Retired Army Maj. Gen. Bert Mizusawa will face Democratic Sen. Mark Warner on the Nov. 3 ballot after winning Virginia's Republican Senate primary on Tuesday, Aug. 4, with about 51% of the vote.

Mizusawa, 69, defeated two challengers including Reston resident David E. Williams, a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve who finished second with roughly 30% of the vote. Businesswoman Kim Farington placed third with about 20%, according to unofficial results from the Virginia Department of Elections.

The Associated Press called the race after Mizusawa secured just over 53,000 ballots early in the evening, WTOP reported.

"Thank you, Virginia! We campaigned hard across Virginia and thanks to you, we now move on to defeat Senator Mark Warner," Mizusawa wrote on social media on the night of Tuesday, Aug. 4.

Mizusawa, president of McLean-based consulting firm Paxcentric Inc., graduated first in his class at West Point and holds degrees from Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Law School. He campaigned on national security, border security, fiscal restraint and nuclear energy.

A steep climb ahead

Warner, 71, is seeking a fourth term and has said it will be his final campaign. The fundraising gap tells the story: Warner has raised more than $25 million compared to Mizusawa's $376,000, according to pre-primary reporting from WTOP.

Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington, told WTOP on July 30 that Warner holds "a huge cash advantage" and that all three Republican challengers struggled to raise money and get public attention.

Virginia has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since John Warner (no relation) won his final term in 2002. Mark Warner won his third term in 2020 by more than 12 percentage points; his closest call came in 2014, when former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie lost by less than 1%.

Low turnout, local races set

Turnout was thin across Northern Virginia. In Fairfax County, where Reston is located, only about 2.24% of Democratic voters and 0.72% of Republican voters cast ballots on primary day.

The primary was held nearly two months later than Virginia's traditional June date after lawmakers postponed it to accommodate an April redistricting referendum. The Virginia Supreme Court later struck down the new map, leaving candidates to compete under existing district lines, the Virginia Mercury reported.

In Reston's 11th Congressional District, there was no primary. Incumbent Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw will face Republican Arthur Purves on Nov. 3.