Democratic Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said he is going to win re-election because people are tired of the “over-the-top partisanship” in Washington.
“They want bipartisan problem-solvers and that’s what I’ve been about,” Warner said at a rally in Old Town, Alexandria, on Monday evening.
The senator goes into Tuesday with a 9.7-point lead over former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie in the Real Clear Politics poll average.
In the absence of bipartisanship in the Senate, Warner warned that sequestration would take effect and weaken education.
“If we don’t find that common ground, we have the stupidity of sequestration coming rushing back next year and those commitments, not just on the military side, but on our ability to invest in education and infrastructure and research, will be sadly undermined,” he said.
Former Republican Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) addressed the rally and put his full support behind Mark Warner.
“I’ve never seen the world more dangerous,” he said, adding that Virginians need Mark Warner to stay on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Among all of his endorsements, Warner said he is most proud of John Warner’s support.
Warner told the audience Congress should pass campaign finance reform to get rid of all the super PACs.
“It’s time to turn off the TV sets. I’m ready to turn off the TV sets even though I’m inside the TV,” Warner said of campaign ads.
Don Beyer, an auto dealer who is running for the seat occupied by retiring Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), said the country is better off now than it was 6 years ago.
“Aren’t we better off than we were 6 years ago? 10 million Americans now have health insurance. We have brought our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. We have 55 straight months of job growth, the longest in American history. No industrialized nation has cut carbon emissions as much as we have over the last 6 years,” he said.
Beyer cited some “huge challenges” facing the country, including providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
“Climate change, a stagnant standard of living, high youth unemployment, crushing student debt, Ebola, ISIS, $2 trillion in infrastructure needs, a pathway of citizenship for undocumented citizens, Americans,” he said. “This is why we need Mark Warner in the Senate and this is why Gerry Connolly shows up every day in the U.S. House.”
Beyer repeated President Obama’s 2008 campaign slogan, “Yes we can,” concluding with, “Yes we still can and must.”
PJ Media asked Beyer if now is the best time to legalize undocumented immigrants, given the level of unemployment among college graduates.
“Yes I do and there’s roughly 12 million here without documentation. Many of them are working in the economy anyway, sort of in the underground economy. We also have to think middle-term and long-term,” he said. “With the House theoretically staying Republican, as we expect, maybe even a Republican Senate, it’s going to be hard to do it in the next two years but we need to be making the argument every single day and perhaps looking for incremental steps along the way, perhaps just documentation as a first step.”
Beyer also said immigration reform would help support the elderly.
“If you look at 10 or 15 years, the demographics strongly suggest that we’re going to need a much greater population than we have to support all of us who are older,” he said.
The White House has delayed any further executive actions on immigration until after the election. Moran was asked what actions he thinks President Obama should take on immigration reform when Congress returns from recess.
“I don’t know if there are many others [actions] that he can take legally without a Republican Senate reacting and passing legislation that would be counterproductive so I think he’s just got to be very careful,” Moran said. “I think if it were up to him, the president would try to make people who have been in this country and who are working hard and paying taxes, he wants them to be legal because they are contributing to the economy and the society.”
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