A former chairman of the Republican National Committee who is running against Democratic Sen. Mark Warner says he hopes to be the first person ever to go from working the Senate parking lot — a job he held for a while in college — to the Senate floor.

Ed Gillespie says he’s running on an “economic growth agenda” that has five main components: replace Obamacare, reduce taxes and regulations, create American energy, reform education and cut wasteful spending while balancing the budget.

“I want to replace Obamacare with policies that work,” Gillespie said. “I believe that would make life better for us.”

He charged that Obamacare will kill 165,000 jobs in the medical device sector alone. Medical savings accounts also are being gutted by the administration, Gillespie said.

He said medical liability reform also is a priority for him. “People need recourse in our legal process in the event of an error,” he said, but added the litigious environment “causes doctors to engage in defensive medicine.”

Freeing businesses and families from high taxes also is a priority for Gillespie, as is releasing some of the regulations.

“These regulations make it very difficult to expand or to hire or even to form a small business,” he said. “We do need to stem the flow of regulation.”

In the realm of energy, Gillespie said he would work to get the Keystone XL pipeline passed. He also wants to allow offshore drilling on Virginia’s coast, which he believes will bring in money for things like transportation, “so we can do things like widen 58,” he said.

Gillespie said he would support education reform by making it easier to establish charter schools. He said he supports all kinds of schooling options, including private schools, magnet schools and homeschooling, because “competition’s good for everybody, and I think it would be good for our public schools.”

In higher education, Gillespie said student loan repayments should be allowed to be tied to the individual’s income level.

Gillespie also says he would support an amendment to require the federal government to balance its budget. He also would cut wasteful spending and reform and simplify the tax code, he said.

Finally, Gillespie said, the essential role of government is to “protect our innate rights given to us by the Creator,” in addition to constructing and maintaining infrastructure.