Sen. Mark Warner is expected to raise a significant amount of money to defend his seat. Libertarian to run for Senate in Va.

Robert Sarvis, the libertarian candidate who won 6.5 percent of the vote in Virginia’s gubernatorial election last year, is back for Round 2.

Sarvis told the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Wednesday that he plans to challenge Democratic Sen. Mark Warner in the midterm election.


“I finally got the go-ahead from my wife and told the Libertarian Party folks that I am going to run,” he said.

Sarvis would need to win the nomination at the Libertarian Party convention on Feb. 8 — at this point, he’s the only candidate in the running — and gather 10,000 signatures to get on the November ballot.

He will face a similar dynamic as he did in the governor’s race, when he ran against well-funded Democrat Terry McAuliffe and GOP Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Warner, an incumbent, will raise a significant amount of money to defend his seat — and with the entrance of former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie into the race on the GOP side, Virginia’s Senate race now promises to be high-profile and expensive.

Still, despite being vastly outspent in 2013, Sarvis had a stronger-than-usual showing for a libertarian candidate — and he says there’s an opening for him again this year.

“Voters don’t have anyone who they can trust with to defend their principles, and that’s where I see my chance,” Sarvis said.