Robert Sarvis

On January 29, 2014, Sarvis announced his candidacy for the United States Senate seat in Virginia held by Democrat Mark Warner, who was running for re-election. Sarvis received the nomination of the Libertarian Party of Virginia for that office on February 8, 2014. Sarvis faced Warner and Republican nominee Ed Gillespie in the general election.

Sarvis submitted over 19,000 total signatures to the Virginia State Board of Elections (SBE), and on June 26, 2014, he received notification that he had achieved statewide ballot access. Upon receiving statewide ballot access, Sarvis stated, "The ballot-qualification process is designed to be long and arduous, to minimize competition against the vested interests that control our politics." Neither Warner nor Gillespie had to submit signatures to the SBE.

On April 21, 2013, the Libertarian Party of Virginia held a special convention and nominated Sarvis as the party's gubernatorial candidate.

On June 11, 2013, Sarvis' campaign submitted over 17,000 signatures to meet the Virginia State Board of Elections (SBE) requirement of 10,000 valid signatures. He was recognized by the SBE as an official candidate and became ballot qualified on June 26, 2013. As the Libertarian Party gubernatorial nominee, he became the fourth minor party nominee in forty years to get on the Virginia ballot.

Sarvis ran against Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the race. Between McAuliffe and Cuccinelli, a May 2013 Washington Post poll showed 40% of Virginians said they wished someone else were running, and a Charlottesville-area poll conducted by the University of Virginia showed 36% of voters were undecided. With a high percentage of disillusioned and undecided voters and the Virginia gubernatorial election called the "Top 2013 Race to Watch", some political observers said Sarvis may split the Cuccinelli-McAuliffe vote and possibly spur a debate before the 2014 national elections.

In addition, Sarvis had been omitted from some major polls. After public pressure, Quinnipiac announced it would begin to include Sarvis, and in a September 2013 poll, Quinnipiac found Sarvis "could be key" in the contested election because he drew about equally from the Republican and Democratic candidates. Rasmussen also announced it would include Sarvis in subsequent surveys. Sarvis was also included in polls released by other polling groups. Within a month of receiving ballot access, Sarvis was polling as high as 7% in July 2013 according to Public Policy Polling, and he drew about equally from both McAuliffe and Cuccinelli according to Roanoke College. Emerson College Polling had Sarvis as high as 10% in August 2013, and Sarvis also polled at 10% in September 2013 according to Harper Polling, which claimed Sarvis' support comes from Democrats and Republicans as well as independents and third party voters, which includes Libertarians. A Newsmax/Zogby poll listed Sarvis at 13% in late September 2013, and another poll by Politico had Sarvis pulling 12% in October 2013.

In August 2013, Sarvis was endorsed by former Republican governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson, who was the Libertarian Party nominee for the 2012 presidential election. However, former Republican U.S. Representative of Texas Ron Paul, who has a large following among fiscal conservatives, social liberals, and libertarians, and whom himself was the Libertarian candidate for president in 1988, endorsed Cuccinelli in October 2013.

On September 25, 2013, Sarvis debuted his first televised campaign ad during the showing of the NBC4 debate; it aired in Northern Virginia. The ad would lead Peter Galuszka of The Washington Post to say Sarvis "won" the gubernatorial debate, even though Sarvis was not invited to the debate. 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.

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."

Sarvis received endorsements from The Virginia Liberty Party, founder and past chairman of the Mechanicsville and King William Tea Party groups Robert Shannon, Our America PAC and former Governor of New Mexico and 2012 Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson. In addition, Republican activist Caleb Coulter left the GOP in August in order to work for the Sarvis campaign: Coulter had represented the Republican Party of Virginia at the 2012 Republican National Convention, had run for the Virginia House of Delegates, and was an executive committee member Roanoke City Republican Committee.

In 2011, he ran for the Virginia Senate as a Republican, losing to Democrat Dick Saslaw; after the election, Sarvis switched to the Libertarian Party. He was the Libertarian Party of Virginia's nominee for Governor of Virginia in the 2013 election, finishing third behind Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Ken Cuccinelli, and he was the nominee for the U.S. Senate in the 2014 midterm election.

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.

Sarvis earned a Master of Advanced Studies degree in mathematics from the University of Cambridge in England (the University of Cambridge began offering the master of advanced study in 2010 as a one-year master's degree in Mathematics as a replacement for the "Part III exam in Mathematics"). He briefly enrolled in a doctorate program at the University of California, Berkeley, leaving to join a Silicon Valley-based technology start-up as a software developer.

In 2008, Sarvis left his position at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to resume work in the software development business - which he had worked in between his time at Berkeley and his time in law school. Along with several others, he founded the company Wertago, to develop apps for Google's Android operating system. The Wertago development team entered in Google's 2008 Android developer challenge, creating software billed to connect friends during the night and search for parties and gatherings. Wertago was one of Google's top-50 grand prize winners, receiving $275,000 as a team in addition to $25,000 for each member of the development project.

Upon graduating from law school, Sarvis began clerking for Judge E. Grady Jolly on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Jackson, Mississippi. After his clerkship, he became an Associate Attorney for global law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Sarvis has also held Summer Associate positions at law firms such as Kirkland & Ellis and Fish & Neave. In 2006, Sarvis penned a 40-page article in the University of New Hampshire's Pierce Law Review expressing concern over congressional delegation of legislative responsibilities to the executive branch, and support for increased formalism in separation of powers.

In 2002, Sarvis enrolled at the New York University School of Law, graduating with a J.D. in 2005. During his time at NYU, Sarvis co-founded and became editor-in-chief of the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty, a student-run, conservative-libertarian law review. Sarvis was also awarded a "Vanderbilt Medal" during law school for his work on the Journal, an honor reserved for those "who have distinguished themselves in their commitment to the Law School through their work in student groups, journals, or other Law School activities and events." He was a member of the Federalist Society while at NYU, helping sponsor events such as a legal debate "on the legal foundations and implications of recent lawsuits against fast food restaurants, gun manufacturers, and cigarette makers."

Robert Christopher Sarvis (born September 15, 1976) is an American attorney. While attending law school, he was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty; he also clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In addition, he has been a software developer, being named by Google as a Grand Prize Winner for their Android Development challenge.

Sarvis was born on September 15, 1976 in Fairfax, Virginia to a father of English and Irish descent and a mother of Chinese descent. Growing up in West Springfield, he attended Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a public magnet school and one of Virginia's "Governor's schools". In his senior year at Thomas Jefferson, Sarvis placed fourth in the 1994 Westinghouse Science Talent Search for a theoretical math project studying lattices, winning a $15,000 scholarship. Upon graduating from high school, Sarvis attended Harvard University, pursuing a bachelor's degree in mathematics and graduated in 1998. He won a prestigious Harvard College Scholarship, reserved for the top 10% of a class.

Given Sarvis' strength in the polls, some political commentators noted the long-term implications his run could have for the Libertarian Party of Virginia. According to the Code of Virginia subsection 24.2-101, if a political party receives 10 percent of the total vote cast then it is defined as a recognized party. This fact would lead career journalist James Bacon to say the financial advantages and electoral coverage conferred to the Libertarian Party should Sarvis obtain ten percent of the vote "would be huge", and the Richmond Times Dispatch published, "If (Sarvis) garners at least 10 percent of the vote, the Libertarian Party would win official party recognition in Virginia through the November 2016 election, including elections for U.S. Senate in 2014 and U.S. President in 2016."