page_title: 2008 United States Senate elections
section_title: Virginia
hierarchical_section_title: 2008 United States Senate elections / Virginia
caption_attribution_description: Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin and ranking member John Warner listen to Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Mike Mullen's opening remarks during his confirmation hearing for appointment to Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., July 31, 2007. 070731-N-0696M-222
context_page_description: The 2008 United States Senate elections were held on November 4, 2008, with 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate being contested. Thirty-three seats were up for regular elections; the winners were eligible to serve six-year terms from January 3, 2009 to January 3, 2015, as members of Class 2. There were also two special elections, the winners of those seats would finish the terms that ended January 3, 2013.
  The presidential election which was won by Democrat Barack Obama, elections for all House of Representatives seats, and several gubernatorial elections, as well as many state and local elections, occurred on the same date.
  Going into these elections, the Senate consisted of 49 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and two Independents who caucused with the Democrats, giving the Democratic caucus the slightest 51-49 majority. Of the seats up for election in 2008, 23 were held by Republicans and 12 by Democrats. The Republicans, who openly conceded early on that they wouldn't be able to regain the majority in 2008, lost eight seats. Democratic candidates defeated Republican incumbents in Alaska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, and after a lengthy recount process, Minnesota.
context_section_description: John Warner announced on August 31, 2007 that he would not seek re-election for another term. Former Governor Jim Gilmore, who dropped out of the 2008 presidential election, was the Republican nominee for the seat.
  Popular Democratic former Governor Mark Warner (no relation) was the Democratic nominee for the race. Polling showed him as a strong favorite to win the seat.
  When asked whether the Republicans were abandoning their hopes of holding onto Warner's seat, senator John Ensign, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, responded that "You don’t waste money on races that don’t need it or you can’t win."
  In one of the first senate races called on election day, Warner won, taking 65% of the vote, with Gilmore winning 34%. Since Democrat Jim Webb had defeated incumbent Republican George Allen for Virginia's other Senate seat in 2006, Virginia's senate delegation flipped from entirely Republican to entirely Democratic in just two years.
caption: Republican senator John Warner chose to retire after five terms.
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