{"id":4799,"date":"2026-08-18T11:08:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T11:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=4799"},"modified":"2026-08-18T11:08:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T11:08:41","slug":"a-critical-campaign-in-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=4799","title":{"rendered":"A critical campaign in Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The August 4th Virginia primary election is over and done, but looking back, it was the strangest in my memory. What made it strange was not because it included a U.S. Senate race. These occur only once every six years and this time it is incumbent Sen. Mark Warner\u2019s (D) turn for reelection and he is expected to easily win a fifth term.<\/p>

Read more Gabriel Delivers a Message<\/a><\/p>\n

During the run-up to the primary, I saw plenty of TV ads for contenders from both parties who must compete every two years, but recall seeing nothing (not even their names) regarding the three Republican contenders vying for a chance to unseat Sen. Warner. And I was not alone being puzzled by the lack of information; not even in a cheap postcard ad in the mail. My conservative friends also noticed the lack of information needed to help decide which Republican candidate gets the vote.<\/p>\n

This apparent radio silence is what made this primary strange. I suspect the lack of advertising was because the leaders of the Virginia Republican Party decided not to waste money on ads, knowing that unseating long-serving Sen. Mark Warner would be highly unlikely.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, the needed campaign information showed up the day before the election, but not from the Republican Party. It arrived in an email newsletter from the Family Foundation of Virginia. It had some limited information on the three (R) Senate candidates (Kim Farington, Bert Mizusawa, and David Williams). I quickly shared this with my circle of friends.<\/p>\n

Bert Mizusawa (R) was my choice and he easily won the Senate primary. Following his win, more detailed biographical information on him surfaced in a Bing Copilot search. This strongly reinforced my poorly informed guess that Bert had real potential. Following are some highlights:<\/p>\n

Bert Kameaaloha Mizusawa was born in 1957 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Later, his well-traveled military family settled in Hampton, VA where he graduated from high school. Next, he attended and graduated first in his class from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1979 and served in the U.S. Army from then to 2015, rising to the rank of Major General. Along the way, he also earned a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School and a Master of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was twice selected as a MacArthur Fellow in International Security.<\/p>

Read more Jason Arday: You Did It, Liberals<\/a><\/p>\n

His distinguished military career included command of the Joint Security Force in the Korean DMZ. He later commanded the Combined Joint Interagency Task Force — Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom and held senior positions in Iraq and at the Pentagon, including Deputy Director for Strategic Initiatives on the Joint Staff.<\/p>\n

Beyond the military, he served as a professional staff member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Deputy Under Secretary of the Army, and senior advisor to the CIA Director. And he was also a foreign policy advisor to Donald Trump\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign and authored the Trump doctrine on national security.<\/p>\n

His platform:<\/p>\n