Club for Growth Vice President of Government Affairs Scott Parkinson became the second Republican to declare in the 2024 Virginia Senate race Monday.
Parkinson, a longtime GOP fixture, will run against Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, who is seeking a third term in the upper chamber. Kaine won reelection by 16 points in 2018 and served as governor of the state from 2005 to 2009. He was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2016. (RELATED: Sen. Tim Kaine Was Stuck On Highway For Over 27 Hours In Snowstorm)
“Over the last three years, politicians like Tim Kaine and Joe Biden have ignored the middle class. Inflation has skyrocketed, parents have been locked out of classrooms, and crime rates remain at record highs,” Parkinson said in an announcement video posted to Vimeo. “Tim Kaine has run for office nine times and served in office for almost 30 years. He’s enabled all these liberal policies by voting with Bernie Sanders 94% of the time.”
Kaine has gone from “Blue Dog” to a partisan radical that votes with Bernie Sanders 94% of the time.
We feel it now at the kitchen table, the gas station, and the cancelled family vacation. Virginia cannot afford 94% of Socialism. 6/— Scott T. Parkinson (@ScottTParkinson) April 3, 2023
A Wisconsin native, Parkinson has served in a variety of governmental roles since 2006. Notably, he served as then-Rep. Ron DeSantis’ chief of staff in 2018 and also held multiple positions in the office of Sen. Marco Rubio. Parkinson has worked at the Club for Growth since 2019.
The Senate primary could be crowded, as retired Navy officer Hung Cao is also considering a bid. Cao lost to Democratic Rep. Jennifer Wexton by 5.8 points during the 2022 midterms in a newly-drawn district that President Joe Biden would have won by 18 points in 2020. Cao has founded a political action committee, Unleash America PAC, to spend in Virginia and nationwide races.
Jonathan Emord, a lawyer and political commentator, declared his candidacy in January.
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has not commented publicly on a Senate run, but a poll released by the University of Mary Washington in September 2022 found him within the margin of error against Kaine, down 41%-39%. The Virginia Republican Party uses a firehouse primary, which allows party activists and insiders more control over the process.