John Warner

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John William Warner (born February 18, 1927) is an American statesman and politician, who served as Secretary of the Navy from 1972-1974 and has served as a Republican senator from Virginia since 1979.

Contents

1 Early life and education
2 Marriages
3 Politics

3.1 Election results

4 External links

Early life and education

Warner was born and grew up in Washington, D.C. and attended the elite St. Albans School there. He enlisted in the United States Navy in January 1945, shortly before his 18th birthday. He served until the following year, leaving as a Petty Officer 3rd Class. He went to college at Washington and Lee University, graduating in 1949, then entered the University of Virginia Law School.

He joined the United States Marine Corps in October 1950, after the outbreak of the Korean War, and served in Korea as a ground officer with the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing. He continued in the Marine Corps Reserves after the war, eventually reaching the rank of captain. He then resumed his studies, receiving his law degree in 1953. That year, he became a law clerk to Chief Judge E. Barrett Prettyman of the United States Court of Appeals. In 1956 he became an assistant US attorney; in 1960 he entered private law practice.

Marriages

Warner's first marriage was to banking heiress Catherine Mellon, the granddaughter of billionaire Andrew Mellon; their marriage ended in divorce in 1973. He married actress Elizabeth Taylor on December 4, 1976; they divorced November 7, 1982. He married real estate agent Jeanne Vander Myde on December 15, 2003.

Politics

Earlier portrait of Warner

In February 1969, Warner was appointed Undersecretary of the Navy under the Nixon administration. On May 4, 1972, he succeeded John H. Chafee as Secretary of the Navy. He participated in the Law of the Sea talks, and negotiated the Incidents at Sea Executive Agreement with the Soviet Union.

Warner entered electoral politics in the 1978 Virginia election for U.S. Senate. Known primarily as Elizabeth Taylor's husband, he finished second in the Republican primary. When the primary winner died in a plane crash two months later, Warner was chosen to replace him and narrowly won the general election. He has been in the Senate ever since. His committee memberships have included the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Most importantly, as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he has protected and enlarged the flow of billions of dollars into the Virginia economy each year via the state's naval installations and shipbuilding firms.

Warner is among the minority of Republicans to support gun control laws. He voted for the Brady Bill and in 1999 was one of only five Republicans to vote to close the "gunshow loophole." In 2004 Warner was one of three Republicans to sponsor an amendment by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that sought to provide for a ten year extension of the Assault Weapons Ban.

He also supports legal abortion, though he has voted in favor of most limitations on the procedure. On June 15, 2004, Warner was among the minority of his party to vote to expand hate crime laws to include sexual orientation as a protected category.

In 1994, John Warner campaigned for an independent candidate against fellow Republican Oliver North in North's unsuccessful campaign to unseat Virginia's Democratic Sen. Chuck Robb.

On May 23, 2005, Warner was one of fourteen moderate senators (Gang of 14) to forge a compromise on the Democrats' proposed use of the judicial filibuster, thus blocking the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called "nuclear option". Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and three Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate.

Senator Warner is unrelated to former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, who ran against him in the 1996 election.

Election results

External links

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Preceded by:
Richard Burton
(twice) Husbands of
Elizabeth Taylor Followed by:
Larry Fortensky

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