Kaine tweeted. “I’m honored to be her running mate”. Kaine being from Virginia and being introduced in Florida is significant for Clinton’s election strategy to stop Donald Trump.
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Clinton’s decision caps a highly secretive, months-long process to find a political partner. Clinton called Kaine by phone around 7:30 p.m. Friday to offer him the job, and he accepted, according to a campaign aide. He speaks fluent Spanish and was reportedly on president Barack Obama’s short-list for VP in 2008.
Kaine is also a former governor of the vital battleground state, and that may be crucial in what several polls have shown to be a dead heat race for the White House.
The bilingual Kaine may prove to be a valuable asset in Spanish-language media as the campaign appeals to Hispanic-Americans turned off by Republican Donald Trump’s harsh rhetoric about immigrants.
Kaine, 58, was the choice over Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a longtime friend of the candidate and former President Bill Clinton. “Drawing a blank. Congrats to a good man and a good friend”, he tweeted.
Starting on Saturday, Kaine will be thrust into an election defined in part by a debate over immigration.
Kaine is a Catholic and says he personally opposes abortion, but does support a woman’s right to choose. Clinton haws chosen Sen. Elizabeth Warren, two Latino cabinet secretaries and New Jersey Sen.
Jeff Flake, a Republican senator from Arizona, said on Twitter he was trying to count the ways he disliked Kaine. The Democratic candidate made no mention of her impending pick during a somber meeting with community leaders and family members affected by the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando and a later campaign rally in Tampa.
Just after eight o’olcok Friday night., Clinton messaged supporters that her pick is Tim Kaine.
He can nominee spent considerable time stoking the fire of his bitter quarrel with Republican former rival Ted Cruz.
“I don’t do anything unless I win”, Mr Trump insisted.
He promised to work “so hard” as the nominee and vowed his campaign was “not going to disappear”, even though he has no plans for this weekend and no events on his schedule for next week.
That’s not a role Clinton, a former secretary of state and US senator from NY, takes lightly, said Skip Rutherford, a longtime friend of the Clinton family who is dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. “Unfortunately, since Tim Kaine voted to fast track the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Republicans now have a new opening to attack Democrats on this economic populist issue”. He then settled in Richmond, Virginia, where he spent almost two decades as an attorney focusing on civil rights and fair housing.
He went to Harvard Law School, but before graduating went on a missionary trip to Honduras – an experience he had regularly cited during his political career. Kaine being the current Senator and former Governor of Virginia doesn’t automatically lockup the state for Clinton, but it certainly increases her chances to do so. The couple have three children.
The pick comes as the Clinton campaign tries to paint newly anointed Republican nominee Donald Trump as divisive and risky, a theme they hit hard coming out of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
A recent report from the Economist Intelligence Unit expects a Clinton presidency, with the Democrats winning a majority in the Senate.
The Republican National Committee reacted not by lobbing criticism, but by focusing on Kaine’s centrist record and accusing Clinton of falling back on commitments to progressives.
In his acceptance speech, Trump characterized Clinton as corrupt, incompetent and hopelessly out of touch, saying she left a legacy of “death, destruction, terrorism and weakness”. Kaine was attending a fundraiser in Newport, Rhode Island, for the state’s Democratic senator, Jack Reed. “Hillary’s ready to make history”, Kaine said while on the campaign trail with her last week.
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“Do you want a “you’re fired” president or a “you’re hired” president?” Kaine asked in Annandale, Virginia, as Clinton nodded.
