Warner, longtime dean of the Virginia GOP, says he supports Cockburn

By Jill Palermo, Times Staff Writer

Former Sen. John Warner, who spent 30 years representing Virginia as a Republican, is lending his support to Leslie Cockburn, a Democrat and former investigative journalist vying to represent the 5th District in the U.S. House.

Warner endorsed Sen. Tim Kaine, also a Democrat, in his race against GOP nominee Corey Stewart in September. Warner appeared with Cockburn and Sen. Mark Warner at a fundraiser at Kinloch Farm in The Plains Saturday.

“I’m still a Republican. I’m going to tell this gang, I’m still a Republican,” the elder Warner said in an interview before the event. “You can’t take that away from me. But you’ve got to have the courage to do what’s right for the country and what’s right for your state.”

Warner, 91, took out his iPhone to scroll through Cockburn’s platform as he talked about why he’s publicly backing Cockburn over her GOP opponent, Denver Riggleman.

Warner called Cockburn “an exceptional candidate” and said he agrees with her positions on health care and “commonsense gun laws.”

“I’ve got a closet full of guns,” said the Navy and Marine Corps veteran who served in both World War II and the Korean War. “I know guns pretty well. And there’s things we’ve got locked in, they’re just wrong. I don’t know how were going to break that one.”

Warner, who spent decades in Fauquier County while he served as secretary of the U.S. Navy and later as senator, spoke of his love for the state. After attending Sen. John McCain’s funeral, Warner said he revised his will to dictate his ashes be “spread over the valley” in Virginia.

Warner said his endorsement of Kaine is rooted in his lifelong friendship with Kaine’s father-in-law, former Virginia Gov. Linwood Holton, the first Republican elected Virginia governor in the 20th Century.

Warner acknowledged the political tide might be turning in Virginia but called the state “fundamentally conservative.”

“The state stands for firm principles and leans a little bit on the progressive side,” he said.

Cockburn, who served on the board of the Piedmont Environmental Council for a decade, said her strong support for conservation and environmental issues has won her support among rural Virginia’s more moderate Republicans.

“There are many people who would consider that their very top issue,” Cockburn said of conservation. “And that’s why they [are] gravitating to me.”

Leslie Cockburn and Sen. John Warner