voices on foreign policy. CNN projected that Mark Warner would win soon after polls closed at 7 p.m.

The Democrat's victory is the first in what is expected to be a big night for his party, which is aiming for a robust majority with as many as 60 seats to help overcome the use of filibusters to derail legislation. His victory also represents a Democratic transformation of a state that was dominated by Republicans just four years ago.

Mark Warner, who is not related to John Warner, is a rising star in the Democratic Party. Having toyed with mounting a presidential bid in 2008, the former Virginia governor later decided instead to run for the Senate.

This is not his first foray into Washington politics, however. After obtaining his law degree from Harvard University, Warner worked on the staff of Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) in the early 1980s.

After leaving Capitol Hill and making a fortune in a telecommunications firm, he unsuccessfully ran for the Senate in 1996 against Sen. Warner. In 2001, he became governor of the once GOP-dominant state and left office with high favorability ratings. His stature has since skyrocketed in Democratic circles, and he delivered the keynote address at the party’s 2008 nominating convention.

Virginia, along with open seats in Colorado and New Mexico, were long expected to be pickups for Democrats, adding to their 51-49 majority in the Senate. Polls close at 9 p.m. in Colorado and New Mexico. (All times listed in this story are EST.)

Polling has found Democratic challengers ahead in five other states — Alaska, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Oregon. The first polls close at 7 p.m. in New Hampshire, and the rest in the state close at 8 p.m. In North Carolina, polls close at 7:30 p.m.; they close at 9 p.m. in Minnesota. In Oregon, polls in the eastern part of the state close at 10 p.m., and at 11 p.m. in the western part of the state.

In Alaska’s Senate race, in which the longest-serving Republican in history, Ted Stevens, is trying to hold onto his seat of 40 years despite his felony conviction, polls close at midnight in the eastern part of the state and 1 a.m. in the western part.

Both sides will be paying close attention to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s race in Kentucky and two others in the Deep South, at least one of which Democrats must win to reach 60 seats: Georgia’s contest in the seat held by Republican Saxby Chambliss and Mississippi’s seat, held by Republican Roger Wicker. Polls in Georgia close at 7 p.m.; Mississippi’s close at 8 p.m.

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