Mark Warner to give keynote speech at Democratic convention
The former Virginia governor and Senate candidate will speak on the same day as Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Mark Warner, former governor of Virginia who is running for the U.S. Senate, will deliver the keynote address at the Democratic convention, as Democrats try to win the state for the first time since Lyndon B. Johnson.
President Bush carried Virginia twice, by as much as 9 percentage points, but the campaign of Democrat Barack Obama is putting thousands of volunteers into the state and is opening campaign offices in the hope of capturing the 13 electoral votes at stake.
Democrats are counting on the success of Warner who won the governorship and whose popularity in the Senate race is expected to help Obama against Republican rival John McCain. In recent years, Democrats won one Senate seat, held by Sen. Jim Webb, and have held on to the governor's office with Timothy Kaine.
Warner is to speak on Aug. 26, the second day of the convention and the same day as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's rival during the primaries.
Obama's vice presidential nominee, who is yet to be named, is slated to speak the following day.
Warner is running against Republican James Gilmore, also a former governor, in the race to replace Republican John Warner, who is retiring. The Warners are unrelated.
It was the keynote address in the last Democratic convention that was a springboard to Obama's rise in national politics.
McCain will campaign and raise money today in Michigan. Obama is on vacation in Hawaii.
michael.muskal@latimes.com
