| | | |  | | | | Saturday July 23, 2016 | | |  | | | | Alex Wong via Getty Images | | | | Hillary Clinton Names Tim Kaine As Her Running Mate | | | WASHINGTON ― Hillary Clinton has picked Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) to be her vice presidential running mate, tapping the popular former governor of a swing state over several more liberal picks on her short list.
Clinton and Kaine are set to appear together at a rally in Florida on Saturday.
The selection of Kaine, a well-liked moderate in the Senate, is likely to be seen as a sign by many on the left that Clinton is less concerned about maintaining intensity among the army of liberals who backed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and more concerned about the electoral map when her opponent is Donald Trump.
President Barack Obama carried Virginia in both his elections after Democrats failed to win the state since 1964, making it a key part of his national victory strategy. Kaine, who was Obama’s first chairman of the Democratic National Committee, could help Clinton do the same.
Kaine may help Clinton carry that state, but her choice could also aggravate the Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democrat Party, which sees the Virginian as a business-friendly centrist unlikely to champion their top financial reform goals. They had been pulling for Warren, Sanders or Labor Secretary Tom Perez to get the nod.
Indeed, when liberals were trying to end the Bush tax cuts in 2013, Kaine helped broker the eventual compromise that kept the lower rates for people with incomes up to $400,000.
Still, Kaine’s nomination could hearten civil libertarians, war opponents, people concerned about gun violence, and immigration reform advocates. He has complained often about the White House’s unilateral use of war powers, and was the first Virginia governor to oppose the death penalty. He has feuded endlessly with the National Rifle Association, which is headquartered in his state, and recently called the group a “paper tiger,” since its opposition has never been enough to defeat him. He also gave the first Senate floor speech in history to be delivered in Spanish, calling for passage of an immigration reform bill.
People who know both Kaine and Clinton saw him as a choice that would help Clinton across the board.
“He’s a tremendous asset on the ticket,” said Mo Elleithee, who runs the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service, and who previously advised Kaine’s Senate campaign and Clinton’s 2008 White House run.
“If first and foremost, the vice president’s role is to be able to step in, you’re not going to find anyone better,” Elleithee said.
While some in the progressive wing look askance at a former Southern governor, suspecting a Democrat in name only, some hail Kaine as progressive in his bones.
“I can assure you as a native Virginian, this caricature doesn’t at all fit the man I’ve watched over nearly 20 years,” former MSNBC commentator Krystal Ball wrote in early July.
He’s also recently been more vocal on certain issues important for the Democratic base, including reproductive rights.
Elleithee noted that Kaine used to be called the most liberal governor in Virginia history, after doing mission work in Honduras and putting his Harvard law degree to work as a civil rights attorney.
“He’s a true progressive,” Elleithee said.
And perhaps just as important in a national campaign, Kaine not only knows how to connect with voters, he is able to attack an opponent without turning those voters off, winning over diverse groups in cities, suburbs and the countryside.
Elleithee remembers watching Kaine when he was running for Virginia’s lieutenant governor job in 2001, after the 9/11 attacks, and being astounded at how Kaine could launch a blistering attack on an opponent and still be liked by the audience.
“I remember one speech where he had the people eating out of his hands,” Elleithee said. “It wasn’t until later that I realized, oh, my God, he just ripped his opponent’s face off, but it didn’t feel like it.”
“He can be tough, but he does it in a way that actually draws people in,” Elleithee added.
Ultimately, Clinton seems to have made the assessment that such skills are exactly what she needs for a contest against someone like Trump.
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