John Warner

This article is about the Virginia politician John Warner. For the New York politician, see John De Witt Warner ; for the American chemist, see John C. Warner .

John Warner

John William Warner III (born February 18, 1927 in Washington, DC , † May 25, 2021 in Alexandria, Virginia ) was an American politician ( Republican ). He was Secretary of State for the Navy from 1972 to 1974 and was a member of the US Senate from 1979 to 2009 as a representative of Virginia . As the influential chairman of the Armed Forces Committee, he directed many federal funds to Virginia and was considered moderate, especially socio-politically.

Family, education and work

Warner attended the prestigious St. Albans School in Washington . He joined the United States Navy in January 1945 shortly before his 18th birthday , where he served until 1946. His highest rank in the Navy was petty officer third class. He then attended Washington and Lee University until 1949 and then the Law School of the University of Virginia . That same year he became an assistant to Judge E. Barrett Prettyman on the Federal Court of Appeals . From 1956 he worked as a public prosecutor, from 1960 as an independent lawyer.

Warner got his first marriage to Catherine Mellon , granddaughter of billionaire Andrew W. Mellon . He had three children with her. After the marriage ended in divorce in 1973, he married actress Elizabeth Taylor in 1976 ; this marriage lasted until 1982. He died as the last living of Elizabeth Taylor's seven husbands. From 2003 he was married to real estate agent Jeanne Vander Myde.

Political career

John Warner as Secretary of State for the Navy

In February 1969, President Richard Nixon named Warner Undersecretary of the Navy in his cabinet . On May 4, he succeeded John Chafee as Secretary of the Navy . In this capacity he took part in the negotiations on the Convention on the Law of the Sea .

John Warner during a meeting of the Armed Forces Committee (2007)

Warner first ran for a political election in 1978 when he ran for the United States Senate in Virginia. Best known at the time as Elizabeth Taylor's husband, Warner was runner-up in the Republican party primary . After the primary election winner, Richard D. Obenshain , died in a plane crash before the main election, Warner took part, narrowly beating Virginia's Democratic Attorney General Andrew P. Miller . From January 3, 1979, Warner sat in the Senate. There he was a member of the committees for the environment and public buildings , health, education, labor and pensions and secret services . His most important position was that of chairman of the armed forces committee ; In this role, among other things , he secured and expanded the billions of dollars that flow into the Navy facilities in Virginia every year .

In 2008 he announced that he would not run for re-election as senator. His successor was on January 3, 2009, the unrelated Mark Warner , who was defeated against John Warner in 1996 with 47 to 52 percent of the vote. All other re-elections were decided by the Republican with a share of over 70 percent each.

Positions and Awards

Warner was considered a moderate Republican and belonged to the minority in his party that advocated gun control laws. As one of five Republicans in the Senate, he voted in 1999 to close the loophole that made it possible to buy guns at gun fairs on much simpler terms ( gunshow loophole ). Warner advocated abortion rights , but at the same time advocated tightening accessibility. He was also part of the Republican minority who wanted to include sexual orientation as a protected category in anti- hate crime laws . Warner did not view homosexuality as immoral.

Before and during Donald Trump's presidency , Warner broke the party line more often. At the end of September 2016, for example, he declared his support for the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton against the controversial Republican Donald Trump , whose polarizing remarks he criticized. Ahead of the November 2018 mid-term election , he declared his support for local Democratic nominees Senator Tim Kaine and Virginia's 5th Congressional District candidate  Leslie Cockburn .

On January 8, 2009, five days after Warner left the Senate, the US Navy announced that it would christen one of the Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines with the name USS John Warner .

Web links

Commons : John Warner  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• John Warner in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Larry Sabato: RIP Senator John W. Warner. In: Twitter. May 26, 2021, accessed May 27, 2021 . 
2. ↑ Sen. Warner won't seek sixth term. In: MSNBC.com . August 31, 2007, accessed May 27, 2021 . 
3. ↑ Warner, John. In: Our Campaigns. May 26, 2021, accessed May 27, 2021 . 
4. ↑ U.S. Military: Pace Under Pressure. In: Queer.de. March 14, 2007, accessed May 27, 2021 . 
5. ^ Burgess Everett, Cristiano Lima: Former Va. Sen. John Warner slams Trump during Clinton endorsement. In: Politico . September 27, 2016, accessed May 27, 2021 . 
6. ↑ Justin Wise: Ex-GOP senator endorses Democrat in Virginia House race. In: The Hill. October 31, 2018, accessed May 27, 2021 . 
7. ↑ Navy Names Virginia Class Submarine USS John Warner. In: DefenseLink.mil . January 8, 2009; archived from the original on January 9, 2009 ; accessed on May 27, 2021 (English).