Former Gov. George Allen won the Republican nomination Tuesday for the U.S. Senate seat he previously held.

Allen’s victory paves the way for what promises to be one of the hottest Senate races in the country, as the Republican challenges another former governor, Democrat Tim Kaine.

As expected, Allen took the primary in a landslide. With 85 percent of the state’s precincts reporting, he claimed 65 percent of the vote. Jamie Radtke, a Tea Party favorite out of Richmond, garnered 23 percent, while Virginia Del. Bob Marshall took 7 percent and Bishop E.W. Jackson 5 percent

In Loudoun, with 83 of 85 precincts reporting, Allen won 61 percent to Radtke’s 21 percent, Marshall’s 14 percent and Jackson’s 4 percent.

All results Tuesday are unofficial.

Marshall’s House of Delegates district previously covered a portion of Loudoun County.

“Today, thousands of Virginians sent a message to President Obama, Tim Kaine and their allies in Washington that they have had enough of the failed policies coming out of Washington,” Allen said in a prepared statement. “The way to get America creating jobs again is to reinvigorate the entrepreneurial spirit of America with pro-job growth policies, unleash our American energy resources and creativity, and rein in an overreaching, overspending federal government.”

Elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000, Allen lost his 2006 reelection bid by less than 10,000 votes in the general to Sen. Jim Webb, who is retiring this year after one term. In August of that year, Allen called Webb staffer “macaca,” a derogatory racial term, which some pundits say cost him the election.

In a January interview with the Times-Mirror, Allen said he is more concerned with the future than the past.
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“I know what we‘re going to bring up,” Allen said of his campaign.

“While it won‘t be easy to change the ways of Washington, the stakes are too high to sit on the sidelines,” Allen continued in his remarks June 12. “That‘s what motivated Bishop E.W. Jackson, Del. Bob Marshall, and Jamie Radtke, and I commend them and their supporters for their passion and concern.”

Statewide, just more than 5 percent of active voters cast a ballot. In Loudoun, 3.5 percent of voters turned out.