Political positions Sarvis supports universal
school choice,
drug policy reform, and
gun rights. Sarvis supports
same-sex marriage. Sarvis opposed the controversial Virginia H.B. 2313, which was signed into law by Virginia Governor
Bob McDonnell; the bill increased the sales tax to fund transportation infrastructure. Sarvis also called for an end to "the increasing aggressiveness of law enforcement tactics" citing an incident involving Virginia
ABC agents and a group of
University of Virginia students. Sarvis proposed shifting responsibility for policing liquor sales from ABC to state and local police, and supported privatization of liquor sales in Virginia (which has had a
state monopoly on liquor sales for 80 years).
Virginia State Senate campaign, 2011 In 2011, Sarvis ran unopposed for the Republican nomination for
State Senate in the heavily Democratic-leaning Virginia's 35th district. In the general election in November, he lost to
Democrat Dick Saslaw, then the Senate Majority Leader, 62% to 36%. Sarvis was outspent by his opponent Saslaw $1,897,061 to $26,402. Shortly after attending the 2012 Young Republican Federation of Virginia Biennial Convention as a delegate, Sarvis left the Republican Party, saying that "I realized that the Republican Party, at least in Virginia, in the current era, is not a good vehicle for liberty candidates. Republicans are very strident on personal issues. When they talk about liberty, they don't mean any personal issues, there is very little respect for personal autonomy." His campaign secured sufficient signatures to get him
on the ballot, and he became the fourth minor party nominee in forty years to get on the Virginia statewide ballot. Sarvis ran against
Republican Ken Cuccinelli and
Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the race. Sarvis was not invited to the debates with Cuccinelli and the McAuliffe, even though some
Virginia newspapers and others called for his inclusion. Opinion polls of Virginia voters found that Sarvis's support drew about equally from the Republican and Democratic-leaning voters. He polled from 7% to 14% in various polls. In August 2013, Sarvis was endorsed by former Republican-turned-Libertarian
governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson, However, former Republican U.S. Representative
Ron Paul, a
libertarian figure, endorsed Cuccinelli. Sarvis debuted his first televised campaign ad during the showing of the
NBC4 debate in September 2013. Near the end of the campaign, Purple PAC, a Libertarian-leaning super
PAC, launched a six-figure television ad buy designed to boost the Sarvis campaign before election day; the ad first aired during the televised
Virginia Tech debate on October 24, 2013. Sarvis obtained 146,084 votes (6.5%), which was wider than McAuliffe's victory margin over Cuccinelli. Sarvis outperformed other Libertarian Party candidates, such as presidential candidate
Gary Johnson, marking a record performance among Libertarian candidates in a gubernatorial elections.
Campaign finance controversy According to campaign finance reporting, Sarvis received $222,127. The bulk of contributions primarily came from individual donations; Sarvis was the largest single financial contributor to his own campaign at $21,057. On election day, some conservative sites claimed that Sarvis' campaign was partly financed by software billionaire
Joe Liemandt. Liemandt, founder of the software company
Trilogy and an Obama campaign contributor, was the largest single contributor to the Libertarian Booster
PAC. The Libertarian Booster PAC contributed $11,454 to Sarvis' campaign, or approximately 5% of Sarvis' total contributions, to help Sarvis achieve ballot access. Two days after the election, Wes Benedict, who founded the Libertarian Booster PAC and was the executive director for the
Libertarian National Committee, released a statement countering Limbaugh's accusations, said Limbaugh's comment was an "outright lie" and called upon Limbaugh to retract the allegations. In an interview with
U.S. News & World Report, Sarvis denied Limbaugh's accusations against him, saying they were false and part of a GOP "smear campaign." Sarvis also noted that many of the direct donors to his campaign had given to Republicans in the past.
U.S. Senate campaign, 2014 In 2014, Sarvis announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat against the incumbent,
Mark Warner, a Democrat who ran for re-election, and Republican
Ed Gillespie. He received the Libertarian Party of Virginia. Sarvis qualified for the ballot via ballot collection; he contended that the ballot-qualification process was "designed to be long and arduous, to minimize competition" against the major parties.
Our America PAC and former
Governor of New Mexico and
2012 Libertarian Party presidential nominee
Gary Johnson. He was also supported by former Republican activist Caleb Coulter. During his campaign, Sarvis criticized Warner for voting in favor of a
campaign finance reform amendment to the
U.S. Constitution to overturn the
Citizens United v. FEC case, and criticized Gillespie's record as chairman of the Republican National Committee and as a Bush-era official. Sarvis also called for congressional authorization for
U.S. military action against ISIL. In addition, Sarvis discussed topics including the national debt, foreign policy, national surveillance issues, the Affordable Care Act, transportation and energy issues, and immigration. Sarvis was accused by both Republicans and Democrats of being secretly funded by the other side. In response, Sarvis asserted that he was not a "plant." Sarvis sought to be included to debates against Warner and Gillespie, but was not invited to the debates. In the general election, Sarvis received 53,021 of the 2,181,845 votes cast, or 2.4%, about 3 times the margin separating Warner and Gillespie. ==Election history==