RICHMOND, Va. -- A sharply split Virginia Republican Convention nominated former Governor Jim Gilmore to run for the seat of retiring Republican Senator John Warner.

Gilmore got only 50.3 percent of the delegate votes Saturday over conservative Bob Marshall, the Virginia General Assembly's most ardent foe of abortion and gay marriage.

The slim margin leaves Gilmore to face popular, well-funded Democrat Mark Warner in the fall election in a state where the GOP lost the past two gubernatorial races and the 2006 Senate election.

Gilmore assailed Warner in his speech as a tax-prone "limousine liberal" who will say anything to get elected.

Marshall's loud, sign-waving supporters, many of them church-based social conservatives new to the intricacies off party maneuvering, packed the convention.