Bert Mizusawa won Virginia’s Republican Senate primary on August 4, and the retired Army Major General now carries the party’s nomination into a November 3 race against Senator Mark Warner (D) — a three-term incumbent asking Virginians for six more years.
The contrast could not be sharper: a decorated combat general against a career politician who has held the same seat since 2009.
Mizusawa graduated first in his 1979 West Point class, earned a Silver Star for valor in a 1984 firefight on the Korean DMZ, went on to Harvard Law, and served as a deputy director for strategic initiatives at the Joint Chiefs of Staff before retiring as a two-star general. He won the August 4 primary to become the Republican taking on Warner this fall.
His campaign message is not subtle. The banner across his campaign site reads: “Stop Spanberger. Fire Warner. Vote Bert.” His platform runs on national security, military readiness, federal spending, and energy — the record of a man who spent a career in uniform, not in a Senate office.
Mark Warner (D) has held this Senate seat since 2009 and is running for a fourth term. Virginians nearly retired him once already — in 2014 he survived Ed Gillespie by a single point, a race no one expected to be close. He is not taking chances this time.
Warner enters the 2026 race with a $16.1 million war chest against Mizusawa’s roughly $53,000 — the arithmetic of an incumbent who expects the seat handed back to him without a fight. That expectation is the whole reason this race matters. Warner has spent nearly two decades in Washington. Mizusawa is asking Virginians whether that record has earned six more years.
He won the primary. He carries the nomination. He is the Republican on the ballot against Mark Warner.
Fairfax Republicans can meet the nominee in person and put real support behind this race. Bert for Senate is holding a fundraiser in Vienna:
Reserve your spot and contribute here. Space is limited.
Mark Warner is asking for a fourth term. Bert Mizusawa is asking Virginia to think twice — and on September 16, Fairfax can meet the man making the case. The seat is on the ballot November 3, 2026.