Politics & Government

Del. Bob Marshall: Social Conservative on GOP Primary Ballot

Voters will decide Tuesday among four Republicans running for U.S. Senate.

With congressional primary elections scheduled for June 12, Patch is profiling each of the four Republican candidates running for the U.S. Senate, who will face each other on the ballot.

Virginia House of Delegates member Bob Marshall, one of the most conservative voices in Richmond, is one of four Republicans running for the U.S. Senate. His name will appear on Tuesday's GOP primary ballot along with former Sen. , Bishop E.W. Jackson, Sr. and Jamie Radtke, former chairwoman of the Virginia Federation of Tea Party Patriots. This is his second attempt at running for the U.S. Senate.

Marshall, 68, from Prince William County, is looking beyond Tuesday's primary and taking on former Gov. , who is likely to be the Democratic nominee.

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“I can beat Tim Kaine in the Nov. 6 general election,” Marshall said in a statement when he announced his intentions to run. “I already have a ‘can do’ record of challenging Tim Kaine and winning in the public arena on major economic and social issues, and I can do it again.”

Marshall has served in the Virginia House since 1992 and is one of its most conservative members. Marshall wrote the amendment to the Virginia Constitution prohibiting same-sex marriage, which was ratified in 2006, and the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act of 2010, the basis of Virginia’s federal court challenge of the federal health-care law.

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This year he also sponsored part of the current House Bill 1, which would impart the rights of "personhood" to a human embryo at the moment of conception. Marshall said in a statement last month that his bill creates "a civil cause of action for the wrongful death of an unborn child." He says the measure provides "a legal remedy for parents whose beloved unborn baby is killed by the negligent or criminal act" of a third party.

In 2008, Marshall lost by only 1 percentage point to former governor James S. Gilmore III in his quest to earn the Republicans’ Senate nomination at a 2008 convention to run against former governor Mark Warner (D).  


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