ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Former Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia, a courtly figure and longtime military expert whose marriage to Elizabeth Taylor gave him a potent dash of star power, has died at 94.
Warner died Tuesday of heart failure at home in Alexandria, Va., with his wife and daughter at his side, his longtime chief of staff, Susan A. Magill, said Wednesday.
A centrist Republican, Warner had an independent streak that sometimes angered more conservative GOP leaders. But he was hugely popular with Virginia voters.
That popularity was only amplified by his marriage to a mega movie star, which drew huge crowds when he was elected to the Senate in 1978. The “Doonesbury” comic strip lampooned him as “Sen. Elizabeth Taylor.”
Warner was the sixth of Taylor’s seven husbands. The two were married in 1976 and divorced in 1982. Taylor wrote later that they remained friends, but she “just couldn’t bear the intense loneliness” when he became engrossed in his Senate duties.
President Joe Biden, who served with Warner in the Senate, said Warner took “principled stances” guided by two things: “his conscience and our Constitution.”
“He neither wavered in his convictions nor was concerned with the consequences,” Biden said, noting Warner wasn’t afraid to buck his party on issues of “rational gun policy, women’s rights, and judicial nominees” and even crossed party lines to support Biden’s presidential candidacy in 2020.
Warner served five Senate terms before retiring from the chamber 30 years later. He was succeeded in 2008 by Democrat Mark Warner — no relation — who had challenged him for the Senate in 1996. After years of rivalry, the two became good friends.
“In Virginia, we expect a lot of our elected officials,” Mark Warner said Wednesday. “We expect them to lead, yet remain humble. We expect them to serve, but with dignity. We expect them to fight for what they believe in, but without making it personal. John Warner was the embodiment of all that and more. I firmly believe that we could use more role models like him today.”
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said, “Once I came to the Senate, I understood even more deeply the influence of John Warner. I came to know John McCain, Carl Levin, and so many others who served with him and attested to his integrity and outsized influence in a body he loved so dearly.”
Flags at the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol were flown at half-staff. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised Warner as a “consensus builder” and an “authority on military affairs.” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky called Warner a “principled patriot across the board.”
