Senator Warner announces re-election plans

August 31, 2007

Washington, DC - Virginia senator John Warner will not seek re-election to a sixth term, he announced Friday.

In an announcement in Charlottesville, Va., Warner said he wanted to thank "all those who made it possible for this humble individual to have achieved a footnote in Virginia history." Ending his Senate career after 30 years, he said, he will be "the second-longest serving United States senator in the history of the Commonwealth of Virginia."

Warner, 80, noted that some have read his recent public criticisms of Iraqi leaders as political posturing. "Now, by taking this action, no one can say politics is going to dictate in one way or another how I'm going to decide to speak out what's in the best interests of this nation. And I'm going to do that."

A lawyer and veteran of both World War II and the Korean War, Warner was in charge of the Senate Armed Services Committee until Democrats took control of Congress in January. He has taken several trips to Iraq.