Republican Virginia State Senator Bryce Reeves launched a Senate bid on Wednesday to challenge Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner in 2026.
Reeves, a former U.S. Army Ranger veteran and narcotics detective, slammed Warner for suffering from TDS [Trump Derangement Syndrome] and argued he has lost touch with a majority of Virginia voters after nearly 18 years in the upper chamber, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation. Though Reeves is likely to face an uphill climb to unseating Warner — who is running for a fourth term — the state senator said his campaign would defy political pundits who claim a Republican cannot win the contest.
“When people don’t think it can be done, I like to prove them wrong,” Reeves told the DCNF. “I don’t adhere to that logic because the reality is that Warner hasn’t worked in two terms.”
Reeves expressed a similar message in his campaign announcement video that highlights his work in the state Senate to defend parents’ rights in their children’s education among other priorities.
“Bryce Reeves learned early: Never back down, Never quit,” a narrator says in the spot.
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Reeves said he would be a strong ally of President Donald Trump if elected to the Senate while continuing his bipartisan, results-oriented work from three terms in the Senate chamber.
Reeves told the DCNF that he is eager to run against Warner for opposing a majority of Trump’s legislative agenda, including providing tax relief to working families and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.
Warner voted against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the president’s signature legislative accomplishment, calling the law “one of the most destructive pieces of legislation I have ever seen.”
The law permanently extended Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, created new tax breaks for senior citizens, tipped workers and those who receive overtime pay and reformed Medicaid and food assistance programs. The Virginia Democrat also opposed GOP-backed legislation to bar biological males from participating in girls’ sports in K-12 schools in March.
“Lately, he seems like he doesn’t get anything done, and all he wants to do is complain and vote against the budget and other things,” Reeves told the DCNF. “Mark Warner has been focused on what’s good for Mark Warner, and I think he’s lost his way.”
Reeves also hammered Warner for joining with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to block a “clean” extension of government funding on Friday. Senate Democrats have thus far signaled they will plunge the country into a government shutdown on Oct. 1 if Republicans do not incorporate partisan policy demands in exchange for their votes.
Virginia, home to more federal workers than nearly any other state, is uniquely vulnerable to the effects of a shutdown.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, accused Warner of prioritizing “politics over veterans’ healthcare, essential government services, and paychecks for our service members and federal government employees.”
Reeves also faulted Warner for opposing Senate Republicans’ efforts to reduce wasteful spending. Warner voted against a roughly $9 billion rescission package in July that clawed back funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting. Republicans, including Reeves, have criticized the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for misusing resources and pushing left-wing activism on countries across the world.
“He knew that stuff was happening. Why didn’t he say something?” Reeves told the DCNF. “He’s been in the swamp too long. He’s drunk too much of the swamp. He’s making kool-aid with it.”
Early analysis from the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the Virginia contest as “solid Democrat” — the same designation given to races in deep-blue Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Warner has also amassed $10 million in the bank as of July and could benefit from high name recognition across the state after appearing on statewide ballots for more than two decades.
Reeves, however, argued he can win the contest by outworking the incumbent senator and pointed to his upset win over a 28-year incumbent Democrat when he was first elected to the Virginia State Senate in 2011.
Reeves also voiced optimism that the assassination of Charlie Kirk and ensuing anger over left-wing political violence could galvanize young conservatives to turn out for Republican candidates in a midterm cycle where Trump’s name will not appear on the ballot.
“I think there’s this underpinning of young people that are about my son’s age, in his 20s to 30s, that are just motivated as all get out now,” Reeves said. “I’m very optimistic about the trajectory of where we’re headed.”
Warner has not formally declared his candidacy, but is widely expected to seek a fourth term. A spokesperson for Warner did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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